There is no doubt about the authorship of this play. Seami (Works, p. 246) gives it as the work of his father, Kwanami Kiyotsugu. Kwanami wrote another play, Shii no Shōshō,[88] in which Shōshō is the principal character and Komachi the tsure or subordinate.
Seami also used the Komachi legend. In his Sekidera Komachi he tells how when she was very old the priests of Sekidera invited her to dance at the festival of Tanabata. She dances, and in rehearsing the splendours of her youth for a moment becomes young again.
SOTOBA KOMACHI
By KWANAMI
PERSONS
- A PRIEST OF THE KŌYASAN.
- SECOND PRIEST.
- ONO NO KOMACHI.
- CHORUS.
PRIEST.
We who on shallow hills[89] have built our home
In the heart’s deep recess seek solitude.
(Turning to the audience.)