Kinuta (The Fulling Block) : Details
| Schools | All five. | |
| Category | A fourth category play (i.e. the so-called Mad Plays and Miscellaneous) or shūshin-mono (devoted attachment pieces: a category of noh plays featuring a person who suffers because of devotion to a lover) | |
| Author | Zeami Motokiyo | |
| Subject | The “Tale of Sobu” from the Book of Han, Menqiu (an eighth century Chinese text), The Tale of the Heike, and others. Various poems on “kinuta” composed as classical Chinese poetry or Japanese waka and their interpretations, as published in the “Wakan Rōeishū” anthology. | |
| Season | Autumn (July, August and September in the lunar calendar) | |
| Scene | Chikuzen Province, Kyoto and Ashiya (Kyushu) | |
| Tsukurimono | A kinuta or fulling-block on which the women of the village beat their cloth. | |
| Characters | Mae-shite (first-half shite) | The Lady Ashiya |
| Nochi-shite (second-half shite) | The ghost of Lady Ashiya | |
| Tsure | Yūgiri, a maid servant | |
| Waki | A nobleman of Ashiya | |
| Waki-tsure (second half) | The Nobleman’s escort (the existence of this character varies depending on the school) | |
| Ai | The Nobleman’s manservant | |
| Masks | Mae-shite | Fukai (deep well, a mask used for middle-aged women), etc. |
| Nochi-shite | Deigan (gilded eyes: the face of a woman persistently devoted to a loved one), yase-onna (the face of an emaciated woman) | |
| Shite-tsure | a mask for tsure, such as Ko-omote | |
| Costumes | Mae-shite | Kazura (wig), ironashi kazura-obi (a belt for a wig that does not include the color red), ironashi karaori (a short-sleeved kimono outer robe worn by female characters), kitsuke / surihaku (a type of short-sleeved kimono with smaller cuffs / a type of lined short-sleeved kimono, worn as the innermost layer of the costume of a female character), and a fan. |
| Nochi-shite | Kazura, ironashi kazura-obi, shiroaya-tsuboori, kitsuke / surihaku, ironashi nuihaku-koshimaki or ōkuchi, koshi-obi (a sash), a fan and a cane. | |
| Shite-tsure | Kazura, iroiri kazura-obi (a belt for a wig that includes the color red), ironiri karaori, kitsuke / surihaku and a fan. | |
| Mae-Waki | Suō (a long-sleeved garment with matching top and bottom worn by male characters), kitsuke / dan-noshime (a short-sleeved kimono with horizontal stripes worn by a man in a lower place under his costume), kogatana (a small sword), and a fan. | |
| Nochi-Waki | Kitsuke / atsuita (a type of lined short-sleeved kimono, mainly worn as the innermost layer of a male character’s costume), naga-bakama (long hakama), kara, a fan, and Buddhist prayer beads. | |
| Waki-tsure | Suō, kitsuke / muji-noshime, kogatana, and a fan. Has a tachi (a traditionally made Japanese sword worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan). | |
| Ai | Naga-kamishimo (the formal dress of higher-ranking samurai), kitsuke / dan-noshime, kogatana, and a fan. | |
| Number of scenes | Two | |
| Length | About 1 hour and 20 minutes | |
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