|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Please click top right button for detailed information, photo story.
After listening to the villager tell the story of the Field Guard’s Mirror, the mountain ascetic offers prayers before the mound into which the old man disappeared. Then, the spirit demon appears, holding the mirror in his hand. The spirit demon uses the mirror to show the mountain ascetic all four quarters of every region from the heavens above to the hells below. Finally, the spirit demon stomps his feet down on the ground, rending a gash in the surface of the earth through which he returns to the abyss.
The first half of the play skillfully incorporates into the storyline the legend and ancient accounts of the field guard’s mirror. The old man’s narration is replete with refined sentiments, such as in the scene where he compares the pond to a magic mirror that can reflect everything everywhere. A spirit demon appears in the second half of this drama. Zeami divided actors’ demon roles into two categories: saidōfū (“delicately moving style”) and rikidōfū (“forcefully moving style”)” The “delicately-moving” demons are embodiments of human obsessions or transformations of vengeful spirits of the dead. The “forcefully moving” demons are representations of forces of nature—completely natural entities. Zeami viewed the roles of forcefully moving demons less than favorably. Although the demon in this play is of the forcefully moving type, he is portrayed so ingeniously that the audience will find his character engaging. While the elegant narrative of the old man in the first half of the play and the vigorous dance of the spirit demon in the second half present a strong contrast, this drama brings them together and develops the story with consistently skillful artistry. STORY PAPER : Nomori (The Field Guard)Story Paper presents noh chant stories in modern speech, with story outlines, highlights and more using Adobe PDF format, which can print out and zoom in. Print out the pages and take them with you when you see the actual noh performance.
The copyright of Story Paper is held by the Noh.com. Story Paper is for individual use only. It is prohibited by the copyright law to distribute or publish printed-out Story Paper pages without prior consent. For more information, check the credit and disclaimer pages. | Terms of Use | Contact Us | Link to us |
|