|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Please click top right button for detailed information, photo story.
Meanwhile, the spirit of the plum blossoms appears and narrates the story of relationship between Ōnin and Emperor Nintoku. He sets up a drum on the stage to prepare for a performance of court music and dance, plays a Japanese flute, performs a dance, and exits from the stage. In the middle of the night, when the minister is drowsing off under the plum tree, the ghosts of Ōnin and Goddess Konohanasakuya-hime appear. After the goddess performs a dance, Ōnin also performs a dance and plays various court music. On top of this, Ōnin predicts that, enticed by such music, sages will appear and lead this world in peace. He lauds the reign of the emperor.
The main topic of this drama—the poem about the Naniwa Bay plum flowers—has been paired with the poem about Mount Asaka (which is also cited in this play). Together, these two poems have been called “the father and mother” of Japanese poetry in Kokin Waka-shū (Collection of Japanese Poems of Ancient and Modern Times). For some centuries in the past, students’ first lessons in how to properly write Japanese were to practice transcribing these two poems. Although Japanese students do not use these poems anymore to learn and practice handwriting, for the Japanese of past generations, they were required learning. In this play, the lead character, the old man (Ōnin) reproaches the supporting character, the court minister, for lacking a refined heart and elegance when he boorishly asks whether the plum tree is a famous historical icon. Ōnin reproached the minister because the poem about the plum blossoms was already widely known among the people of that time. Several pieces of court music are introduced in the latter half of the drama, including “The Call of the Bush Warbler in Spring” (Shun’nōden) ― a song that is perfect for celebrating the arrival of spring. Although these musical pieces were originally brought from China to Japan in ancient times, as they have been gradually modified in Japan, they have been passed down to us today as traditional Japanese court music. People today still have opportunities to hear them performed. The audience’s enjoyment of this performance of Naniwa will be augmented by deepening their appreciation of the history of Japanese poetry and court music. Conversely, we can also approach this play as one way that Noh played a role in introducing poems and musical pieces to people that, as they were widely disseminated, came to form the universal “required learning” of shared Japanese cultural heritage. STORY PAPER : NaniwaStory 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 |
|