The 18th Tokyo Dai Takigi Noh (5)

  The third performance was “Yoro Shugen”(“Yoro Celebration”), a noh play about a waterfall in Gifu Prefecture that is said to have medicinal water. An imperial messenger sets out on a search for the waterfall and runs into two men who know where it is. They take him to waterfall and the mountain god, performed by Takao Yamauchi, a noh actor who made his stage debut at the age of seven, appears. The story ended with the mountain god’s graceful dance of a prayer for longevity and peace.

                                    Takao Yamauchi plays Yamanokami during "Yoro 'Shugen'"

                                                                                @TTJ  TACHIBANA PUBLISHING

The 18th Tokyo Dai Takigi Noh (4)

 The second part of the program was “Shibiri”(“The Inherited Cramp”), a traditional kyogen piece. Just as Tatsumi explained that kyogen is a form of traditional comic theater that often depicts funny and somehow lovable adults, the characters in this short comedy were both witty.

 The master of a house orders Taro Kaja, performed by Noritoshi Yamamoto, a kyogen-kata(lead comic actor) of the Okura School and a designated Important Intangible Cultural Property, to run an errand to prepare for a sudden visitor. But Kaja refuses to go, saying that he is suffering an attack of his chronic paralysis. The master says:”What a pity. My uncle has invited us to dinner, but you won’t be able to make it.” Kaja replies that he will try to talk sense into his paralysis. The comical dialogue and movements drew laughter from the audience.

The 18th Tokyo Dai Takigi Noh (3)

 

On a stage illuminated by torches, the musician and jiuai (chorus) sat down quietly, and a high shrieking sound from a bamboo flute marked the beginning of the story.

 The first performance was “Kasuga Ryujin”(“The Kasuga Dragon God”). It is a story about a monk who plans to travel abroad and the dragon god who tries to stop him. Myoe Shonin, a Buddhist monk, who decided to travel to scared Buddhist sites in China and India, appears on the stage. He has come to visit Kasuga Shrine in Nara to announce his itinerary.

But an old Shinto priest, performed by Tatsumi, tries to convince him to continue his Buddhist practice in Japan. Tatsumi had explained prior to the performance that traveling abroad meant risking one’s own life because about one-third of vessels sank during voyages in the Kamakura Period (1185 to 1333), when the story set.

The monk finally agrees and gives up his trip and the delighted old priest promises to show him the life story of Buddha and disappears. Then, the dragon god, also performed by Tasumi, appears again and presents Buddhas life story before the eyes of the monk, and vanishes into a pond.