Japanese Plays

by A. L. Sadler

  COUNTRYMAN: What do you think would be most I suitable?

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Well, shall I make you an Aizen?

  COUNTRYMAN: What kind of a Buddha is that?

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Something like this.

  COUNTRYMAN: Oh, but a fierce-looking affair like that I would frighten the children. Please make me a more ordinary one.

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Oh, I see. Well, what do you say to a Monju, the Lord of Wisdom, who will protect you in this world and in the world to come?

  COUNTRYMAN: Yes, that is the very thing. And how much will it cost?

  BUDDHA-MAKER: A thousand cash.

  COUNTRYMAN: Well, I won’t haggle about the price. When can you get it done?

  BUDDHA-MAKER: I don’t suppose I could finish it in less than ten years.

  COUNTRYMAN: Oh, I couldn’t wait so long as that.

  BUDDHA-MAKER: In that case I can have it ready by tomorrow.

  COUNTRYMAN: Dear me! Why, how can you manage that?

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Ah, you may well be surprised, but it is like this. If I carve it all myself it will take a long time, but if you are in a hurry I can set all my apprentices to work on it at once, and one will carve the head, and another the hands, and another the folds of the robe, and so on, and I will stick all the different parts together with glue, so it will soon be done.

  COUNTRYMAN: Ah, that will be the way. Then may I ask where you are living?

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Where I live? Oh, that doesn’t matter. Suppose I deliver it to you at the inner temple of the Inaba-do.

  COUNTRYMAN: All right. I will be there. So farewell for the present.

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Till to-morrow then.

  COUNTRYMAN: Very well.

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Well, here am I calmly taking orders to carve Buddhas when I have never so much as made a toothpick. What shall I do, I wonder? Ah, I have it. I will go and keep the appointment with a Buddha mask on my face, and then at the right moment I will take it off and see what happens.

  COUNTRYMAN: Well, that Buddha ought to be ready by now. I will stroll along and get it.

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Is that you, Mr Countryman?

  COUNTRYMAN: It is. Is the Buddha ready?

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Oh yes. Quite finished. Here it is wrapped up in straw matting. I will open it and show it you.

  COUNTRYMAN: Thank you. H’m. Yes, it is not bad on the whole, but I don’t quite like the way the hands are made. Can’t you alter it a bit there, eh, Mr Buddha-maker?

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Bo!

  COUNTRYMAN: Yes, I don’t care about the hands, so I shall be glad if you will alter them.

  BUDDHA-MAKER: I can alter it anyhow you like before the glue has set. So, I will show you.

  COUNTRYMAN: Yes. This part, Mr Buddha-maker.

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Bo!

  COUNTRYMAN: Please alter this part; he looks as though asking for something.

  BUDDHA-MAKER: Certainly. How will it do now?

  COUNTRYMAN: This part is not right, Mr Buddha-maker; and this too.

  BUDDHA-MAKER: All right. Now then, how is it?

  COUNTRYMAN: This part won’t do. Why this rascally Buddha-maker has put on a mask and taken me in. Look here, Buddha-maker, this isn’t right, so please alter it quickly.

  BUDDHA-MAKER: All right. How does it look now?

  COUNTRYMAN: Why it is you yourself, you rascal! I’ll be after you, you—!

  AKUTARO

  AKUTARO (entering like a drunken shaveling): Is uncle in?

  UNCLE: Is that Akutaro come again?

  AKUTARO: I’ve just come to see how you are.

  UNCLE: I’m sorry to see you intoxicated like this. Why don’t you give up this drinking?

  AKUTARO: Much obliged for your good advice. I really will.

  UNCLE: That’s a fine resolution. Give up what you are addicted to.

  AKUTARO: Well, I will start abstaining from tomorrow. And now let’s have a cup to drink farewell to liquor.

  UNCLE: All right, I won’t grudge you a farewell drink.

  AKUTARO (drinks five or six cups, babbling on the while): Well, well, it’s time for me to say good-bye.

  (Goes out and then falls down in a tipsy slumber.)

  UNCLE: H’m, he’s gone off drunk as usual. Well, I hope he’s sleeping peacefully on the road. I’ll go out and see. Yes, there he is right enough, blind to the world. I know what I’ll do. I’ll shave his head and make a priest of him. A fine hedge-priest he’ll make. So, I’ll write his name on him, “Namu-Amida-Butsu.” Now everybody will know him.

  AKUTARO (wakes up and stares in amazement): Well, I never—! What’s all this? Ah, I suppose the Lord Buddha must have served me out like this!

  (Enters priest.)

  PRIEST: Namu Amida Butsu! Namu Ami-i-da Butsu! I Na-a-a-mu Amida Butsu!

  AKUTARO: Dear me! He’s soon found out my name! What are you calling out for? What d’you want?

  PRIEST: Namu Ami-i-da Butsu! Namu Ami-i-da Butsu! Na-a-amu Amida Butsu!

  AKUTARO: Yah! Yah! Hai! Hai!

  (The priest goes on chanting and Akutaro answers him.)

  PRIEST: Why on earth do you go on answering like that when I repeat the Nembutsu?

  AKUTARO: My name is Akutaro it is true, but while I was lying asleep drunk someone served me in this fashion and wrote this name on me, so I supposed it must be mine, and when I awoke and you came along calling it out I answered.

  PRIEST: Well, you are an ignoramus! There is a Buddha called Amida in the Western Paradise, and if you call on his name when you die you will be reborn again there with him; and that’s why I am making a pilgrimage through the whole Empire and calling on him everywhere.

  AKUTARO: Ah, naturally; you have good reason. I, too, should like to become your disciple and make the pilgrimage with you. Won’t you take me?

  PRIEST: Certainly. I shall be very pleased. Come along.

  AKUTARO: Right. And let’s sing a song as we go. (They sing.)

  Putting away the things of this world,

  Fixing our minds on Amida alone,

  Chanting the Nembutsu continually,

  Thus we go on our pilgrimage.

  KABUKI

  THE CHERRY SHOWER

  BY TAKAYASU GEKKO

  PERSONS OF THE DRAMA

  HAIYA SHŌYU A WEALTHY LANDOWNER

  HAIYA SABUROBEI HIS SON

  HON-AMI KO-ĒTSU ARTIST, POTTER, POET AND CRITIC,

  TEA-MASTER AND ARBITER ELEGAN-

  TIARUM OF THE TIME

  KONOE OZAN COURT NOBLE AND REGENT OF THE

  EMPIRE. TEA-MASTER AND AESTHETE

  YOSHINO A “TAIYU” OR SINGING-GIRL OF THE

  FIRST RANK

  KANETSUGU A SWORDSMITH

  YŌNOSUKE A DISSIPATED YOUNG MAN

  YOĒMON A GATE-KEEPER

  GOHEI SERVANT OF HAIYA

  GENGO SAMURAI, RETAINERS OF KONOE

  NAIKI

  KAMON

  KOSAKU A PUPPET-MAN

  HATSUBANA SINGING-GIRLS

  TAMANOI

  YAENO

  SAMURAI, CITIZENS, SERVANTS, BLINDMEN, BUFFOONS, GIRL ATTENDANTS, ETC.

  TIME THE ERA KWAN-EI, 1624-4

  ACT I

  SCENE I

  Before a Tea-house in the Rokujo quarter

  On the left the entrance. A curtain hangs before it on which is a crest of a cherry blossom in a circle done in black on a white ground. A green curtain hangs along the front for a space of twelve feet. In front of this, red rugs are spread on the ground. On the right a lattice front. In the middle of the street there is a mortar placed, and on it a candlestick in which a long candle is burning. The curtain rises on Yōnosuke sitting before the house. He is a young man of about twenty-two or three, dressed in gay clothes with a hood thrown over his head. On the right is the blindman Toku-ichi in a light green crested haori and white hakama, playing the samisen. In front a lot of tea-house girls and buffoons are turning the mortar and dancing and singing:

  The trout lurk in the shallows and the birds live in th
e tree;

  And man lives in the shadow of your pity.

  The trout lives in the Yoshino River but love dwells in my heart,

  But if you don’t come I will fling away my pillow;

  I’ll throw it away though it has done me no wrong!

  YŌNOSUKE (petulantly): Oh! That’s enough ... that’s enough!

  FIRST BUFFOON: Certainly, sir. And now each of us will show you a very special trick in turn.

  YŌNOSUKE: I don’t want to see anything of that sort. You hurry up and call Yoshino.

  FIRST BUFFOON: But tonight you know—

  YŌNOSUKE: Call her, I tell you!

  SECOND BUFFOON: Ah, please don’t be so impatient. You see she’s so immensely popular lately; there’s no Taiyu so much in demand. Why, the Lord Konoe and Master Haiya are rivals for her favor. They are both doing all they can to get her.

  YŌNOSUKE: Then it’s all the more important for me to see her. I’ll burst in on the pair of them and carry her off myself now!

  FIRST BUFFOON: What’s the use of talking like that when one is a great Court noble higher than the clouds, and the other is master of untold wealth?

  YŌNOSUKE: That won’t stop me from having my say, anyhow. I may never have looked above the clouds perhaps, but the mountain of gold is higher than Mount Fuji, and for one who has had the favor of Takao of Edo and Risei of Osaka–yes, and even been escorted by them right up to the gate—why should Yoshino of Kyoto be so unapproachable? Even if a thing is dear it can be bought, and if it can be bought I will buy it.

  SECOND BUFFOON: That might be so with others for all I know, but you won’t get Yoshino. No, not for piles and piles of gold. Why, when she takes her seat everyone naturally straightens themselves up respectfully just as though she were the living Buddha of the Temple of Hongwanji. And so they have good reason to do, for she is perfect both in form and face, and accomplished besides in verse-making and tea-ceremony and incense-comparing and flower-arrangement. Her interests are wide and her taste is fine, and, above all, she has a tender heart.

  YŌNOSUKE: If her nature is gentle she is the more to be desired. Now, as my mind is so taken up with her, couldn’t you just manage for me to see her?

  THIRD BUFFOON: Why, how do we know how much you think of her?

  YŌNOSUKE: How indeed? Well, then, look here! How many times have I been here this year? Ninety-nine or a hundred or a thousand days or ten thousand. It’s all the same. I’ll come and come again until I do see her!

  FIRST BUFFOON: Now there’s a strong attachment if you like! But there’s no long grass about here. We have spring weather even on a snowy eve, so you need have no fear of freezing to death! I pray you, therefore, to be patient, and perhaps your luck may turn. Meanwhile won’t you call someone else instead tonight?

  YŌNOSUKE: Where can I find anyone else in place of Yoshino? You must call her. Where is she today I wonder? I’ll go and call her myself.

  (Starts off.)

  FIRST BUFFOON (stopping him): Please wait a moment!

  YŌNOSUKE: Oh, get away!

  (Pushes him away and runs in with the buffoon after him.)

  TOKU-ICHI: What a very impatient gentleman that is!

  (Exit.) (Rin, an upper servant in the house, comes out.)

  RIN (to the girls): Now then, you girls, what are you doing here? You are wanted in the guest-room!

  SINGING-GIRLS: Hai! Hai!

  (They run off. Enter Kanetsugu in his soiled working dress. He stares round at the girls.)

  RIN (fixing her eyes on him): What does this man want? Come here, please!

  KANETSUGU: Yes, yes. There is someone I wish to inquire about.

  FIRST GIRL: Oh, who’s that?

  KANETSUGU: It is the Taiyu Yoshino.

  SECOND GIRL: What? The Taiyu Yoshino?

  KANETSUGU: Yes. Where is she to be found?

  THIRD GIRL: What do you want with her?

  KANETSUGU: Er, well—

  RIN: He looks like some not very clean artisan. The Taiyu can have no business with such people.

  KANETSUGU: Perhaps the Taiyu has not, but I have a little—

  FOURTH GIRL: Well, what business is it?

  KANETSUGU (with determination): I want to see her and speak with her.

  ALL: Ha-ha-ha!

  RIN: Ah, he comes from somewhere or other in the country, but he seems to have heard some talk about Yoshino since he mentions her by name. No wonder, when she is so much in demand that even the Lord Konoe with his mountains of money can’t make an engagement with her months in advance. To think that a fellow like you can see her is rather good. Why you could hardly produce change for one gold piece if you were turned upside down and shaken. Taiyu indeed! We haven’t got anyone here at all that you could afford, so there!

  KANETSUGU (producing a purse): Afford? Here are fifty pieces of gold.

  RIN: Fifty, eh?

  KANETSUGU: I suppose you think that isn’t enough, but there’s fifty-three days’ hard work. Yes, fifty-three blades I forged, scarcely stopping even to sleep. There’s sweat and tears mixed with that gold. Won’t you let me see her for a moment, even on the other side of the lattice?

  FIRST GIRL: Well, you are devoted! I suppose you must have caught a passing glimpse of her sometime or other, eh?

  KANETSUGU: Yes, and ever since I saw her I have suffered thus. Merry with my New Year’s liquor a friend brought me along just to steal a glance, and that was the beginning of this illusion. Many and many a time have I told myself that it was an impossible thing. The vision of the Taiyu gave me no rest. But if one has money, however lowly, he need not abandon hope, and so I have worked thus madly for a chance of meeting her. There is the proof of my devotion. If it is not enough, nothing remains but to make away with this worthless body of mine.

  RIN: That’s about it, unless you can make it into that of a great landowner or noble. This Taiyu isn’t one you can meet for fifty or a hundred ryo.

  KANETSUGU: How can it be done then?

  RIN: Ah, in another and luckier rebirth perhaps.

  (She turns to go in. Kanetsugu stands lost in a disappointed reverie. Enter a Kamuro* from within.)

  KAMURO: The Taiyu herself has heard what you said. She will be pleased to see you.

  ALL: What?

  KAMURO: She says she will take a cup of wine with you. So please come this way.

  (Kanetsugu is too overjoyed to utter a word.)

  RIN: Take a cup of wine with him! That’s too much. If she will do so much for a fellow like him, how about the many others who have tried in vain to get an interview, even when they have trusted to my assistance!

  FIRST GIRL: Still, it is nothing but the earnestness of his devotion that has touched her sympathy.

  SECOND GIRL: Yes, it is only Yoshino who would do a thing like this.

  KANETSUGU: Then may I go in?

  KAMURO: Oh yes. Come this way please.

  KANETSUGU: Ah, how cold it has become.

  (Shivers.)

  ALL: Ha-ha-ha!

  (Stage revolves.)

  SCENE II

  Inner apartment of the house. On the left an alcove nine feet long in which hangs a set of three kakemono. Next to it is a chigai-dana six feet long. The sliding doors are decorated in the Momoyama style of painting on a silver ground. On the right is a single leaf screen. On the left sits Konoe Ozan. He is about thirty years old and is dressed in Dōfuku and Kugyo-bakama* He is sitting on a cushion, and on the right Naiki and Kamon are in attendance. The girl O-Kan prostrates herself before them.

  O-KAN: We are honored by the presence of your lordship.

  KAMON: Your ear a moment! Today we have a very diverting plan.

  O-KAN (leaning towards him): And what may it deign to be?

  KAMON (whispering):... Eh?

  O-KAN: How gracious of you! Why any Taiyu would be most delighted I am sure. I’ll go and tell them.

  (Exit. Segawa enters with the crab goblet and Tsune carrying the “sake” vessel.)

  NAIKI (lo
oking at the goblet): Ah, you always have beautiful things here.

  KONOE: In her left hand she carries the crab, and in her right hand the cup for “sake.” If a liquor ship had a dancing-floor one could spend a happy life there. How diverting is this idea of the Taiyu of making a goblet in the form of a crab that walks round to the guests and serves the liquor of its own accord without giving anyone any trouble. Really, it quite sums up the views of the ancient classics.

  KAMON: It looks like Luchu workmanship.

  NAIKI: Her sash is of striped Kwantung material. She always has something out of the ordinary.

  KAMON: Ono-no-Komachi and Sei Shonagon and Tora Gozen together could not equal her elegance.

  SEGAWA: Please take a cup.

  (She winds up the works of the crab and it runs across and stops in front of Konoe.)

  KONOE: Nay, but even if the crab does run by itself, if the Taiyu herself does not come I shall have no heart to drink.

  SEGAWA: Yes, that is your lordship’s dearest wish, is it not?

  KONOE: Well, everyone awaits the blossoms with impatience.

  (Enter the Taiyu Yoshino. She is twenty-one years old and her hair is dressed in the Tate-Hyōgō style. She is attired, in an outer robe of black with a design of cherry blossom and moneybags in gold and white. Under this is a white kimono with poems dyed into it girt with an obi of Kwantung-striped material. The two Kamuro Koben and Kichiya attend her.)

  YOSHINO: It is long since we had the honor.

  KONOE: But that is hardly our fault, is it? Though we pass by the foot of the mountain every eve, the mist hides the heights from our eyes.

  YOSHINO: Even though the mist may hide them, your heart itself may be bright enough.

  KONOE: When the moon of the heart does not shine wherefore is it that the clouds obscure it?

  YOSHINO: On a moon-clouded evening of spring there are still the cherry blossoms. And this is a world where it is not always moonlight.

  KONOE: But now that we look on your face it is sunshine enough. An hour of its brilliance is worth a shower of gold.

  NAIKI: Flower to flower. Let us show you our dainty surprise.

  KONOE: Well, if you are all ready, go on.

  KAMON: At your service, my lord. (To Tsune): Enter there!

  TSUNE: Hai! (Enters.)