The Noh Plays of Japan

by Arthur Waley

  PRIEST

  Have you indeed dwarf trees?

  TSUNEYO

  Yes, when I was in the World I had a fine show of them; but when my trouble came I had no more heart for tree-fancying, and gave them away. But three of them, I kept—plum, cherry, and pine. Look, there they are, covered with snow. They are precious to me; yet for this night's entertainment I will gladly set light to them.

  PRIEST

  No, no, that must not be. I thank you for your kindness, but it is likely that one day you will go back to the World again and need them for your pleasure. Indeed it is not to be thought of.

  TSUNEYO

  My life is like a tree the earth has covered; I shoot no blossoms upward to the world.

  WIFE

  And should we burn for you

  These shrubs, these profitless toys,

  TSUNEYO

  Think them the faggots of our Master's servitude.*

  WIFE

  For snow falls now upon them, as it fell

  TSUNEYO

  When he to hermits of the cold

  Himalayan Hills was carrier of wood.

  WIFE

  So let it be.

  CHORUS

  "Shall I from one who has cast life aside,

  Dear life itself, withold these trivial trees?"

  (TSUNEYO goes and stands by the dwarf trees.)

  Then he brushed the snow from off them, and when he looked,

  "I cannot, cannot," he cried, "O beautiful trees,

  Must I begin?

  You, plum-tree, among bare boughs blossoming

  Hard by the window, still on northward face

  Snow-sealed, yet first to scent

  Cold air with flowers, earliest of Spring;

  'You first shall fall.'

  You by whose boughs on mountain hedge entwined

  Dull country folk have paused and caught their breath,*

  Hewn down for firewood. Little had I thought

  My hand so pitiless!"

  (He cuts down the plum-tree.)

  "You, cherry (for each Spring your blossom comes

  Behind the rest), I thought a lonely tree

  And reared you tenderly, but now I,

  I am lonely left, and you, cut down,

  Shall flower but with flame."

  TSUNEYO

  You now, O pine, whose branches I had thought

  One day when you were old to lop and trim,

  Standing you in the field, a football-post,†

  Such use shall never know.

  Tree, whom the winds have ever wreathed

  With quaking mists, now shimmering in the flame

  Shall burn and burn.

  Now like a beacon, sentinels at night

  Kindle by palace gate to guard a king,

  Your fire burns brightly.

  Come, warm yourself.

  PRIEST

  Now we have a good fire and can forget the cold.

  TSUNEYO

  It is because you lodged with us that we too have a fire to sit by.

  PRIEST

  There is something I must ask you: I would gladly know to what clan my host belongs.

  TSUNEYO

  I am not of such birth; I have no clan-name.

  PRIEST

  Say what you will, I cannot think you a commoner. The times may change; what harm will you get by telling me your clan?

  TSUNEYO

  Indeed I have no reason to conceal it. Know then that Tsuneyo Genzayemon, Lord of Sano, is sunk to this!

  PRIEST

  How came it, sir, that you fell to such misery?

  TSUNEYO

  Thus it was: kinsmen usurped my lands, and so I became what I am.

  PRIEST

  Why do you not go up to the Capital and lay your case before the Shikken's court?

  TSUNEYO

  By further mischance it happens that Lord Saimyōji* himself is absent upon pilgrimage. And yet not all is lost; for on the wall a tall spear still hangs, and armor with it; while in the stall a steed is tied. And if at any time there came from the City news of peril to our master—

  Then, broken though it be I would gird this armor on,

  And rusty though it be I would hold this tall spear,

  And lean-ribbed though he be I would mount my horse and ride

  Neck by neck with the swiftest, To write my name on the roll. And when the fight began

  Though the foe were many, yet would I be the first To cleave their ranks, to choose an adversary To fight with him and die.

  (He covers his face with his hands; his voice sinks again.)

  But now, another fate, worn out with hunger

  To die useless. Oh despair, despair!

  PRIEST

  Take courage; you shall not end so. If I live, I will come to you again. Now I go.

  TSUNEYO and WIFE

  We cannot let you go. At first we were ashamed that you should see the misery of our dwelling; but now we ask you to stay with us awhile.

  PRIEST

  Were I to follow my desire, think you I would soon go forth into the snow?

  TSUNEYO and WIFE

  After a day of snow even the clear sky is cold, and tonight—

  PRIEST

  Where shall I lodge?

  WIFE

  Stay with us this one day.

  PRIEST

  Though my longing bides with you—

  TSUNEYO and WIFE

  You leave us?

  PRIEST

  Farewell, Tsuneyo!

  BOTH

  Come back to us again.

  CHORUS (speaking for PRIEST)

  "And should you one day come up to the City, seek for me there. A humble priest can give you no public furtherance, yet can he find ways to bring you into the presence of Authority. Do not give up your suit." He said no more. He went his way—he sad to leave them and they to lose him from their sight.

  (Interval of Six Months.)

  TSUNEYO (standing outside his hut and seeming to watch travelers on the road)

  Hie, you travelers! Is it true that the levies are marching to Kamakura? They are marching in great force, you say? So it is true. Barons and knights from the Eight Counties of the East all riding to Kamakura! A fine sight it will be. Tasselled breastplates of beaten silver; swords and daggers fretted with gold. On horses fat with fodder they ride; even the grooms of the relay-horses are magnificently apparelled. And along with them (miming the action of leading a horse) goes Tsuneyo, with horse, armor, and sword that scarce seem worthy of such names. They may laugh, yet I am not, I think, a worse man than they; and had I but a steed to match my heart, then valiantly— (making the gesture of cracking a whip) you laggard!

  CHORUS

  The horse is old, palsied as a willow-bough; it cannot hasten. It is lean and twisted. Not whip or spur can move it. It sticks like a coach in a bog. He follows far behind the rest.

  PRIEST (again ruler* of Japan, seated on a throne)

  Are you there?

  ATTENDANT

  I stand before you.

  PRIEST

  Have the levies of all the lands arrived?

  ATTENDANT

  They are all come.

  PRIEST

  Among them should be a knight in broken armor, carrying a rusty sword, and leading his own lean horse. Find him, and bring him to me.

  ATTENDANT

  I tremble and obey. (Going to TSUNEYO.) I must speak with you.

  TSUNEYO

  What is it?

  ATTENDANT

  You are to appear immediately before my lord.

  TSUNEYO

  Is it I whom you are bidding appear before his lordship?

  ATTENDANT

  Yes, you indeed.

  TSUNEYO

  How can it be I? You have mistaken me for some other.

  ATTENDANT

  Oh no, it is you. I was told to fetch the most ill-conditioned of all the soldiers; and I am sure you are he. Come at once.

  TSUNEYO
<
br />   The most ill-conditioned of all the soldiers?

  ATTENDANT

  Yes, truly.

  TSUNEYO

  Then I am surely he. Tell your lord that I obey.

  ATTENDANT

  I will do so.

  TSUNEYO

  I understand; too well I understand. Some enemy of mine has called me traitor, and it is to execution that I am summoned before the Throne. Well, there is no help for it. Bring me into the Presence.

  CHORUS

  He was led to where on a great daïs

  All the warriers of this levy were assembled

  Like a bright bevy of stars.

  Row on row they were ranged,

  Samurai and soldiers;

  Swift scornful glances, fingers pointed

  And the noise of laughter met his entering.

  TSUNEYO

  Stuck through his tattered, his old side-sewn sash,

  His rusty sword sags and trails—yet he undaunted,

  "My Lord, I have come."

  (He bows before the Throne.)

  PRIEST

  Ha! He has come, Tsuneyo of Sano!

  Have you forgotten the priest whom once you sheltered from the snowstorm? You have been true to the words that you spoke that night at Sano:

  "If at any time there came news from the City of peril to our master

  Then broken though it be, I would gird this armor on,

  And rusty though it be, I would hold this tall spear,

  And bony though he be, I would mount my horse and ride

  Neck by neck with the swiftest."

  These were not vain words; you have come valiantly. But know that this levy of men was made to this purpose: to test the issue of your words whether they were spoken false or true; and to hear the suits of all those that have obeyed my summons, that if any among them have suffered injury, his wrongs may be righted.

  And first in the case of Tsuneyo, I make judgment. To him shall be returned his lawful estate, thirty parishes in the land of Sano.

  But above all else one thing shall never be forgotten, that in the great snowstorm he cut down his trees, his treasure, and burnt them for firewood. And now in gratitude for the three trees of that time—plum, cherry, and pine—we grant to him three fiefs, Plum-field in Kaga, Cherrywell in Etchū and Pine-branch in Kōzuke.

  He shall hold them as a perpetual inheritance for himself and for his heirs; in testimony whereof we give this title-deed, by our own hand signed and sealed, together with the safe possession of his former lands.

  TSUNEYO

  Then Tsuneyo took the deeds.

  CHORUS

  He took the deeds, thrice bowing his head.

  (Speaking for TSUNEYO.)

  "Look, all you barons! (TSUNEYO holds up the documents.)

  Look upon this sight

  And scorn to envy turn!"

  Then the levies of all the lands

  Took leave of their Lord

  And went their homeward way.

  TSUNEYO

  And among them Tsuneyo

  CHORUS

  Among them Tsuneyo,

  Joy breaking on his brow,

  Rides now on splendid steed

  To the Boat-bridge of Sano, to his lands once torn

  Pitiless from him as the torrent tears

  That Bridge of Boats at Sano now his own.

  NOTE ON KOMACHI.

  THE legend of Komachi is that she had many lovers when she was young, but was cruel and mocked at their pain. Among them was one, Shii no Shōshō, who came a long way to court her. She told him that she would not listen to him till he had come on a hundred nights from his house to hers and cut a hundred notches on the shaft-bench of his chariot. And so he came a hundred nights all but one, through rain, hail, snow, and wind. But on the last night he died.

  Once, when she was growing old, the poet Yasuhide asked her to go with him to Mikawa. She answered with the poem:

  "I that am lonely,

  Like a reed root-cut,

  Should a stream entice me,

  Would go, I think."

  When she grew quite old, both her friends and her wits forsook her. She wandered about in destitution, a tattered, crazy beggar-woman.

  As is shown in this play, her madness was a "possession" by the spirit of the lover whom she had tormented. She was released from this "possession" by the virtue of a sacred Stūpa* or log carved into five parts, symbolic of the Five Elements, on which she sat down to rest.

  In the disputation between Komachi and the priests, she upholds the doctrines of the Zen Sect, which uses neither scriptures nor idols; the priests defend the doctrines of the Shingon Sect, which promises salvation by the use of incantations and the worship of holy images.†

  There is no doubt about the authorship of this play. Seami (Works, ‡p. 246) gives it as the work of his father, Kwanami Kiyotsu-gu. Kwanami wrote another play, Shii no ShoshO in which Shōshō is the principal character and Komachi the tsure or subordinate.

  Seami also used the Komachi legend. In his Sekidera Komachi he tells how when she was very old the priests of Sekidera invited her to dance at the festival of Tanabata. She dances, and in rehearsing the splendors of her youth for a moment becomes young again.

  SOTOBA KOMACHI

  By Kwanami

  PERSONS

  A PRIEST OF THE KOYASAN

  SECOND PRIEST

  ONO NO KOMACHI

  CHORUS

  PRIEST

  We who on shallow hills* have built our home

  In the heart's deep recess seek solitude.

  (Turning to the audience.)

  I am a priest of the Kōyasan. I am minded to go up to the Capital to visit the shrines and sanctuaries there.

  The Buddha of the Past is gone,

  And he that shall be Buddha has not yet come into the world.

  SECOND PRIEST

  In a dream-lull our lives are passed; all, all That round us lies Is visionary, void.

  Yet got we by rare fortune at our birth

  Man's shape, that is hard to get;

  And dearer gift was given us, harder to win,

  The doctrine of Buddha, seed of our Salvation.

  And me this only thought possessed,

  How I might bring that seed to blossom, till at last

  I drew this sombre cassock across my back.

  And knowing now the lives before my birth,

  No love I owe

  To those that to this life engendered me,

  Nor seek a care (have I not disavowed

  Such hollow bonds?) from child by me begot.

  A thousand leagues

  Is little road

  To the pilgrim's feet.

  The fields his bed,

  The hills his home

  Till the travel's close.

  PRIEST

  We have come so fast that we have reached the pine-woods of Abeno, in the country of Tsu. Let us rest in this place.

  (They sit down by the Waki's pillar.)

  KOMACHI

  Like a root-cut reed,*

  Should the tide entice,

  I would come, I think; but now

  No wave asks; no stream stirs.

  Long ago I was full of pride;

  Crowned with nodding tresses, halcyon locks,

  I walked like a young willow delicately wafted

  By the winds of Spring.

  I spoke with the voice of a nightingale that has sipped the dew.

  I was lovelier than the petals of the wild-rose open-stretched

  In the hour before its fall.

  But now I am grown loathsome even to sluts,

  Poor girls of the people, and they and all men

  Turn scornful from me.

  Unhappy months and days pile up their score;

  I am old; old by a hundred years.

  In the City I fear men's eyes,

  And at dusk, lest they should cry "Is it she?"

  Westward with the moon I creep

  From
the cloud-high City of the Hundred Towers.

  No guard will question, none challenge

  Pilgrim so wretched: yet must I be walking

  Hid ever in shadow of the trees.

  Past the Lovers' Tomb,

  And the Hill of Autumn

  To the River of Katsura, the boats, the moonlight.

  (She shrinks back and covers her face, frightened of being known.)

  Who are those rowing in the boats?*

  Oh, I am weary. I will sit on this tree-stump and rest awhile.

  PRIEST

  Come! The sun is sinking; we must hasten on our way. Look, look at that beggar there! It is a holy Stūpa that she is sitting on! I must tell her to come off it.

  Now then, what is that you are sitting on? Is it not a holy Stūpa, the worshipful Body of Buddha? Come off it and rest in some other place.