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NÔ: THE EMERGENT REORIENTATION OF A TRADITIONAL JAPANESE THEATER IN CROSSCULTURAL SETTINGS

DISSERTAHON

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of The Ohio State University

By

Shinko Kagaya, M.A.

The Ohio State University 1999

Dissertation Committee:

Professor Shelley Fenno Quiitn, Advisor Approved by

Professor Xiaomei Chen A ^

Professor Thomas Postlewait Advisor East Asian Languages and Literatures UMI Number: 9941354

Copyright 1999 by Kagaya, Shinko

All rights reserved.

UMI Microform 9941354 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved.

This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ©1999 Shinko Kagaya All Right Reserved ABSTRACT

This study explores responses to Japanese No theater by Japanese, Western, and Chinese audiences during the period of modernization in Japan. The site of meaning making is the intersection of performance contexts and audience response. Cultural environment, changes in audiences, and various responses to performances are crucial factors. The pressure of Western influence precipitated the fall of die bakufu, the former patrons of No. Nevertheless, it will be shown that the exposure of No to foreign audiences ultimately played a crucial role in helping to reestablish it as an art with both historic importance and a vital, contemporary presence. In its six-hundred years No has been forced to reinvent itself more than once, and each time has gained a wider audience and a stronger base of support. The interactive nature of No has been fundamental to its resiliency. As a multisensory fusion of music, dance and poetry, a performance elicits imaginative participation and lends itself to myriad interpretive strategies. In this respect. No is a prism uniquely suited to revealing the multiple ways that cultural factors shape meaning making. Reactions by Japanese, Western and Chinese audiences illustrate this point. In addition to comments by practitioners and champions of No, reactions of casual observers are considered for what they reveal about crosscultural patterns of reception. This study is divided into three parts. Part One concerns the proliferation of No prior to the Meiji Restoration (1868) within and outside Tokugawa patronage, and early crosscultural encounters with No. Part Two addresses the evolution of No after the dissolution of the Tokugawa bakufu, when a few persistent performers in league with a small, but influential constituency of supporters helped the art survive. Intervention by key political figures, touting No as a 'national' art, furthered its recovery. Also addressed are records left by Chinese studying in Japan during this period. Part Three follows No overseas. Problematic issues surrounding performances in Japanese territories in East Asia are discussed, followed by a brief overview of the postwar growth in popularity of No — both domestically and internationally — in light of its history as an object of cultural scrutiny;

III For Naka

IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Throughout the course of my graduate work, I have been truly blessed with mentors. First and most of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Professor Shelley Fenno Quinn for her continued guidance and encouragement. Without her, this project could not have been completed. As her advisee, I was fortunate to be able to work under not only a wonderful scholar but a devoted and caring teacher. Deep thanks also go to Professor Xiaomei Chen, a brilliant teacher with enormous energy and integrity. It was through the inspiration I got from her classes that a new world of academic endeavor opened and I am forever grateful. Also, careful and insightful criticism received from Professor Thomas Postlewait has been indispensable to the completion of this study. I am grateful for the opportunity to have benefited from his guidance. In addition to the members of dissertation committee, I feel deep intellectual and personal debt to my professors in the department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at The Ohio State University. When I look back at my years in graduate school, it seems the struggle and joy of learning began with Professor Galal Walker, for whom I have die greatest admiration — especially for his magic to inspire students in individually unique ways. I cannot properly express the personal and professional debt I owe Professor Mari Noda, who has been instrumental more than once in helping me articulate a professional vision for myself. Her own work in language pedagogy has been and will continue to be a constant source of inspiration. I also wish to acknowledge Professor Charles Quinn, for his diverse scholarship and devoted attention to his students — in whose ranks I thankfully include myself. I have been blessed with such mentors who serve as models what is possible through academic pursuit. I would like to acknowledge those friends with whom I shared graduate school life; most of them are, deservedly, already working in their respective fields. I am very grateful to the Title VI East Asian FLAS Fellowship for 1997- 1999: it enabled my research in Taiwan and Beijing, and then the opportunity to devote myself to writing. The 1998 International Dissertation Research Travel Grant from the Office of International Studies of The Ohio State University, also provided the opportunity to conduct research in Japan. During my tenure in Beijing at the Inter-University Board for Chinese Language Studies, and concurrently as a visiting researcher at the Department of Comparative Culture at Beijing University, the guidance received from Professor Dai Jinhua of Beijing University was a key factor in my study. Towards the completion of the research conducted in Japan, I received generous help from the staff at the Hôsei University Institute of Nôgaku Studies, the library attached to the National No Theater, and the Sanetô Collection at the Metropolitan Central Library in Tokyo. I am especially thankful to Professor Nishino Haruo of the above Hosei Institute for his guidance and encouragement on this project. Professor Joshua A. Fogel of the University of California, Santa Barbara, kindly offered help in the way of

vi guiding me to the Chinese sources needed for the completion of this study. During my stay in Taiwan and throughout the process of writing, the support received from dearest friends, Zhang Biyuan and Xu Wei, editor in chief and artistic designer respectively of the Dashu cultural enterprise in Taipei, cannot be forgotten. Special thanks to Ernie Choi, Diane Kadonaga, and Sam for their personal encouragement and recurring hospitality. I am very much grateful to my family in both Japan and the U.S A. for their trust in me.

For their love and support and my most precious memories, I reserve a space in my heart for the family of Dr. Gerald and Susan Ebner in Santa Maria, California. Lastly, my deepest thanks go to Thomas O'Connor.

VII VITA Bom - Akita, Japan 1989...... B.A. Aoyama Gaknin University 1989-1991...... Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University

1991...... M.A. The Ohio State University 1991-1994...... Assistant Professor, Department of Modem Languages Hope College, Holland, MI

1994-1997...... Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University

1997-1999...... Title VI East Asian Studies FLAS Fellow

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field of Study: East Asian Languages and Literatures Japanese Performance Literature Japanese Language Pedagogy

VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ...... v Vita ...... viii Preface ...... 1 Introduction ...... 18

Part I Under the Shogun's Thumb in the Tokugawa Period: The First Turning Point

Chapter 1 Tokugawa Audiences and Patterns of Patronage ...... 37 1.1 No in the Shadow of the Shogun ...... 38 1.2 No Outside the Shogunal Patronage ...... 42

2 Early Crosscultural Encounters with No ...... 50 2.1 Western Encounters with No in Japan ...... 50 2.2 Japan's Premodem Cultural Relations with China ... 59 2.3 Summ ary ...... 70

Part n Meiji Modernization and the Struggle for New Patrons: The Second Turning Point

Chapter

3 The Dissolution of the Tokugawa Bakufu and its Patronage 73

3.1 The Beginning of the Meiji Period ...... 73 3.2 No Performers and their Social Backgrounds ...... 78 3.3 Supporters of N o ...... 91

ix 4 Nô as a Weapon of Diplomacy: Ushering in Western Guests ...... 110

4.1 No Performances Through Opera Glasses ...... 110 4.2 Seeds of Crosscultural Transmission: the Emergence of New Connoisseurship ...... 116

5 Chinese patterns of Reception ...... 138

5.1 Chinese Audiences in Japan...... 139 5.2 Chinese Rush to Japan...... 151 5.3 Summary ...... 162

Part m No for Export: The Third Turning Point

Chapter

6 No as Mascot for Colonialist Expansion ...... 165

6.1 Problematics in Overseas Performances...... 165 6.2 First Performances Overseas ...... 171

7 Postwar (Re)presentations of Nô ...... 185 7.1 Nô's Popularity Overseas in the Postwar Period ...... 185 7.2 Expansions of the Scope of Performance Venues ...... 189 7.3 Frequently Performed No Plays ...... 197 7.4 Future Prospects ...... 210

Conclusion ...... 219 Selected Bibliography ...... 225 Parti

Under the Shogun's Thumb in the Tokugawa Period: The First Turning Point PREFACE

Generally speaking, discrimination between good and poor in Noh is not up to one individual. Since it is a type of art that gains acclaim by exposure in the capital and the provinces, far and near, it cannot be hidden from the world. - Zeami^

Zeami Motokiyo (13637-1443?), the most influential dramatist and performer in the development of the art of NÔ2, wrote the above passage for the benefit of his successors in a secret treatise in 1423. Even Zeami could not have conceived that more than half a millennium later the audience of his art would include many visitors from overseas, and that by the latter half of the twentieth century many performances would take place outside of Japan. However, Zeami's words appear to have been somewhat prophetic in light of the recent boom that Nô has been enjoying, and the dynamic expansion of the scope of its audience. As theater is a living art, it cannot be passed down to succeeding generations merely as an artifact or cultural ornament. It has to evolve within the larger social and cultural environment. It must offer something

1 Zeami, Sandô, as quoted from Shelley Fenno Quinn's translation in "How to Write a Nô Play: Zeami's Sandô," Monumenta Nipponica Vol. 48, No. 1 (1993), p. 86. Hereafter, referred to as Quinn-Sandô. For the original text, see Zeami Zenchiku, ed. Omote Akira and Kato Shûichi, Nihon Shisô Taikei 24, (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1974), p. 143. Hereafter, referred to as NST.

2N5 and Noh are two variant spellings for the name of this art form. Nô will be used in this study, except in places where die original quotation has a different spelling.

1 contemporary to a contemporary audience. In the case of the Japanese Nô, radical social and political changes over the course of the last one hundred thirty years have had an enormous impact not only on modes of performance, but also on the character of the audience that supports it. The survival of Nô in the face of such changes cannot be explained solely by its privileged position as a six hundred year-old cultural tradition.

Omote Akira3 cites two major crises that the art of Nô went through after Japan launched its most comprehensive period of modernization in the late nineteenth century.4 The first occurred soon after the Meiji Restoration (1868) when Nô performers lost the patronage of the warrior class. They had depended on such patronage for about 500 years, dating back to the foundation and early proliferation of the art attributed to Kan'ami (1333-1384) and his son, Zeami, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The second major crisis occurred after the conclusion of World War II, when patronage was once again almost completely dissolved. The powerful supporters of the art after the Meiji Restoration were mainly members of the noble classes (former aristocrats who served in the imperial court and former feudal lords) and the plutocrats (members of financial combines who by and large controlled Japan's industry and commerce till the end of World War II) .5 Post-war democratization brought rapid changes to the ideologies which had helped shape the social contexts for both performers and audiences. In addition, many Nô stages were lost or damaged as a result of having been

3ln this study, all personal names are written in their native order. Thus, Japanese and Chinese names are given family name first.

40mote Akira, "Nô to sono kenkyû no genjô to tenbô," in Noh in the World (Hosei University Press, 1982), pp. 8 - 14. Hereafter referred to as Omote.

SQmote, p. 10. bombed. Nevertheless, as Omote suggests, those most intimately involved in the sustenance of the art of Nô, after having passed through the post-war days and having groped their way through to face the new era, now enjoy what is probably the most widespread popularity of the art in its six hundred-year history. Among the major changes he mentions as having contributed to the phenomenon of its increased popularity is the expansion of the scope of its audience base to include students and the general populace. This expansion was the first real step towards the popularization of Nô, whose audience before the end of the World War II mainly consisted of those amateur practitioners of the art who took lessons in singing Nô libretti and in Nô dance.6

The changing character of Japanese audiences was not the only factor affecting this widespread popularity growth. A significant factor in the evolution of the art, following the loss of its powerful patronage from the two crises cited above, was its exposure to a non-Japanese audience (first in Japan, then overseas) and the according increase in the scope of its potential patronage. This study considers how this diversification of the character of its audience—their live responses and the nature of their support—served the evolution of Nô performance. To be considered are ways in which cultural, social and political factors in Japan provided a context for the creation and development of such dynamics in the structural makeup of audiences, concurrent with the increased cultural and political interaction between Japan and other countries. Also, the responses to Nô performances by such

60mote, pp. 8 -14. audiences and ways in which those responses contributed to its evolution will be discussed. This study focuses on the period from the latter half of the nineteenth century—specifically after the Meiji Restoration (1868)—to the beginning of the twentieth century. This was the historical setting for the first crisis mentioned above and a time when the diversity of the audiences to Nô performances began to flower. Also, by way of comparison (and in order to establish a framework in which to view the transformation that Nô went through at the time of modernization), the time prior to it will also be looked into. On this extension, the development that Nô has undergone since the time of modernization will also be explored. Though the cultural influence Japan received hrom the Asian continent, particularly China and Korea, dates back more than two millennia, it was not until the sixteenth century that the first Western visitor stepped on

Japanese soil. By and large, the increase of Japan's close interaction with the rest of the globe was delayed until the middle of the nineteenth century when Japan opened itself to the outside world, having passed a period of over 200 years in national seclusion which had been initiated and enforced by the Tokugawa shogunate. As mentioned above, Nô lost the official patronage of the warrior class at the dawn of the Meiji period (1868-1912). During this period of rapid social change and modernization in Japan, the diversity of the backgrounds of those in attendance at performances increased greatly. Among Japanese audiences,

NÔ went from being an art by and large protected by the samurai (warrior) class, to one which could claim an audience base covering a broad social spectrum. In order to understand how such an evolution in the character of its audience took place, it is crucial to consider the role that Nô had played in the larger social context as the property of a broad popular contingency prior to this period, though under very different circumstances. During the period of Japan's modernization, the audience also grew to include a few visitors from overseas who brought with them different expectations, shaped by their various cultural backgrounds. This influx of new Japanese native initiates, spiced by the occasional and much-publicized addition of a foreign visitor, drastically altered the nature of the art's patronage. A close investigation of the events surrounding this, the first of the crises cited by Omote, may suggest how these events foreshadow the adaptive strategies which would eventually help the art of N6 survive the second crisis. By considering the Nô performance as a situated cultural event, such an investigation may offer clues as to how the cultural understanding of non­ native as well as native audience members prepared them for their experience of Nô theater. It might also shed light on the state of the art in its contemporary identity, while underscoring the nature of Nô's relevance in and outside Japan. Among previous studies concerning the position of Nô in the Japanese social, cultural and political environment from the Meiji Restoration to the beginning of the twentieth century, the following two works are probably the most detailed and representative: one is the second volume of Ikenouchi

Nobuyoshi's Nôgaku seisui ki (The rise and fall of the Nô drama) published in 1926; the other is Furukawa Hisashi's Meiji ndgakushi josetsu

(Introduction to the study of Nô during the Meiji period) published in 1969.

Among those sources in English, a section on Nô in Japanese Music and

5 Drama in the Meiji Era edited by Komiya Toyotaka (Edward Seidensticker and Donald Keene, translators), published in 1956, provides detailed foundational information about the state of the art during the period between 1848 and 1917.

In terms of cross cultural responses to Nô, Furukawa Hisashi's work cited above and his ôbeijin no nôgaku kenkyû (Research on Nô and Kyôgen by Europeans and Americans) published in 1962, have provided indispensable source materials. However, though there are several comparative studies on Chinese and Japanese drama,7 there has been no collective study of Chinese response to Nô theater in Chinese, Japanese, or English. Previous studies have traced patterns of influence between the drama of China and Japan, or between that of Japan and the West. To the best of my knowledge, a study such as this—one which looks into crosscultural responses to Nô theater in the framework of Japanese, Western, and Chinese experience of the art during this period of rapid internationalization and modernization of Japan—has not been done. Through considering these three cultural perspectives and the social and cultural environments which shaped performances, we may suggest factors at play in shaping one person's perception of a given theatrical performance: ways in which one's constructive faculties directly reflect one's cultural experience. At the same time, the peculiar capacity of the art of Nô to inspire such diverse reactions from audiences of different cultural backgrounds may be unveiled even more clearly.

7For example, see Shichiri Jûkei, Yôkyoku to genkyokit (Yôkyoku and Yuanqu) (Tokyo: Sekibunkan, 1926). In this sense, the choice of Nô (as opposed to another type of performance) as the site for studying the interactions between cultures is not an arbitrary one. Nô has proven to be an art form that is both resilient and responsive to social pressures. It has been forced to reinvent itself more than once in its more than 600 years of history, and each time it has gained both a wider audience, and a stronger base of support.

A NÔ performance has at its core principles that are more aligned to poetry than to drama, at least as 'drama^ has been traditionally construed in the West. A newcomer to the art may look in vain for the realistic representation of events on stage. Paul Claudel makes an essential distinction between Nô and traditional Western drama: "Le drame, c'est quelque chose qui arrive, le Nô, c'est quelqu'un qui arrive (Drama is something that happens, and Nô is someone that happens)."8 The shite, or protagonist, is a solitary character on the stage whose story and essential nature is revealed. Substantiation of whatever is needed for the wholeness of such a revelation is entrusted to the imaginative faculties of the audience. A careful viewing of Nô reveals a multisensory experience, that draws on poetic aUusion, music and dance to induce the constructive participation of the spectator in the creation of meaning. On the one hand, its oblique style of exposition demands a high level of connoisseurship for the traditional nuances of a play to be appreciated. This may be why James Brandon describes Nô as "perhaps the most subtle theatre art in the world and the m ost difficult for the average audience to appreciate."^ On the other hand.

SPaul Claudel, L'oiseau noir dans le soleil levant, in Connaisance de Vest suivi de L'oiseau noir dans le soleil levant (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 9174), p. 197.

9 James R. Brandon, "Japan: theatre’s response to a changing society," inThe Performing Arts in Asia, ed. James R. Brandon (Paris: Unesco, 1971), p. 101. its open-ended, interactive nature invites new modes of interpretation and appreciation as diverse as the spectators who view it and the contexts in which it is viewed.

The demand a Nô play makes for audience involvement in the creation of meaning may be one of the features this art form which has recurrently attracted the attention of dramatists in search of new sources of inspiration. In J. Thomas Rimer's words: "Some of the great theater adepts of the century have been fascinated, and often convinced, of the integrity and efficaciousness of the nô as a form of poetic theater, and they have made use of it themselves in their own creative work."io

Moreover, Nô not only provides a case study in the resiliency of a traditional art form in modem times, but it also serves as a prism uniquely suited to exploring the multiple ways that meaning making can be shaped by cultural experience. What were the background profiles of these audience members, and how does the diversity of an audience's socio-cultural background relate to their individual and collective participation in a Nô performance? These questions wiU be investigated, with reference to responses of native (Japanese) audience members of the period under discussion, as well as those responses of their non-native contemporaries from overseas. However, the purpose is not to draw a line between Japanese and non-Japanese audiences for the sake of making a geographical distinction, or to suggest that by virtue of a spectator being Japanese or non- Japanese, performance responses may be predicted. Rather, the focus will be on the multiplicity of responses to it, and how this multiplicity is related to

10 J. Thomas Rimer, "Contemporary Audiences and the Pilgrimage to Nô," in James R. Brandon, ed. Nd and Kyôgen in the Contemporary World (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), p. 183.

8 the totality of experiencing a performance. It may be pointed out that Japanese who are not familiar with No may be similarly disadvantaged viewers, as much as their counterparts from overseas. Exemplary of someone unfamiliar with a certain form of performance, experiencing it for the first time, I recall the night I went to see Brazil's Balé

Folclôrico da BahiaM Having arrived very close to curtain time, I hurried to my seat, which faced a proscenium stage, and took my place among the rest of the audience who gathered that night. I knew nothing about the event except the name of the troupe, and from that I was imagining we were about to see a performance by a ballet company. Then with barely a glance at the program, the lights dimmed in the auditorium and it started. It was not ballet: at least, not ballet as I thought of it, with toe shoes, etcetera. Throughout that night's experience in that space, I kept wondering what it was that I had come there for. The ceaseless beating of the drums, the two female vocalists whose voices carried powerfully and filled the large hall, the barefoot (and some topless) dancers etching the complex rhythms on their bodies, all combined to create the energy of that night. With some encouragement from the performers, members of the audience eventually began to join in the dancing, and by the end, the front and side aisles and the apron (which had previously separated the performers and the audience) now were flooded with the gymnastic energy of performers and spectators mingling to samba music. Without ending the performance, the performers exited up the aisles, still dancing and singing, followed by members of the enthusiastic throng who had joined in. By the time I left the building, the crowd—which had encircled the performers—was still dancing along with llThe performance of Brazil's Balé Folclôrico da Bahia was produced by the Wexner Center for the Arts at Mershon Auditorium, Columbus, Ohio, on February 19,1997. them, as a larger, less adventurous group gaped from the periphery. The large lobby of Mershon Auditorium at The Ohio State University was wrapped in the aura of the energy of the performance. If I had more background knowledge of that performance, how might my experience have been different? Had I had time to read them beforehand, the program notes for the performance would have briefed me that, "Brazil's rich music and dance traditions derive from the mingling of races that

defines its heritage."i2 The note goes further to state the follow ing:i3

Bale Folclôrico da Bahia performs a repertory of authentic folkloric dance and music based on three influences: African, from the introduction of slavery in the late 16th century; Indian, from the indigenous peoples of Brazil; and European, through the Portuguese colonization. This marvelous company, with its dancers, musicians, and singers, represents the culture, the traditions, the beliefs, the history, the colors, the music, and the movement of the people of Bahia.

How did this program writer's commentary, the performers' expectations and those of the audience fuse into the totality of the experience for each participant (performer and audience member) that night? What did the performers carry away from that experience of the performance? and what may I, as an audience member, claim to have carried away from that experience? Was there a unification in terms of the understanding of what the performers tried to achieve and what the audience brought with them? The challenges I faced as an audience member unfamiliar with the culture of Bahia might have been different from those who have more knowledge of the culture. The performers also might have brought specific expectations for

12program Notes for Brazil's Balé Folclôrico da Bahia provided by Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State Urüversity, February 19, 1997.

13See footnote 6.

1 0 the performance that night, including how it might unfold in a Midwestern city in the U.S.A., as compared to their native Brazil. Judging from the comments of Bandô Tamasaburô, a popular kabuki performer in Japan, similar issues may be addressed about a contemporary audience to classical theater in Japan. In response to a contemporary query, he suggested that there are those, even among Japanese audiences, who bring very little prior knowledge of the art form with them into the theater, and who just see a performance as something beautiful. He describes such contemporary audiences: "they're like foreigners [...] I sometimes feel that being watched by the people of my generation is the same as being watched by foreigners. "14

The feeling of foreignness that I experienced as an audience member on that night while experiencing the performance of Bale Folclôrico da Bahia, and the foreignness that Bandô, as a performer, projects upon a contemporary Kabuki audience of his generation share similarities. Being Japanese does not make one an informed viewer of traditional Japanese theater. The context of a performance is partly a function of the social and cultural background of the audience. The artistic merit one ascribes to a performance is also, at least in part, subject to such contextual factors. Richard Schechner and Willa Appel raise questions on the relationship between the context of a performance and its audience:i5

How does an audience provide the context for a performance? When a performance moves to a new place encountering new 14Watanabe, Moriaki, Kamen to shintai, (Tokyo: Asahi syuppansha, 1978), p. 273.

ISRichard Schechner and Willa Appel, "Introduction," in By Means of Performance: Intercultural studies of theatre and ritual, Richard Schechner and Willa Appel, ed, (Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 4.

11 audiences (on tour, for example), even if everything is kept the same, the performance changes. The same happens when an audience is imported, as when tourists or anthropologists see "the real thing." [...] The reception of a performance varies according to how much individual spectators know about what's going on.

As for No, it was during the period of the first crisis mentioned above that many new and uninitiated audience members—both from within and outside of Japan—first had open access to 'the real thing' (in the sense that No was released from the official patronage of the shogunal government). There were, however, several chances for people outside the samurai class to witness No in the period prior to the Meiji Restoration (1868). In addition, participation in the practice of No — especially through chanting No libretti — was already a wide-spread phenomenon, even among those people outside the samurai class. Even so, it was not until after World War II that the performances themselves were exported for the benefit of previously uninitiated foreign audiences overseas. Zeami states that the purpose of his art is to capture the heart of an audience that is diverse in both preference and social r a n k . i 6 Such consideration of the audience is fundamental to the theories of this man who was the leading No theoretician, playwright, and practitioner of his time. In

IGpor example, this selection from Fûshikaden (Teachings on Style and Flower), written in 1402: "Accomplishments soften people's hearts and make an impression on high and low and are the foundation for increase of blessings and the way of prolongation of life. Thorough mastery of any of the arts will bring about the increase of blessings." Particularly in this art, to attain the highest grade and leave behind an excellent name is to win public recognition.

This translation is from Shidehara Michitarô and Wilfred Whitehouse, tr. "Seami Jûrokubushû: Seami's Sixteen Treatises," in Monumenta Nipponica, No. 4: 204-239 (1941) and No. 5: 180-214 (1942), p. 192. Hereafter referred to as Shidehara and Whitehouse. For the original text, see NST, p. 45.

12 Fûshikaden (Teachings on Style and Flower),i7 Zeami makes reference to his audience:i8

In this art public favour and esteem affords the blessings for the establishment of the company. Therefore, performance exclusively in a style too inaccessible to the ordinary audience will again cause failure to win public applause. For this reason, the way of obtaining the blessings is that, bearing in mind your noviciate in the no, you perform the no in a manner varying with the circumstances, so as to impress even the foolish eye as something indeed interesting.

Again, the dynamic change in the scope of audiences which the No experienced especially after the dawn of modernization in Japan was probably beyond Zeami's imagination. However, the survival and concurrent popularity of the art is, in a way, a direct testimony to the achievement of his vision. Just as functioning m a specific society is a constant process of negotiation among the members of the society, the full weight of a performance's meaning is negotiated at the intersection of performance contexts and audiences' experiences. No was able to remain steadfast despite the evolving diversity of its audience, in part through varying performance practices and in part through the 'varying circumstances' of the larger performance equation. As we look into how performances of No were made possible, experienced, and variously interpreted, Zeami's dramatic theories will lend guidance to the discussions. Raymond Williams coined the terms 'residual culture' and 'emergent culture' to describe meanings and practices alternative to and/or in opposition with the dominant (i.e., central and effective) culture, but which

1 ^English translations of treatises are taken from On the Art of the No Drama: The Major Treatises of Zeami, J. Thomas Rimer and Yamazaki Masakazu, trans., (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984). Hereafter referred to as Rimer and Yamazaki. fSShidehara and Whitehouse, p. 192, sic. For the original text, see NST, p. 45.

13 nevertheless may be accomodated, tolerated, and to some degree incorporated into that dominant culture. 19 Williams describes 'residual culture' as

"experiences, meanings and values which cannot be verified or cannot be expressed in terms of the dominant culture, [but] are nevertheless lived and practiced on the basis of the residue—cultural as well as social—of some previous social formation. "20 It may be tempting to some to assume that the resiliency of the art of No in the face of the crisis posed by the shifting power structure after the Meiji restoration may be attributed largely to such residual qualities. On close inspection, however, I believe the evidence suggests that such residual qualities alone would not have been enough for the art to survive the radical social climate of the period of modernization in Japan. In other words, the successful continuance of No in this period is not adequately explained as a function of either its emergent or residual qualities exclusively. Moreover, since a performance is not an artifact, but a situated cultural event, any performance genre which survives must have fertile soil in which to take root, if it is to continue to negotiate change. Richard Bauman's comments on the relation of tradition to folklore suggest a framework for addressing the apparent paradox of viewing No as an art form that is both traditional and contemporary. According to Bauman:2i

The term tradition is conventionally used in a dual sense, to name both the process of transmission of an isolable cultural 19Raymond Williams, "Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory," New Left Revieio 82 (1973), pp. 9-11.

20On the other hand, 'emergent culture' refers to "new meanings and values, new practices, new significance and experiences [that] are continually being created." Ibid., p. 10.

2lRichard Bauman, ed. Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments: A Communications-centered Handbook (New York, Oxford; Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 31-32. Hereafter referred to as Bauman.

14 element through time and also the elements themselves that are transmitted in this process. To view an item of folklore as traditional is to see it as having temporal continuity, rooted in the past but persisting into the present in the manner of a natural object. There is, however, an emergent reorientation taking place among students of tradition, away from this naturalistic view of tradition as a cultural inheritance rooted in the past and toward an understanding of tradition as symbolically constituted in the present. Tradition, so reconceptualized, is seen as a selective, interpretive construction, the social and symbolic creation of a connection between aspects of the present and an interpretation of the past.

Bauman suggests that two contrasting strategies have been applied towards understanding the persistence of tradition, one comparatively static, the other dynamic. Tradition may be compared to an object that persists merely by not going away; or it may be compared to a symbolic creation, which persists by virtue of (re)constructed in the present. It will be demonstrated that the latter definition comes closer to describing the struggle No has undergone in coping with the challenges associated with reorienting and reinventing itself in the face of a rapidly changing social climate. Bauman's phrase, "emergent reorientation,"22 which he uses in regard to students of tradition will be borrowed to describe the particular journey of this six hundred-year old art form, since its near extinction at the close of the last century. In the Introduction, some of the basic performative principles and related structural features of No will be discussed in reference to Zeami's theories. The remaining main body of this study is divided into three parts. Part I looks into the evolution of the art from the end of the sixteenth century through the Edo period (1603-1867). Chapter One discusses the patterns of patronage and the scope of a native audiences' familiarity with the art form before the age of modernization in Japan. Chapter Two discusses the 22lbid„ p. 31.

15 relationships Japan had with the West and with China, which shaped the climate of the period that followed. Attention will be given to ways in which cultural and political factors paved the way for foreign contacts with No. Part n discusses the dynamics of various forces which made the continuation of this traditional form possible when the nation was experiencing a social and cultural transformation in search of a new, modem identity. Chapter Three looks into Japanese audiences and the state of the art during this period. The role of particular performers in championing No's preservation, the Japanese public's familiarity with the art form, and the

correlation of these points is explored. Crosscultural responses are discussed in Chapter Four. Focus is given to the commodification of the art form in service of the promotion of "Japaneseness" by authorities in political and intellectual fields. Also addressed in this chapter are ways in which early Western audience members viewed No, as reflected by individual

commentaries on performances, and as seen within the contexts of those witnesses' past and on-going cultural experiences. Addressed in Chapter Five are issues surrounding the great number of Chinese who came to Japan to study about the West — particularly from the end of the nineteenth century to the first quarter of the twentieth — and evidence of what they thought of the theater in Japan. Part m explores the pre-war and wartime commodification of the art and post-war presentations of No in both domestic and international settings. Chapter Six discusses the controversial issue of performances held in Japanese territories during the period of the Japanese occupation of certain parts of East Asia, lands that were culturally foreign yet at the same time claimed as national territories. Chapter Seven examines the subsequent

16 growth in popularity of both domestic and overseas performances of No, in light of its history as an object of cultural scrutiny. Such performances occur at the crossroads of the expectations of performers, organizers, and the audiences. Points explored include the process by which performances are organized, and a comparison of current strategies for promoting the art with those which were adopted by Japanese officials at the turn of the century. Also, briefly addressed is the situation in more recent years: the ongoing and accelerated diversification of the contexts of No performances, compared with the previous situations discussed in the main body of the study.

17 INTRODUCTION

Once, having encountered the following statement, I wondered whether the author who wrote it had experienced the emotion described because it was No theater that he was witnessing, or because of the person he was:i

A couple of years ago [...] I saw the play, Izutsu, performed by Hôshô Fusao. When the shite was dancing the cherished memory of her childhood, all the memory of longing for human companionship I have experienced in my life poured into my heart in an instant.

The play Izutsu is based on a story about two lovers, Ariwara no Narihira, one of "the supreme Heian ideals of elegance and sensitivity, "2 and his childhood friend turned wife. The play begins after the death of both Narihira and his wife. A wandering Buddhist priest visits a ruined temple where he meets the mysterious woman of the place, who speaks of the love story of Narihira and his wife. After giving a complete synopsis of their history together, she identifies herself as a ghostly representative of Narihira's wife, and disappears as the first act comes to a close. In the second act, the woman he has met reappears as her former self, dressed in Narihira's robe tKawase Kazxuna, No to wa nani ka (What is No?) (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1976), p. 76.

2Helen McCullough, Tales of Ise: Lyrical Episodes from Tenth-Century Japan (Stanford University Press, 1968), p. 49. Hereafter referred to as McCullough.

18 and hat, and reveals through dancing and retelling her story what has been hidden inside her. The second act closes with the ghostly woman disappearing at the break of dawn. There is one prop placed at center stage. It represents the well beside which Narihira and his wife used to play together as young children, watching each other's reflections in the water. The well is represented by a square wooden frame with a spray of pampas grass at one comer. In the climactic part of the play after her dance in the second act, the shite approaches the well, parts the pampas grass and looks into the well, recalling the site where the love between herself and Narihira first blossomed. At this moment, the stage sinks into silence and stillness. At the center of this frozen picture, a male performer who, all the while playing the role of a woman dressed in the robe of the man, Narihira, gazes at her/his reflection. After a defined pause, s/he looks up and sings:3 I see! Oh, how dear he is! though it is myself, oh, how dear he is!

This frozen scene at the well is the distillation of the already complete life of the shite of Izutsu — the essence of her life which lingers, the reality which continues beyond the span of her mortal life. Structurally, the play leaves us with an impression that the shite's mortal life was the illusory one, in contrast to that in the after-world. The reality of her existence is distilled in her yearning for the past. Her whole being on the stage acts as the fulcrum between illusion and reality.

3The last two lines are sung by the chorus. Kenneth Yasuda, Masterworks of the No Theater (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989), p. 225. Hereafter referred to as Yasuda.

19 What has unfolded in this No play is not a story about something that has happened, nor is it a story about a person, as such. The story is not enacted, but is told in service of the revelation of what lies deep in the shite's psyche. More precisely, the story about someone is over; and that is precisely where a No performance begins. Thus, what is expected of drama — in the sense of drama as 'something that happens' — is denied from the outset in No performances of this type. How closely or deeply an audience experiences the unraveling of the shite's story and thereby encounters its distillation, may also depend on the audience's capacity to engage in this process, as well as the ability of the performers. May it be said that the person mentioned above, who experienced this rush of longing for human companionship, peeked into that world in which the shite of the play Izutsu resides, the world in which time is a boundless pool? Not exactly. What the person peeked into was not only the world in which the shite resides. He, as a member of the audience, relived his own beloved memories reflected through the distillation of the story performed by the shite. It was not the similarity of the shite's course of actions to his life, but a common emotion of longing that was shared. Then we may say that a No performance mediates not only between what happens on the stage and in the audience, but also between each audience member and the distillation of his own story. This may suggest that No plays, at least some plays like Izutsu, aspire to invite open exchanges with the audience. I will call this interactive nature of a No performance its reflexivity. As experienced by the person who wrote the account of attending the play Izutsu, this reflexivity makes it responsive to what the individual audience member brings to the theater.

20 The play Izutsu was written in the beginning of the fifteenth century* by Zeami, who is credited with perfecting this type of No play. He refers to

Izutsu as a play which belongs to the highest of the nine levels of artistic excellence of NÔ.5

Zeami's audiences included the social and cultural elite of his day, but not exclusively. Moreover he was faced with audiences who had a wide range of personal tastes. The only way to capture their hearts was to conceive of performances characterized by a reflexive quality, through which each individual might personally substantiate — with his own experiences, longings, etc. — the essence of the story unraveling on stage.

This may sound too idealistic, however, as illustrated by the account of the person who attended the play Izutsu, what Zeami tried to create not only exists as an ideal, but may also be realized through audience experience of a performance. This reflexive nature seen in Izutsu appears to be one of the characteristics of excellency in No plays, as evidenced by the esteem Zeami affords such plays.

4The name of the play Izutsu first appears in one of Zeami's treatises entitled Zeshi rokujii igo sanigaku dangi (Zeami, past the age of sixty, reflecting on No, 1430), also known as Sarugaku dangi.

5ln Kyûi (Notes on the Nine Levels), Zeami divides the artistry of the actor into nine levels. The nine levels are further divided into three groupings: upper, middle, and lower, with three levels assigned to each. Rimer and Yamazaki, p. 120. For the original text, see NST, pp. 174- 75.

21 Indeed, Nô's survival, despite the diversification in the character of its audience, may well have to do with this reflexivity. But just how was this reflexivity achieved then, and how may it be realized today? This happens in at least two ways: The first is through the foregrounding of dance and chant (both in the training of performers, and in the performance itself); and the second is through properties of the texts of the plays themselves (e.g., the two- act structure of the text of Izutsu develops in a manner not dependent on the succession of events). Because this study endeavors to explore the multiplicity of responses by those who experienced No in live contexts, before we go into the main body of the discussion, it may be instructive to address general operative principles of a No performance. Such tools may be of use in considering how the reflexivity of a No performance — its open-ended invitation to the imaginative participation of its audiences — might have been realized. About six hundred years have past since the time Zeami lived. Like all live performing arts. No is ephemeral, and though it has been continuously performed down to the present day, it has had to be reinvented throughout its history. However, crucial principles of a No performance, such as its reflexive nature, remain equally valid today. Fortunately, nineteen of

22 Zeami's secret transmissions, his pedagogical writings for successors, have survived.6 These transmissions are the most comprehensive corpus of

Zeami's dramatic theories. To explore the relationship between the art of No and its audiences, especially the realization of its reflexive nature in the process of performance, these treatises are a crucial source. Though not all the dates of the formation of these treatises may be ascertained, we know by the dates and the signatures of Zeami at the ends of treatises that they were written mainly from the 1420's to the early 1440's. Most of the treatises were completed in Zeami's later life after he had reached

his sixties, with the exception of Fûshikaden, whose first five chapters were written about twenty years earlier. As noted in the Preface, Zeami considered the purpose of his art to gain "favor and esteem" from everyone. The

original Japanese word he used for "audiences" is shûjin,^ meaning the public or the people in general. This may, again, sound very idealistic. However, if we take into consideration the competitive environment Zeami lived in as a performer, it becomes ever clearer why he placed such

6This number does not include Museki isshi, Kintôsho, or his letters.

^Shidehcira and Whitehouse 2, p. 192, sic. For the original text, see NST, p. 45.

23 importance on the audience. Throughout his eventful life,8 his status as a performer continuously made it necessary for him to face the challenge of how to gain the support of his contemporary audiences. Since the age of twelve Zeami had received the patronage of the shogun Yoshimitsu (1358-1408) — the most powerful figure of his day.

However, the tenure of that patronage was never guaranteed. Zeami and his

8Zeami says he was twelve years old when he had a life-changing encounter with the third Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimitsu at the Imagumano shrine in Kyoto in 1374(?).* 2Ieami's father, Kan'ami Kiyotsugu, was asked to perform for Yoshimitsu, who promised his patronage to their art on the spot. Before this encounter their livelihood had come from performing on commission for religious establishments and touring with a troupe called za to which they belonged. Each troupe formed a functional performing unit, and numerous troupes competed for the security and fame associated with stronger patronage. Even after their competitive grovmd shifted from religious and touring venues to the circle of the most powerful patron of their day (that of the shogun Yoshimitsu) the fact that their livelihood depended on earning the "favor and esteem" of their audiences did not change. In their new environment, they had to consider the expectations of the top artists and aesthetic critics of their day, while at the same time competing with other artists to maintain and cultivate powerful patronage. With his father's death in 1384, Zeami carried on the responsibility of the continuance of his art. The period of almost thirty-five years from Zeami's encounter with Yoshimitsu until the patron's death in 1408, marked the prime of Zeami's acclaim in his profession. After Yoshimitsu's death, the favor for Zeami declined in the shogunal circle during the reign of the fourth shogun, Yoshimochi (1386-1428), beginning in 1408.** The following reign of the shogun, Yoshinori (1394-1441), starting in 1429, was even worse, for Zeami and his descendants ceased receiving patronage from the shogun altogether. Patronage was never guaranteed, and the strong patron sought out his own preferences, such as Zeami's rival performers. Zeami was exiled to Sado Island in 1434, at the age of seventy-one, though it is thought that he may have returned from exile and spent the last few years of his life with his son-in-law, Konparu Zenchiku, also a noted No performer. Prior to this, in 1432, Zeami had lost his elder son Motomasa, to whom he entrusted the responsibility for the succession of his art. In 1430, his other son Motoyoshi had given up the profession and had taken Buddhist vows. Zeami left this world at the age of eighty questioning even the continuation of his art, despairing that his troupe Wcis "surely on the verge of collapse."***

* Zeami describes his first encounter with Yoshimitsu in Sanigaku dangi. NST, p. 301. However, the exact date of the encounter cannot be specified. For further discussion, see NST, pp. 498-99.

** Yoshimochi's reign as the fourth shogun officially started in 1394 . However, Yoshimitsu effectively wielded power until his death in 1428.

*** The English translation of this passage from Kyakuraika is taken from Mark J. Nearman, tr., "Zeami's Final legacy for the Master Actor" in Monumenta Nipponica 35.2 (1980: 163). For the original text, see NST, p. 246.

24 troupe had to continue to try to meet the expectations of their powerful patron in competition with other performers and troupes who hoped to join or displace Zeami's position of favor. Such an atmosphere compelled Zeami to strive to refine his art ceaselessly, under the critical eyes of the foremost aesthetic theoreticians and practitioners of his day. In the words of Jacob Raz:

"The Noh, it is argued, would not have reached such a degree of aesthetic perfection, simplicity, elegance and coherence, if Zeami had not absorbed the tests and critical attitudes of the most sophisticated audience of the time — the nobility and the warrior class."9

One of the ways in which Zeami made a major conceptual transformation from the previous generations appears to be in the realm of monomane (mimicry). This transformation can be seen in differences between Zeami's first treatise Fûshikaden and a later treatise, Kakyô (A Mirror Held to the Flower, 1424). Zeami attributes the former treatise to his father's (Kan'ami) teaching, and the latter, to his own reflections on his experiences and the art of Nô.io A major difference between these two treatises is that the former focuses on monomane and its role in training the

9 Jacob Raz, "The Actor and His Audience; Zeami's Views on the Audience of the Noh," Monumenta Nipponica 31. 3: 251-274 (1976), p. 261. Hereafter referred to as Raz. lOln the chapter entitled "The Ultimate Keys of Our Art," in Kakyô, Zeami writes:

That text (Fûshikaden) represents an account of various elements in the art of my father Kan'ami, set down twenty years after his death, and serves as a record of what I learned firom him. The present treatise, on the other hand, represents discoveries that have occurred to me from time to time concerning the no over a period of forty years, down to the time of my own advanced age. (Rimer and Yamazaki, p. 110)

25 actor to capture the audience's heart, whereas in the later treatises the focus is on dance and song.n

As Zeami's experience as performer, playwright, theorist and educator of NÔ ripened, dance and chant evolved into the most basic and important features of his art.i2 For instance, in contrast to the importance given to monomane in Fûshikaden,^^ in a later treatise entitled Zeshi rokujû igo sarugaku dangi (Zeami, past the age of sixty, reflecting on No, 1 4 3 0 ) , Zeami states that, though the art of No is all about monomane, since the origin of

No derives from kagura (Shinto music which includes various rites and dances),i4 the real fundamentals lie in dance and chant.is Also, in Yûgaku shûdô fûken (Disciplines for the Joy of Art), Zeami states; "one must think of the Two Arts [dance and chant] as fundamental vessels of our art. The art of performing particular roles [monomane] must be based in turn on them."i6

llpor a detailed discussion of this point, see Shelley Fenno Quinn, Developing Zeami: From Mimesis to Poesis (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, forthcoming). Hereafter referred to as Quiim, Developing Zeami.

12lbid.

13ln Fûshikaden, there is a reference to monomane (miming): "It is impossible to write down an exhaustive list of the different manners of miming. However, these kinds of miming, as being the essential of this art, must be acquired as thoroughly as possible. As a general rule, the essence of miming is to imitate well all beings." Then nine role types of monomane are listed: They are the woman, the old man, the unmasked person, the mad person, the priest, the warrior, the god, the demon, and the Chinese [person]. This translation of Fûshikaden is taken firom Shidehara Michitarô and Wilfrid W hitehouse, "Seami Jûroku Bushû: Seami's Sixteen Treatises," Monumenta Nipponica 4: 204-239 (1941), p. 218. Hereafter referred to as Shidehara and Whitehouse 1. For the original text, see NST, p. 2 0 .

14By associating the origin of No with kagura, Zeami validates the former. In Fûshikaden, there is another mention of No as a derivation of kagura. NST, p. 39.

1 5 N S T , p. 260. l^Rimer and Yamazaki, p. 112. For the original text, see NST, p. 163.

26 In addition to establishing dance and chant as central to his art, in the treatises after Fûshikaden, three modes of performance (or three role types) are introduced as the bases of monomane, namely: old persons, women and warriors. In contrast to the idea of monomane described in Fûshikaden — "imitating all beings well,"i7 — Zeami abstracts the possibilities to three basic paradigms, and in this way role playing becomes something beyond external mimicry. It becomes "an approach to the general tenor of a dramatic portrayal-"i8 More specifically: "The style of acting appropriate to a quiet and solemn god is adapted from the style of the old man; roles requiring great taste and elegance come naturally from the style of women's roles, and roles requiring powerful body movements and foot stamping grow from warrior roles."19

The importance of the two basic arts and three role types may be better understood when we see how they are incorporated in the training process of a No performer. Shelley Fenno Quiim has demonstrated that dance and chant serve not only to mediate audience perceptions of the prepositional content of a play, but also hone the performer's intuitive capacity to calibrate his effects in response to audiences .20 In Shikadô (The True Path to the Flower, 1420), Zeami explains: "the elegant beauty of the child performer [cultivated through the basic training of dance and chant] does remain in the Three Role Types of the mature performer, and the skill arising from a mastery of the Three Role Types can permit the actor to manifest his own l^For a discussion of monomane in Fûshikaden, see note 14.

ISThomas Hare, Zeami's Style: The Noh Plays of Zeami Motokiyo (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986), p. 300. Hereafter referred to as Hare.

19Rimer and Yamazaki, p. 65. For the original text, see NST, p. 113.

20.Quinn, Developing Zeami.

27 vision, no matter what the play."2i In other words, no matter the play (or the relative emphasis on storyline), it ideally is mediated through a performer who has mastered the two basic arts of dance and chant. To further explore how the increased importance given by Zeami to song and dance over monomane influenced the effect of a No performance as a whole, his discussion on the manner of presentation of movements may be helpful. Zeami advises in Kakyô in the section entitled "What is felt in the heart is ten; what appears in movement seven": "In terms of general stage deportment, no matter how slight a bodily action, if the motion is more restrained than the emotion behind it, the emotion will become the Substance and the movements of the body its Function, thus moving the a u d i e n c e . "22 The original words that Zeami used for the Substance is tai, and for Function, yii. According to Zeami: if tai is a flower, yû is its fragrance; if tai is the moon, yû is the light. The performer who has the fundamental beauty in his tai, by way of its natural order, has the beautiful function of its phenomenal appearance, yû. Similarly, without tai, there is no yû; if the tai is weak, the luster of yû would also be weak. This can be said also for the audience. Depending on the tai of the audience, yû, or how one's nature is reflected in a performance, also differs. Again, in the words of Zeami: "When it comes to observing the no, those who truly understand the art watch it with the spirit, while those who do not merely watch it with their

21 Rimer emd Yamazedd, p. 66. For the original text, see NST, p. 113.

22Rimer and Yamazaki, p. 75. For the original text, see NST, pp. 84-5.

28 eyes. To see with the spirit is to grasp the Substance [tai]} to see with the eyes is merely to observe the Function [yi2]."23

Zeami further discusses the crucial ordering of the presentation of chant and dance movements in a section in Kakyô entitled, "Communication First by Hearing, Then by Sight":24

Actually, the audience should first hear the chant, then see the appropriate gesture afterwards, so that when they see what they have already understood, the satisfying sensation of a genuine union between the two images will be created in the moment of transition from one to the other.

The content of the aural expression comes to its completion only when it is followed by accompanying movements on stage. In contrast, the beauty of dance movements is perceived only when it follows the satisfactory aural impression. Every moment in the process of a No performance, then, ideally should follow this order.

The smallest unit of movement of No dance is called kata (dance pattern). Handed down through generations of No performers, each kata has become a fixed, conventionalized unit — the basic standing position, the walk, the turns, etc. We find specific meaning in certain kata, and do not in others.25 Shiori (weeping) is an example of a kata whose form has a specific meaning. The performer brings his left hand, with fingers extended and thumb tucked in, veidcally close to his forehead. For instance, in the play 23Rimer and Yamazaki, p. 71. For the original text, see NST, p. 117.

24Rinier and Yamazaki, p. 76. For the original text, see NST, p. 85.

25por instance, sashikomi (forward point) is an example of a kata whose form does not carry a specific meaning independent of context. The performer takes several steps forward and stops. Hiraki (open) is another such kata. In it the performer takes three steps backward starting with this left foot, spreading his arms horizontally to both sides. Kanze Hisao describes these two kata: "Whereas the hiraki expresses outward projection of energy, in executing the sashikomi, the actor centers his concentration in his body." Kanze Hisao, "No no engi," Bessatsu kokubungaku 182-85 (1985).

29 Izutsu, after the frozen scene of gazing into the well, the shite steps back and

does this kata. Does she weep as an expression of her yearning, or as an expression of joy at catching a glimpse of her husband's reflection, or are her tears the result of some other deep emotions inspired by looking at the reflection in the well? The answer lies in the reflection itself, as each

individual perceives it. Since the various types of kata are all symbolic, they may exist in harmony with each other as components of a whole, taking their meaning from the context of a given moment. Zeami also discusses the fulfillment created in the entire flow of a performance. He names such moments of fulfillment kaimon (ear-opening)

and kaigen (eye-opening). He identified two clim axes;26 The ear-opening is that instant in which the two aural dimensions fuse into one impression (semantic content and musicality). [...] As for the eye-opening, there should be a revelatory point at which the feeling inspired by the visional affect is brought to consummation. Positioned somewhere in the dance or vigorous moves, it is the instant that moves all present to an impression of the wondrous [...] the ear-opening is the creation of the playwright; the eye-opening the acting of the shite.

Zeami states: "The composition of no texts is the life of this art. "27 Thus, though the moment of the eye-opening is possible only through the artistic talent of the performer, the playwright has to plan the very moment, not only of the ear-opening but also the eye-opening.

26Shelley Fenno Quinn, "How to Write a Noh Play: Zeami's Sandô," in Monumenta Nipponica vol. 48.1: 53-88 (1993), p. 82. For the original text, see NST, p. 141. Hereafter referred to as Quinn.

27Shidehara and Whitehouse 1, p. 195. For the original text, see NST, p. 47.

30 In the case of the play, Izutsu, the ear-opening occurs towards the close

of the first act when the shite recalls the childhood relationship between herself and Narihira and how it grew into one of love. The memory of their courtship is crystallized in the recalling of the poem-exchange between them as children beside the well. The poems are taken from the twenty-third episode of Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise, ca. 950), the foundational story of the play Izutsu.The inclusion of these poems from an old literary source provides yet another layer of emotive quality in this play. Depending on how closely one knows the story of Narihira's wife, the intensity of her revelation may also differ. After this section the shite's revelation of her true identity, and the manifestation of that identity in its true form in the second act, is a matter of course. As we get closer to the heart of the play, what is left is the manifestation of that heart through which the audience members may reflect their own emotional lives. The eye-opening is in the second act, described above, climaxing in the frozen picture of the shite looking into the well. The ear-opening and eye- opening are not manifest through the unfolding of the plot line, as in realist drama, but rather through the open revelation of the shite's already complete 28The exchanged poems are:

Tsutsu izutsu My height that we measured izutsu ni kakeshi At the well curb marc gatake Has, it seems, oinikerashi na Passed the old mark imo mizaru mani Since last I saw you

kurabekoshi The hair parted in the middle furiwake-gami mo That I measured against yours kata sugiru Now hangs below my shoulders kimi narazu shite for whom shall it be put up, tare ka If not for you? agubeki

McCullough, p. 88.

31 story. Such revelation is only possible through the medium of a trained performer whose skill is based in dance and chant. In this sense, what Zeami tried to achieve in his theatrical art is something totally opposite to Aristotelian theater.

Zeami hoped to depict something which may be called the essential nature of someone or something, beginning at a point where a character's course of action is complete. On the other hand, the drama that Aristotle envisioned depended on the unfolding of a course of action: "For Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action, not a quality."29 it is through aural and visual sensation created by the ability of a performer that Zeami hoped to invoke emotive quality. On the contrary, for Aristotelian theater: "the most powerful elements of emotional interest in Tragedy — Peripeteia or Reversal of the Situation, and Recognition scenes — are parts of the plot. [...] The Plot, then, is the first principle, and, as it were, the soul of a tragedy: Character holds the second place."30

Zeami is not responsible for the entire No répertorie. He was, however, instrumental in establishing the two basic arts and three role types as operational principles by which the force of a No play may be delivered. In this way he established a paradigm which would influence many of the plays that would be conceived after him.

The terms mugen (dream) No and genzai (living) No are widely used to distinguish attributes of two-act plays like Izutsu (a mugen No) from other

{genzai) No plays. According to Tashiro Keiichirô, the term mugen No was ^9Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, tr. Butcher, S. H. New York, Dover Publications, Inc., 1951, p. 27. Hereafter referred to as Aristotle/Butcher.

20Aristotle/Butcher, pp. 27-29.

32 first used in 1926. He argues that with the arrival of Western drama in Japan, it became necessary to coin a term to differentiate those two-act No plays which were not plot driven.3i In a mugen No, the reminiscences of the shite are made manifest, taking the form of a dream in the mind of another character, as is the case in Izutsu. Usually in the first act of mugen No, the shite — who may be a god, a demon, or even the spirit of a plant, but most often the ghost of a past life — appears in disguised form and gradually reveals the story of a past identity. In the second act, the shite reappears in true form, revealing the distillation of the story of his/her/its (past) existence.

In genzai No, the shite experiences this world within the flow of actual time.

In contrast to the structure of a mugen No, in a genzai No, a story does develop over the course of a play. Thus, one may assume that in the case of genzai No, since the shite is not a ghost but a living person, the aspect of monomane and the course of action become more important. However, regardless of whether a play is a genzai No or mugen No, the importance of dance and chant as the basis of the art does not change. A famous twentieth century No performer once pointed out that as long as dance and song are the bases of the No that Zeami perfected, poetic quality is more important than dramatic quality.32 The performer who made this observation was Kanze Hisao (1925-1978). Hisao was remarkable not only as one of the legendary performers of the twentieth century but also a performer who studied Zeami's writing. In addition, he was very much interested in the study of the texts of No plays. While many No performers were more or less focused on assimilating and mastering the techniques of SlTashiro Keiichirô, Mugen no (Dream No) (Tokyo: Asahi shinbun sya, 1975), p. 8

SZKanze Hisao, “No ni okeru dentô no mondai" Kanze Hisao chosaku shû 3 (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1981), p. 26-27. Hereafter referred to as Kanze Hisao 3.

33 their teachers, his attitude was unusual. In this sense, Hisao — based on his experience as performer coupled with his study in Zeami's writing and No text — was in the best position to talk about the on-going validity of artistic principles. He also refers to the relation between the poetic quality of a No performance and the two basic art forms of song and dance: Through training the performers to make the human voice and body free of personal idiosyncrasy^^ and thereby creating beauty, Zeami hoped to create a poem on the stage. In Hisao's words, "this is the beauty which can touch human hearts firmly and universally — a most strongly self-asserted beauty bom out of total self-denial. "34

By m oving monomane to the background of the performance configuration and bringing the two basic arts and three modes of performance into the foreground. No theater was emancipated from servitude to the representation of events. What was gained instead was the presentation of "the most profound qualities of an individual human existence. "35 Resting on the abstract nature of dance and the poetic and associative qualities of music. No theater invites the multi-dimensional experiences of the audience, thereby creating layers of possibility for open exchange. Again, the reflexivity of a No performance allows it to be responsive to what the individual audience member brings to the theater. Clues as to why and how No has maintained its resiliency and appeal to audiences — and how Zeami's ideals have been achieved — may be found in the very diversity and reflexivity of audience responses.

33Xhe original word that Hisao uses is muki, which literally means inorganic.

34Kanze Hisao 3, p. 28.

35Hare, p. 237.

34 The two basic arts and three role types would serve as aesthetic supports for the art for many generations to come. With this brief background and these principles in mind, we may move forward roughly two centuries to a time when the social and cultural supports of the art would shift with the winds of political change. Coincidentally during this period, the earliest foreign visitors to Japan would catch a glimpse of the art.

35 NOTE TO USERS

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36

This reproduction is the best copy available.

UMI CHAPTER 1

TOKUGAWA AUDIENCES AND PATTERNS OF PATRONAGE

Before we look into the first phase of the crisis that No went through after Japan entered its process of modernization, it may be instructive to explore the position of the art of No in Japanese society prior to that time. Only by such means, may we grasp the magnitude of the crisis that hit the world of No when drastic social and political changes forced the transformation of many aspects of people's lives in Japan. A consideration of the former position of No is also necessary to understand the resiliency of the art during these changing times.

Among the questions I hope to address here will be: how accessible and popular were No performances? who were its supporters? did it have a specific target audience, or were certain people inclined to enjoy it more than others? Some diehard baseball fans are also players, or played once in their past. Could the same be said for the audiences of No? Or did people perceive

No mainly as an object to admire but not to practice?

By addressing similar questions in the contexts of both before and after the time of intense innovation, we will be able to see more clearly the

37 changes and influences brought to bear on the art as Japan went through the rapid phase of modernization spurred by the opening of its door to the West.

1.1 No in the Shadow of the Shogun By the beginning of the Edo period (1603-1868), almost two centuries after the early proliferation of the art of Zeami's time, NÔ had established its position as a ceremonial art protected by the shogunate. By then, even those performers who did not receive direct support from the shogunate, were put under the control of those schools that received direct shogunal protection. Since the time when Zeami and his father Kan'ami first received special favor from Yoshimitsu, the performers' competitive ground had been greatly expanded from religious and popular touring venues to one which included the performances for the most powerful patron of their day. However, this did not mean that protection was, in any way, guaranteed. As a matter of fact, when the shogunate lost the power to control the nation during the Warring States period in the last half of the fifteenth and most of the sixteenth century and warriors competed for power. No performers had to find their own way of survival independent from the official protection of this powerful class. The systematic transformation of performers' means of survival to include controlled shogunal protection by the beginning of the seventeenth century suggests that the state of the art had gone through some major changes. First, this transformation shows that No was already an indispensable part of the culture of the powerful bakufu (central shogunal govenment). For example, two of the most powerful political and military leaders of this time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) and Tokugawa leyasu

38 (1542-1616),! not only enjoyed seeing performances but also practiced No dance and chant, even holding performances in which they themselves appeared.

Moreover, there is enough evidence to suggest that by this time No had infiltrated not only the bakufu, but also those among the powerful military command throughout Japan.2 It may be said that a cultivated taste for No was one of die prerequisites for the powerful men of that time. Such a norm was not established overnight. Intense cultural exchange took place in many parts of Japan during the Warring States period, due to the rapid development of many provincial castle towns of feudal lords, and to improved trcinsportation which connected those towns and major cities. Many important cultural elements spread to other parts of Japan not only horizontally but also vertically, attracting the interest of people of different social classes. No was definitely one such element. As Omote Akira and Amano Fumio mention, the period from the end of the sixteenth century to the beginning of seventeenth century was a turning point in the transformation of No, along the path from a free competitive atmosphere to a more secure, but more controlled environment.^

! Hideyoshi, an eager supporter and practitioner of No, united Japan under his military hegemony around 1590. leyasu was the first shogun of the Edo period.

20mote Akira, and Amano Fumio, No, kyôgen I: Nôgaku no refdshi, Iwanami kôza, (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1987), pp. 86-89. Hereafter, referred to as Omote and Amano.

3Qmote and Amano, pp. 80-97.

39 The Tokugawa bakufu eventually granted official protection to five No troupes, namely Kanze, Kongo, Konparu, Hôshô, and Kita,4 giving fixed wages in the forms of allotment of land and rice. This was done following the example of Hideyoshi, who had first decided to give shogunal patronage to the original four No schools in 1592.5 in addition to their fixed wages, the troupes were given special wages for their performances. At the beginning of the Edo period (1603-1867), No enjoyed popularity in what is now the Kansai area. Kyoto was the center of literary art, and Osaka that of the economy.6 After the death of the first shogun, leyasu, the four troupes, Kanze, Kongo, Konparu, Hôshô, were moved to the capital city of the Tokugawa bakufu, Edo, or presentday Tokyo, which was to become the center of their performance activities. There they were allotted their own land. It was later in the beginning of the seventeenth century that the Kita troupe established independence as a school. Prior to that they had been a branch of the Kongô school. Under the wing of shogunal protection, Nô performers who belonged to these five troupes, came to be able to dedicate their lives solely to their art without worrying about daily sustenance. Also, some performers who originally did not belong to these major schools, joined them. For example, the Umewaka troupe of the Tanba region (central Kyoto prefecture) came to play the tsure (tritagonist) roles in the Kanze troupe performances. Some

4The founder of the Kita troupe, Kita Shichidayû I (1586-1653), began to perform as a member of the Kongo troupe at the end of the sixteenth century. His talent was favored by the shogun at his time, especially by the second Tokugawa shogun, Hidetada, and the following shogun, lemitsu. Eventually, the Kita troupe was established as independent in the middle of seventeenth century. For further discussion, see Omote and Amano, 1987. pp. 94-97.

5Qmote and Amano, pp. 84-85.

GOmote, 1979. p. 107.

40 continued to perform under the patronage of local feudal lords, and others maintained their independence. Membership in one of those schools guaranteed the benefit of strong patronage. From the perspective of the bakufu, this form of patronage amounted to concomitant control of not only the major schools, but also other Nô performers. In Benito Ortolani's words, during the Edo period (also known as the

Tokugawa period), "(w)hile kabuki and jôruri^ were gaining the enthusiastic support of the new middle class and the populace in the big cities, nôgaku^ completed its process of artistic stabilization under the patronage of the

Shogun, the feudal lords (daimyô), a great majority of the samurai, and a growing number of sophisticated commoners.This would seem to suggest that when Nô became the ceremonial entertainment of the bakufu, it was distanced from the general public. It is likely that exposure to the artistry of the performers under the patronage of the shogun was not readily available to all but a few. Even so, it would be inaccurate to assume that the general public therefore had no opportunity to participate in the appreciation of the art. When NÔ lost the patronage of the bakufu at the time of the Meiji Restoration in the mid-nineteenth century it still survived, even though the Tokugawa bakufu did not. If the art had been totally dependent upon by the

7Both kabuki and jôruri (at the present time also called bunraku), were first developed in the sixteenth century. The former is a popular theater entertainment consisting of actors' songs, dances, and various acting styles, and the latter, the puppet theater. These two gerures of entertainment competed for the same audience, mainly the city dwellers, and often borrowed the popular plays hrom each other.

SHere, another name for Nô. However, nôgaku generally indicates both nô and kyôgen.

9Benito Ortolani, The Japanese Theatre: From Shamanistic Ritual to Contemporary Pluralism, Revised ed., (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990), p. 103. Hereafter referred to as Ortolani.

41 bakufu, and distanced from the public, it should have disappeared with the fall of its sole patron. The reason why it did not, then, must lie somewhere outside of the bakufu.

1.2 NÔ Outside Shogunal Patronage One venue connecting the general public and Nô^o was the practice of utai (or, the chanting of Nô libretti).!! There is historical evidence, as Omote shows, that this practice has been a most effective means for the continuation of the art of Nô, especially in connecting the general public with the a r t.12 The widespread practice of Nô by amateur practitioners had made the general public's familiarity and acceptance of the art much easier when Nô suddenly lost its shogunal patronage and had to depend on other bases of support.

There are several reasons for the availability and popularity of utai throughout the historical development of Nô. Already by Zeami's time, it appears that the presentation of utai, separate from a complete Nô performance, had been an established practice. In Sarugaku dangi, there is a reference to such practice: "On occasions when a number of performers come together to chant in the presence of the nobility, the quality of the

!Oln addition to other scholars, Omote Akira supports this view. See Omote and Amano, pp.155-156.

! ! According to Omote Akira, "utai" can refer both to the text of Nô and chanting of a text. However, lately, it has come to refer exclusively to chanting, whereas "yôkyoku" came to be used for referring to a text. "Utai"may refer either to chanting that is done concurrently with a performer and a Nô musical ensemble, or when chanting is done independently (in this latter case it is called "suutai " or "plain chanting"). Omote Akira, Nôgakushi shinkô, (Tokyo: Wanya shoten, 1979), p. 278. Hereafter, referred to as Omote, 1979.

!2por further discussion, see "Utai kô," in Omote, 1979. pp. 278-303.

42 performance is of the greatest importance."i3 Such practices by the professional performers eventually spread to the spectators, many of whom also took up the practice of utai. By the end of the Muromachi period (1336- 1573), the practice was already in vogue, especially in urban areas primarily but not exclusively among the wealthy and intellectual elite. Also, a type of club called utai-kô, which consisted of non-professional performers who were fond of such practice, had already come into existence by then. According to Katagiri Noboru, some records from this time tell us of the bakufu officials, imperial court nobles, and townsmen together enjoying such utai practice.i4

Another popular variety of Nô in the Muromachi period was tesarugaku. This refers to Nô performances held by non-professional performers, or to those held by professionals who did not have formal affiliations with the officially sanctioned troupes. According to Nose Asaji, who based his judgment on actual records, tesarugaku consisted mainly of the latter. Some even performed at the imperial or shogunal court.is However, those non-professionals also prospered. As people enjoyed seeing performances, some started to participate in Nô practice themselves. Nose

13Rimer and Yamazaki, p. 210. For the original text, see NST, p. 284. There is also a more detailed example of such an occasion that Zeami encountered in the same section of Sarugaku dangi:

At a banquet in the home of a certain nobleman, Zeami was summoned; "Zeami, Zeami, come and sing for us," they cried, and when he had performed on command, as he had done so often before, he was complimented as follows: "As Zeami is always inwardly alert and prepared to perform, there is no reason for him to feel nervous or uneasy." l^Katagiri Noboru, "Edo no shomin seikatsu to Nô," in Omote Akira, ed. Nihon no kokoro, Nô (The hecirt of Japan, N ô) Bessatsu Taiyô 25 (Tokyo: Heibon sha, 1978), pp. 81-86. Katagiri mentions works such as Tokitsugu kyô ki and Oyudono no ue no nikki as his sources.

ISpor a detailed study of tesarugaku, see Nose Asaji, "Tesarugaku-kô," m Nôgaku genryûkô (Considerations on the origins of Nô) (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1938), p. 1093. According to N ose, the term, kosarugaku, is sometimes also used in place of tesarugaku. Hereafter referred to as Nose.

4 3 introduces variant forms of such tesarugaku which were popular at the time: those performed by members of the warrior class, those of imperial court nobles, those of priests, and those of the common people. 16 It is likely that various people first started practicing Nô for their own enjoyment, or for specific occasions such as the ritual festivals at shrines. However, as they became more drawn into the practice and as they received accolades and encouragement, some began to engage in two jobs simultaneously: their original profession and that of tesarugaku. Some even became full-time performers. In addition to these tesarugaku performers, so-called kosarugaku

{sarugaku by child performers) and nyôbo-sarugaku {sarugaku by wom en performers) also enjoyed some popularity.

The successes of these variations on tesarugaku demonstrate the deep infiltration of the art of Nô into Muromachi culture. Considering such developments, it is not surprising that even though Nô was officially confined within the walls of the shogunal court at the turn of sixteenth century, such restriction could not undo the familiarity that the public had already established with the art. Before the advent of the bakufu's control, the popularity of tesarugaku had evidently stimulated that of utai, and vice versa.

Ironically, after such control was in effect, utai probably had more potential flexibility in spreading its popularity, due to the less formal nature of its practice. Indeed, its popularity persisted, independent of the official role Nô played in the bakufu circles during the Edo period.

This independent popularity of utai across several classes of people was further enhanced with the development of printing techniques at the beginning of the Edo period. The publication of libretti for utai, called utai-

16see Nose, pp. 1092-1183.

4 4 bon (chant books), became much easier. It was during the Genroku period

(1688-1703) that the number of publications of utai-bon reached its peak.

Though a volume of utai-bon which listed two hundred yôkyoku (libretti for

No plays) was the only one available previously, in 1684 a volume of utai- bon with three hundred yôkyoku was published, followed by one of four hundred in 1689, and one of five hundred in 1698. Among the Kanze school alone (traditionally the largest of the five schools of Nô) three hundred extant

Edo variations of utai-bon survive today.17 Omote goes as far as to say that utai-bon were probably bestsellers throughout the Edo period.

There were also Nô performers who, often as their sole means of livelihood, specialized in teaching utai to eager disciples, especially among the townsmen class. Among the four classes into which the Tokugawa society was divided (namely, samurai, peasants, artisans and merchants), townsm en {chônin) refers to the latter two classes collectively. Contrary to samurai and peasants whose income depended on annual agricultural products, townsmen, able to ride the wave of economic growth, enjoyed relative cultural prosperity during the Edo period. Their support gave rise to many forms of popular arts.is

In addition to the popular practice of utai, the chanting of a paragraph or a stanza from a whole libretto, called koutai (lit. small chanting), became widespread as popular songs of the time, especially after the middle of the Edo period. By the end of the Edo period, more collections of koutai, called koutai-bon (lit. a collection or a book of koutai), were being published than

170m ote,l979. p. 297.

ISpor more on this topic, see Paul H. Varley, Japanese Culture, 3rd ed. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984), pp. 149-50. Hereafter referred to as Varley.

45 utai-bonA^ Koutai were also used as texts in terakoya, places where the children of merchants class learned basic reading and writing. Thus, admiration for utai, and familiarity with Nô libretti had spread not only among adults, but also among children. The knowledge of utai came to occupy a station in children's education on a par with the acquisition of skills in reading, writing and the abacus (the three major subjects for the basic education at terakoya). Thus, knowledge of and familiarity with utai had not only filtered across various social classes but also among different age groups. In Gerald Groemer's words: "Despite the efforts of the ruling class to monopolize the nô, this form of theatre, especially its musical and literary elements, remained surprisingly popular throughout the Edo period."20 As a side note, this may also be said for the present situation of Nô viewers, a large number of whom are amateur practitioners learning utai under the tutelage of professional performers. Though Omote does not treat the fact that a majority of Nô viewers in Japan are also amateur practitioners learningutai under professionals as a fully positive one, he does argue that we cannot ignore the importance of this practice for the survival of Nô throughout the centuries.2i On the other hand, the situation during the Edo period appears to reveal the attraction of Nô and its level of infiltration into many comers of society most clearly. It may be more accurate to say that utai had established its position as an independent source for pleasure and knowledge apart from its parent, the fullfledged Nô performance with actors, instrumentalists, and chanters on the stage. It was this familiarity of the public with utai that 1 SOmote and Amano, pp.155-6.

20GeraId Groemer, "Nô at the Crossroads: Commoner Performance During the Edo Period," Asian Theatre Journal 15.1: 117-41 (Spring 1998), p. 18. Hereafter referred to as Groemer.

21 Omote, 1979. p. 297-8.

46 prepared the art for survival when it was suddenly stripped of almost three hundred years of guaranteed patronage in the middle of the nineteenth century.

In addition to utai, there were several other factors during the time preceding the Meiji period (1868-1912), which contributed to connecting Nô with Edo audiences outside the confines of the shogunal circles in Edo. One example is the considerable number of avid supporters of Nô among the feudal lords {daimyô). While Nô was flourishing under the protection of the shogun, daimyô in the provinces also tried to enrich their domains culturally by the practice of Nô. Many daimyô made a habit of studying Nô libretti, practicing Nô dance, and playing musical instruments of Nô; many even kept their own professional p e r f o r m e r s .22

What is known as tsuji-nS (crossroads-nô)23 is another example of crossroads between Nô and popular audiences outside the walls of the shogunal coterie. It refers to the performances held for general audiences in open civic spaces, shrines, and Buddhist temples by Nô performers who did not belong to the established five troupes. Other occasions through which some members of the general public had the chance to see Nô performances during the Edo period included machiiri-nô (Nô held on castle grounds) and kanjin-nô (subscription-nô). The former refers to occasions held once or twice a year, whereupon as many as 5000 Edo townsmen were allowed to enter the shogun's palace in Edo to see Nô performances. They were allowed in on the first day of a program of several d a y s .2 4 Similar events were held 22por detailed accounts on the practice of Nô by daimyô, see "Chihô shohan no nôgaku" {Nôgaku in feudal domains) in Omote and Amano, pp. 293-328.

23por a detailed discussion of tuji-nô, see Groemer, pp. 117-141.

24Qmote and Amano, pp.151-6.

47 on. a somewhat smaller scale at the residences of the daimyô. Kanjin-nô, refers to the performances that were held by the performers, dfriginally to raise money for the building of temples, and in support of other projects. However, by the Edo period, the tendency was rather to secure economic profits or to further the reputation of the performers of certain troupes. Tickets were allotted to each section of a town and their purchase was mandatory. Kanjin-nô were held not only in Edo but also in Kyoto, Osaka and other localities. In addition, by the end of the Edo period and into the beginning of the Meiji period, a variety of other forms of Nô, such as Teriha kyôgen (a hybrid drama of Kabuki, Nô and Kyôgen), and Azum a nô (eastern nô, in other words, nô of the Edo region), were initiated by the combined force of producers and performers, with the intent to attract larger audiences.25

Thus, though the existence of formal shogunal patronage may suggest that the performances of Nô mainly catered to the samurai class, the general public had their own opportunities to witness performances. They had their own means to interweave the Nô libretti into their cultural practice, regardless of how different their circumstances were from those of the more privileged classes. Though the members of different social classes identified with different aspects of Nô, it was for a broad spectrum of the populace an integral part of urban culture in the Edo period. Again, in Groemer's w o r d s ; 2 6

25Groemer, pp. 129-133.

26Groemer, p. 133.

48 Demonstrating one's proficiency at nô implied good breeding, reason enough for many a townsperson to leam how to chant or dance. But nô for the commoners was more than tradition: it also functioned as a source of material that could be reworked into something more lively, something more immediately appealing to their own sensibilities.

It should not come as a surprise, then, that at the wake of the Meiji period, the Japanese general public were already accustomed to participating in the culture of Nô. It was not the exclusive property of the samurai class, suddenly freed for the general public's appreciation. On the contrary, Nô was already the cultural property of a broad popular constituency.

49 CHAPTER 2

EARLY CROSSCULTURAL ENCOUNTERS WITH NÔ

2.1 Western Encounters with Nô in Japan The earliest possible time that visitors from western countries could have encountered Nô must have been around the turn of the sixteenth century,! when Europeans began to visit. Also at that time the art enjoyed strong support and favor by the warriors then in power. Worthy of particular mention is Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who unified Japan under his military hegemony around 1590, and who was also known as an eager supporter and practitioner of both Nô and the tea ceremony. Not long before the unification of Japan by Hideyoshi, Japan had begun to establish relationships with European countries for the first time in its history. From the perspective of the historical development of Nô, this marks the final period of its evolution towards officially regulated shogunal protection. tFurukawa Hisashi, mentions that the earliest possible time that Westerners could have encountered Nô must have been before the turn of the sixteenth century. He further states that the report, made by Christian missionaries residing in Japan at that time, tells that a Nô performance was given as entertainment for a ceremony to mark the inauguration of a church building. However, he ends his statement saying that whether the performance in question was NÔ, or another religiously oriented drama is ambiguous. Furukawa bases this account on Nonomura Kaizô's Nôgaku kokinshû[1932). However, no other source of information is cited. Furukawa Hisashi, Meiji nôgakushi josetsu (Tokyo: Wanya shoten, 1969), p. 94. Hereafter, referred to as Furukawa.

50 It was in 1543 that the first Europeans trod on Japanese soil. By- accident, a small number of Portuguese survivors of a shipwreck drifted to Tanegashima, an island off the coast of southern Kyûshû. This incident was followed by the arrival of the first Christian missionary of Spanish origin. Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552), on the fifteenth of August, 1549, again to southern Kyûshû, this time to Kagoshima.2 He came with a group of Jesuit missionaries, under the patronage of King John in of Portugal.) Contrary to those first Portuguese visitors to Japan, Xavier came with a clear sense of purpose after learning about it, and developing a strong interest. He had met a Japanese man by the name of Anjirô in Malacca (a Portuguese colony on the Malaysian peninsula) sometime after 1545. Anjirô also had acted as an interpreter upon Xavier's arrival in Japan.4 In a letter dated 1549, Xavier wrote about Japan: "It seems that the Christian religion might prosper better there than in any other region of the Indies, since the people are of inquiring minds eager for enlightenment beyond any upon earth.") Though we do not know whether Xavier thought his supposition had been borne out by the time he left Japan for China in 1551, two years after his arrival, the active propagation of Christianity by missionaries in Japan which he set in motion lasted for almost a century after his visit. Xavier never succeeded in meeting with the shogun (the country's military leader), nor with the emperor of that time, as had been his aspiration. He was welcomed.

2Scott Wright, Japan Encountered: A Brief (and Highly-Selective) Survey of Famous Westerners in the Land of the Rising Sun (Lanham, New York, and London: University Press of America, 1996), p. 2. Hereafter referred to as Wright.

3Wright, p. 1.

4Wright, p. 2.

SRarold S. Williams, Foreigners in Mikadoland (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1963), p. 19.

51 however, by some local daimyô, mainly in Kyûshû. According to Scott Wright, by the time Xavier left Japan, he had succeeded in converting approximately two thousand people to the Christian faith. However, by the beginning of the seventeenth century, with the increase of missionary activity coming mainly from Portugal and Spain,^ the number of converts grew approximately to three hundred thousand, mainly in Kyûshû and the western end of Honshû, the main island of Japan.7 After the arrival of a Dutch fleet to Bungo (in present day Oita prefecture) in 1600, Tokugawa leyasu, who was to complete his struggle to unify Japan under his military hegemony three years later, selected two crew members from this fleet. Die Liefde, as his advisors on foreign diplomacy and trade. One was a mate of the fleet, Jan Joosten (1557?-1623), and the other a British pilot, WiUiam Adams (1564-1620), who later adopted the Japanese name of Miura Anjin and never went back to Britain. The Tokugawa bakufu (1603-1867), officially started to engage in trading with the Netherlands in 1609 and with Britain in 1613.8 It was also around this time that the burgeoning influence of the Christian faith and trading activity brought by missionaries captured the attention of the bakufu. In 1612, a severe order was issued prohibiting Christianity^ and forcing Japanese Christians to convert to Buddhism. Many

6The first Spanish fleet came to Hirado, Nagasaki, in 1584, thirty five years after the Portuguese. They also engaged in trading with Japan, as well as their missionary work.

^Wright, p. 4.

8lnoue Mitsusada, Sasahara Kazuo, and eight others, Shôsetsu nihonshi (Detailed explanation of Japanese history). Rev. ed. (Tokyo: Yaméikawa shuppansha, 1983), p. 171. Hereafter referred to as Shôsetsu nihonshi .

^Hideyoshi also issued a similar order to ban Christianity in 1587. However, the scale of its control was rather small.

52 missionaries and Japanese Christians who did not follow this order were eventually expelled, persecuted, or put to death. After a series of expulsion

orders issued to foreign visitors,io Japan's national seclusion policy was completed in 1639, cutting off almost all contact with the rest of the world. After the office for Dutch merchants was moved from HiradoU in 1641 to Dejima (a small man-made island built on reclaimed land off the shore of Nagasaki), Japanese trade and foreign relationships were Limited to the Netherlands, Korea (under the reign of the Li dynasty, 1392-1910)12 and China (under the reign of the Ming, 1368-1644, followed by that of the Qing, 1661-1911). The Netherlands and Britain were much more interested in promoting trade than engaging in missionary work, unlike Spain or Portugal. Thus, the bakufu, who wanted only the benefits of trading but not Christian influence, favored developing relationships with the Netherlands and Britain. However, Britain withdrew in 1623 after losing the trade competition over Japan to the Netherlands. The Netherlands' superior position in the region thus made trade with Japan less profitable for the British. An embargo was issued on Spain by the bakufu the following year in 1624, and one on

"• OSome of the major orders relating to the expulsion policy issued by the bakufu during this time are as follows: in 1624, prohibition of the entry of the Spanish fleet to Japan; in 1633, Japanese restricted from traveling overseas, except with express permission from the bakufu; in 1635, prohibition of Japanese from going overseas, and the order for Japanese residing abroad to return; in 1639, prohibition of the entry of the Portuguese fleet. Shôsetsu nihonshi, pp. 173-75. llHirado was established as an trading post by the Dutch in 1609. It is an island located off the northwest coast of what is now Nagasaki prefecture. The English also set up a trading post there in 1613. Edwin O. Reischauer, Japan: the Story of a Nation. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Publisher, 1970.) p.93. l^The relationship with Korea was maintained through the daimyô of the Tsushima (the island located east of Nagasaki and south of Korea) domain. Periodic Korean embassies were also sent to Edo.

53 Portugal in 1639. As a result, the Netherlands became the only Western nation that was allowed to maintain a trade relationship with Japan. Because Nô had received strong support from the ruling warriors of this time, it is not surprising that visitors from the West had opportunities to view performances. Moreover, considering the social, political and cultural position of the art of Nô during this period, it is reasonable to expect that there were many more Europeans who would have witnessed Nô performances than surviving accounts may prove. One of the earliest reports indicative of such contact comes from a Portuguese Christian missionary, Luis Frois (1532 - 1597), who arrived in Japan on July 6, 1563, at the age of thirty-one, and who died in Nagasaki at the age of sixty-five. During his thirty-four years in Japan, he saw the fall of the Ashikaga shogunate (1338 - 1573) marking the end of the Muromachi period, followed by the military takeover and attempted unification of Japan by Oda Nobunaga (1534-82). He also bore witness to the rise of Hideyoshi, and his order to banish the Jesuit missionaries from Japan in 1587.13 Frois left a detailed report on various aspects of life and culture that he experienced in Japan at that time. He is also credited as the first foreigner to write an account of Japanese history.14 In 1585, he published a work comparing European and Japanese culture; the following is excerpted from his discussion on theater: 15

^‘^Nihonshi: Furoisu vol. 1, Matsuda Kiichi and Kawasaki Momota, trans. and ed. (Tokyo: Chûo kôronsha, 1977), pp. 22-26. Frois stayed in Macao for three years from 1592 to 1595. Hereafter, referred to as Nihonshi.

14prois' Historia de lapam was not published during his lifetime. The latest entries to his manuscript are dated 1594. Nihonshi, p. 26.

ISTaken from Ury Eppstein, "The State Observed: Western Attitudes toward Japanese Theater," Monumenta Nipponica 48: 2 (Summer 1993), p. 148. The original is from Luis Frois, Kulturgegensatze Europe-Japan (1585): Tratado em que se content [...], MN Monograph 15 (1955), pp. 242-47. Hereafter, referred to as Eppstein.

54 In our theatres the masks cover the chin starting from the beard downward; the Japanese ones are so small that an actor who appears in a woman's role has his beard always protruding from below. Among us polyphonic music is sonorous and pleasant; since all sing together in one single voice in falsetto, Japanese music is the most horrible imaginable. Among us the music of the gentry usually sounds more pleasant than that of commoners; the music of the Japanese gentry is unendurable for us, while that of their sailors is pleasant.

According to Ury Eppstein's commentary on Frois' remarks, "his observations on theatre obviously refer to the Nô, although it is not mentioned by name," and "'music of the gentry', vague as it is, probably refers to the music of Nô, the theatre of the aristocracy. Eppstein adds:i7

How the Japanese audiences themselves respond to these performances does not occur to Frois and is not regarded as relevant. For him only one standard of theatrical plausibility or musical pleasantness exists and that is the European convention, to which everything has to conform to be considered acceptable.

Though Eppstein's statement is apt in terms of Frois's views on "the music of Japanese gentry" being judged by standards based on European convention, Eppstein ignores Frois's comments about the music of the sailors which he described as 'pleasant'. If we take Eppstein's statement that for Frois, "only one standard of theatrical plausibility or musical pleasantness exists and that is the European convention," it may also be noted that for Eppstein, only one relevant field of inquiry exists and that is the music of the gentry. It can be argued that Frois's single-minded standard found the music of Japanese non­ gentry more suitable to its own conventions than that of the gentry.

lôEppstein, p. 148. l^Eppstein, p. 148.

55 An interest in Nô was not among the primary motivations for Frois and for others who encountered it prior to the twentieth century. On the contrary, these early foreign witnesses to the art were accidental. The observations provide their direct and curious reactions towards an unknown form of theater, and it seems to have been unavoidable for them to make their judgments through the lens of their particular cultural identities and experiences. Another Portuguese, Joao Rodrigues (1561-1633) arrived in Japan in 1577 at the age of sixteen. He continued his study in Japan until being ordained as a priest in 1596 in Macao. He had to sail there because there was no bishop in Japan at that time. Rodrigues had excellent ability in the Japanese language and served as an interpreter between the foreign missionaries and Hideyoshi. Later he also visited Tokugawa leyasu.

Rodrigues's ability in language is demonstrated by his compilation of Arte da

Lingoa de lapam, "the first grammar of the Japanese language ever to be p u b l i s h e d . "18 He left Japan in 1610 for Macao after thirty-three years of residence. In his manuscript for Historia, written there in the 1620s, he describes the setting of a Nô performance:!^ On one side of the courtyard or patio in front of the principal room is an excellently fashioned wooden stage, on which they produce plays, comedies, farces and other things involving their music, and in this way they entertain the guests who watch the acting from the room. To one side of these stages there are houses where members of the cast put on their costumes, and there is a path along which they come out on to the stage, acting as they come. When such plays are performed, it is customary for the guests to send gifts of silver, silk robes or other valuable

18T?»s Island of [apon: Joao Rodrigues' Account of 16th-century Japan, trans. and ed. Michael S. J. Cooper, (Tokyo & New York; Kodansha International Ltd., 1973), p. 11-16. Hereafter, referred to as Rodrigues. l^Rodrigues, p. 97.

56 things to the actors at the end of each piece as a sign of their appreciation of the play or farce, or a musical instrument played by a person famous for his skill, for they earn their living in this way. The author comes with the others to the middle of the courtyard to receive the present; he bears it away with great reverence and signs of gratitude, and if it is a robe he carries it on his back. When plays are put on in a formal way, many people from outside are permitted to enter; the nobles are seated on the verandas and in the rooms, while the common folk sit on the ground of the courtyard on mats.

Though the word Nô is not mentioned in his description of "an excellently fashioned wooden stage," it is almost certain that his observations are of a Nô performance, especially considering that at this time Nô had established its place as the art of "the n o b l e s . " 2 0 Rodrigues's observations are striking for their capacity to describe without relying on European cultural traditions as a normative basis. Perhaps this is because the cultural identity he brought to Japan was not as fully formed, and his notions about what a theater stage, audience, and performers are Hke, may have been less fixed. Though little is known of his childhood, by the time he left for Japan he could not have been more than fourteen years old, since it took at least two years to travel from

Lisbon to Nagasaki at that time.21

An English merchant, Richard Cocks (1566-1624), in his late forties, arrived at Hirado in June 1613. According to Eppstein, Cocks writes about a performance of Nô in Hirado, in his diary dated October 31,1613, referring to it as a "Comoedie (or P l a y ) . " 2 2 He notes that the actors were "the Kings 20Rodrigues, pp. 94-5. This is part of a passage on "palaces" of the "great lords of the kingdom" (of Japan) in a chapter entitled"On Buildings."

2lRodrigues, p. 11.

22Eppstein, p. 150. The original information is from Cyril Wild, ed., Purchas His Filgrimes to Japan, (Kobe, Thompson & London, Kegan Paul, 1939), pp. 132,134,199 & 200; Diary Kept by the Head of the English Factory in Japan: Diary of Richard Cocks, 1615-1622 (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shiryô Hensanjo, 1979, 2), p. 79.

57 themselves, with the greatest Noblemen and Princes;" and the matter was "of the valiant deeds of their Ancestors, from the beginning of their Kingdome or Common-wealth, untül this present, with much mirth mixed among, to give the common people content. "23 He then gives accounts of the musical instruments for a Nô performance, namely, ôtsuzumi (hip drum), kotsuzum i

(shoulder drum), taiko (stick drum), and nôkan (flute). He summarizes his reaction to the performance as f o U o w s : 2 4

Their acting Musique and singing (as also their Poetry) is very harsh to us [...] and not pleasant to our hearing. [...] I never saw Play wherein I noted so much, for I see their policie is great in doing thereof, and quite contrary to our Comoedies in Christendome, ours being but dumbe shewes, and this the truth it selfe, acted by the Kings themselves, to keep in perpetuall remembrance their affaires.

Contrary to Frois, Cocks responses favorably to the theme and the involvement of Kings and the Noblemen in the performance of a play, even though he finds both music and poetry "harsh." Both Cocks and Frois were drawn to differences between "our theater" and "their theater," with Cocks showing favor to the latter and Frois to the former.

23Eppstein, p. 150.

24Eppstein, p. 150.

58 2.2 Japan's Premodem Cultural Relations with China

Tsurukame (The Crane and the Tortoise)25 is an example of a No play set in China. At the beginning of the play, a Kyôgen performer26 comes out as an official who serves the sixth emperor of the Tang dynasty (618-907),

Gensô (685-762, Xuanzong in Chinese). The official praises the peaceful reign of Gensô and announces that the emperor is going to the Gekkyû (Moon) Palace. After the entrance of the emperor, glorious praise for his reign and his palace continues, followed by a celebratory dance by the Crane and Tortoise — both of which are symbols of longevity. What is a Chinese emperor doing in a No play, and how has this device been perceived by Japanese audiences? In contrast to Japan's relationship with Western countries, Sino- Japanese relations go back at least two thousand years. In order to look into Chinese responses to No theater at the turn of the twentieth century (and to address the questions above), it may be necessary to understand something about the cultural relations between China and Japan prior to the time of modernization. Responses of Chinese visitors toward Japanese theater and culture during the time in question are, in part, a product of the ties that had historically bound the two countries. To look at these dynamics, a brief historical overview is needed. As is widely known, the first historical record written about Japan is not in Japanese but in Chinese, in the dynastic histories of China. InHan shu

{Kansho in Japanese;The H istoiy of the Former Han dynasty in English) ZSpor the entire text of Tsurukame, see Yôkyoku shû (A collection of No texts), ed. Koyama Hiroshi, Sato Kikuo, and Sato Kerüchirô. Nihon koten bungaku zenshû 33 (Tokyo: Shôgaku kan, 1973), pp. 123-26. Hereafter referred to as NKBZ 33.

26Here, the role played by the Kyôgen performer is called ai. In the play Tsurukame, theaz comes out at the beginning of the play and tells the audience what is going to happen.

59 compiled in the first centtiry, there is a reference to the land of Wo, as Japan was called by the Chinese at this time (from the Japanese 'Wa'). It describes the Wo as consisting of hundreds of small countries. Also, we know from

Han shu and Hou-Han shu {Gokansho in Japanese, or, in English, The

History of the Later Han dynasty), that the Wo sent regular tributes and missions to China during the first and second centuries. Records regarding

Japan are included in the section ofHou-Han shu entitled "Dong-yi zhuan" (Account of the Eastern barbarians).27

The earliest record of the first Chinese coming to Japan traces back even a couple hundred years earlier than the above. It is also in Chinese. This is the Shiji compiled by the famous historian of the Former Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-8 A.D.), Sima Qian (c. 145-c. 86 B.C.). According to an account from 219 B.C., Xu Fu, a Daoist alchemist, came to Japan to look for the way to overcome mortality. In Joshua Fogel's description of the passage: "Xu Fu memorialized Qin Shihuang (259-210 B.C.), the first emperor of a unified Chinese empire, as follows; 'There live immortals on the Three Spirit-Islands in the sea, I should like to lead a group of purified young boys and girls and seek out the elixir of life there.' The emperor believed him and sent Xu Fu on his m ission."28 Among the places to which Xu Fu traveled was Japan. He was unsuccessful in finding such an elixir, but his travel remains as a monument of the earliest reliable record regarding the Sino-Japanese encounter. Xu Fu's story is the first, but certainly not the last. Over the centuries, many have taken risks to cross the Japan Sea. Some did so on religious ^"^Shosetsu nihonshi, p. 19.

28joshua A. Fogel,77ie Literature of Travel in the Japanese Rediscovery of China: 1862-1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), p. 14. Hereafter referred to as Fogel.

60 missions, others for the purpose of gaining military advantage; still others crossed for trade purposes, or to avoid problems at home. As a result of Japanese military advances on the southern part of Korea late in the fourth century, Japan was exposed extensively to Chinese and Korean influences as they crossed the Korean peninsula. By the seventh century, the Japanese court was already staffed with a great number of Chinese and Korean immigrants to assist in the transmission of important technologies, governmental systems, scholarship, etc., to Japan. These included weaving, metal crafts, porcelain manufacture, architecture, and agricultural methods. It was also those Chinese and Korean immigrants who, using the Chinese written language, kept court records and drew up official documents. This was because Japan did not have its own writing system at that time, and those

Japanese who could compose well in Chinese characters, orkanji, were still few. In 607, Japan started sending official embassies to the Sui dynasty (581- 618); m issions continued during the Tang dynasty (618-907). Up until 894,29 over twenty embassies were carried out. Chinese influence by the end of this period of over two hundred years had penetrated many aspects of Japanese life. Again in FogeTs words, "At no time in Japan's subsequent history has the country attempted to emulate China with such assiduousness."30 He also points out: "In the early centuries of Sino-Japanese contact, China was the

29rhis mission was only scheduled, eventually ending up in cancellation.

SOpogel, p. 21.

61 fount of everything the Japanese elite wanted to emulate to make itself similarly strong, glorious, and, of course, literate."3i Even after official embassies ceased in 894, members of the Japanese Buddhist clergy continued to cross the ocean to study with Chinese masters. Trade between the two countries also continued, missions often combining more than one goal. Some Chinese took great physical risk to come to Japan, such as Ganjin (In Chinese, Jianzhen, 688-763) who, despite five failed attempts to cross the ocean and the loss of his eyesight, did not give up his original intention of teaching Buddhist precepts to the Japanese. On the whole, the currents of cultural transmission continued to be rather unidirectional up to the end of the nineteenth century: that is, largely they flowed from China eastward to Japan. Sino-Japan interaction continued through trade and the traffic of Buddhist monks during the Song dynasty (968-1279) and the period of the Mongol rule (1279-1368) of China. It was during the time of the Ashikaga shogunate in Japan (1336-1573) that the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) of China granted the third Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), a license for official trade and the status of a tributary state, which Japan was to honor by sending embassies to the Ming court. Monks in Japan also kept closely engaged with China through their studies, and often served as mediators during exchanges between the two governments. Private (and sometimes illegal) trade carried out by locally based authorities in both countries also flourished throughout this period.

Also in the Ming period Japanese pirates called zvokou {zoakô in Japanese) looted the China coast. Mainly in order to secure a way to prevent

31 Fogel, p. xiii.

62 the activities of wokou, the Ming government initiated a policy of studying about Japan, a move unprecedented in relations between the two countries.3Z Though accurate numbers are not extant, there were more than ten books written in Chinese regarding the conditions of Japan at that time. According to Shi Xiaojun, some of the books, such as Ribenkao written by Li Yangong, and Hao Jie orRiben yijian by Zheng Shungong, refer not only to geography, the tax system, imperial lineage, history, and customs, but also to Japanese specialty products, and other things of which Japanese people were fond.33 Around this time the Chinese also devised a system of Chinese characters

(jiyu) for transposing Japanese words into Chinese phonology. This system was used to aid their understanding of the Japanese language, which had come to be recognized as important because of the wokou problem and increased interaction with Japanese ing e n e r a l.3 4

Chinese interest in Japan waned in the seventeenth century. Both the Tokugawa bakufu and the Qing court had rather strict policies on foreign relations, prohibiting virtually all overseas travel by their citizens. Thus, starting in the middle of the seventeenth century, the interaction between the two nations was also under strict scrutiny by both governments. The interaction was mainly restricted to Chinese vessels coming to the port at Nagasaki in Kyûshû.

32Shi Xiaojun, Zhongri lianggiio xianghu renshi de bianqian (Vicissitude in mutual understanding between China and Japan) (Tciipei: Taiwan shangwu yinshu guan, 1993), p. 81. Hereafter referred to as Shi Xiaojun.

33shi Xiaojun, p. 82.

34shi Xiaojun lists some examples of how jiyu was used to pronounce Japanese words. Shi Xiaojun, p. 85.

63 It was over two centuries later, in 1862, that the first official mission to China was sent by the Tokugawa bakufu. The purpose of the mission was to investigate the state of international affairs on the basis of the Chinese example, and to see what kind of impact the Opium War (1840-42) and the opening of China to the West had had. After such a long hiatus from ocean navigation, Japan did not have a vessel sufficiently sturdy to withstand such a voyage, nor was there the technology to build one; therefore, the Tokugawa bakufu purchased a British vessel and hired its captain for the trip .35 in terms of China's interest or knowledge about Japan during this period, again in the words of Shi Xiaojun, "overall, it stayed at the level of the Ming period, or even regressed. "36

This brief survey demonstrates how Chinese cultural influence, whether received enthusiastically or not,37 had been a recurrent force in the growth of Japanese culture. Not only had the cultural achievements of China nourished Japan, but Japan also absorbed information regarding other parts of

35The vessel was named Senzaimaru. For a detailed description of the voyage of Senzaimaru, see Fogel, "The Voyage of the 'Senzaimaru'," pp. 46-57.

36Shi Xiaojun, p. 86.

37There were times in the evolution of Japanese culture that Chinese influence became a catalyst which obliged Japanese cultural leaders to avoid or repel things Chinese. This was due to the desire on the part of Japanese cultural leaders to create culture properties of their own, free from Chinese influence. One such example is the evolution of a distinctively Japanese culture cis seen in the flourishing of the Heian Court (794-1192) and its relation to the discontinuance of embassies to China in the ninth century. Though early Heian Japan assiduously borrowed and imitated Chinese culture, by the ninth century this China craze began to wane as Japan started to look inward for sources of cultural growth. A more recent example is the rise of kokugakuha (schools of national learning) in the eighteenth century, which claimed Japan's superiority over China while trying to isolate that which is essentially Japanese, independent of Chinese influence. The scholars ofkokugakuha, in search of purely Japanese cultural properties, elevated what was considered to be pure Japanese literature, rejecting that which had been introduced from or via China over the previous millenia, inclusive of Buddhism and Confucianism. For more on this topic, see David Pollack, The Fracture of Meaning: Japan's Synthesis of China from the Eighth through the Eighteenth Centuries (Princeton University Press, 1986).

64 the world through the window of China. Indeed, it was under such circumstances that cultural influences kept running predominantly from China to Japan. Perhaps it is not surprising then that, before modernization in both China and Japan, descriptions of Chinese observations of No theater comparable to those left by European visitors, are extremely hard to locate. When we consider the much longer and much closer interaction between China and Japan, as compared with that between Japan and the West, this scarcity of Chinese accounts of Japanese theater seems mysterious. If, however, we take into account this prolonged imbalance in the cultural exchange, China's lack of interest in Japanese cultural affairs may be more understandable. China insisted on maintaining a tributary system (in which China, as 'middle kingdom' expected supplication from foreign embassies) in their relations with other countries until it became impossible due to the rejections of such a policy on the part of those countries. This was particularly true with regard to the Japanese cultural relationship with China prior to the nineteenth century. Given this imbalance in the cultural exchange between the two nations, the existence of evidence of Japanese interest in China and things Chinese is to be expected. If we seek examples from No plays, there are countless cultural elements and linguistic expressions cited from Chinese literature and history. Allusion to Chinese sources was one way to lend authority to one's own composition in Japanese. As Nogami Toyoichirô states: "In the past, China had been respected as a more advanced country than Japan, and Japanese credited all cultural prototypes to China. Similarly, the founders of No were not at all free from this traditional appraisal. When

65 they looked for sources on important matters, they made sure never to forget to cite examples from Chinese history. "38 Among over two hundred No plays currently performed, twenty-two are set in various places in C hina.39 With the exception of four plays whose time frames are unspecified, eighteen plays are set during or prior to the Song dynasty (the thirteenth century): six in the Tang period, four in the Former Han; three in the Qin period (221-206 B.C.); another three in the period between the Later Han (25-220) and the beginning of the Sui; and two between the end of the Tang and the beginning of the Song periods. For the majority of these plays derived from Chinese history (fifteen out of twenty-two), we cannot tell the date of creation, since we do not know who composed them. However, the importance of the Chinese culture in the No repertory is demonstrated in that more than one tenth of the currently performed plays derive from Chinese history. Furthermore, there are numerous examples of No plays which contain sources alluding to Chinese materials, without professing to be about China.

In the first part of Fûshikaden, the earliest of his critical writings, Zeami refers to nine role types that are suitable for imitation. They are the

38Nogami Toyoichirô, No no saisei (The rebirth of N6) (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1935), p. 113.

39Nakamura Hachirô, Nd: chûgoku mono no butai to rekishi (No: background and history of the plays with Chinese origins) (Tokyo: Nôgaku shorin, 1987), p. 8. Hereafter referred to as Nakamura Hachirô. Nakamura lists twenty-two plays: Kanyôkyü (Kanyô Palace), Seiôbo {The Queen Mother of the West), Tôbôsaku (Tôbôsaku), Tenko {The Heaven Drum), Tsurukame {The Crane and the Tortoise), Kôtei {The Emperor), Shôki {Shôki), Shôjô {The Elf), Taihei shôjô {Taihei shôjô), Sanshô {The Three Sages), Kiku jidô {Kiku jido), Makura jidô {Makura jidô), Chôryô {Chôryô), Kôu {Kôu), Shôkun {Shôkun), fôintan {Kantan), Shakkyô {The Stone Bridge), Bashô {The Palm Tree), Kappo {Kappo), Ryûko {The Dragon and the Tiger), Yôkihi {Yôkihi), Daihannya {Daihannya). He adds that though Daihannya is not one of the genkôkyoku (plays common in the present day repertory), he counts it among them. This is because the play was restored and performed by Umewaka Toshiteru in 1983 after five hundred and fifty one years, and since then the Umewaka school has performed it often.

66 Woman, the Old man, the Unmasked actor, the Mad person, the Priest, the Warrior, the God, the Demon and the Chinese person. These role types were probably inherited from his father Kan'ami and his predecessors. Zeami describes the Chinese role: "in the case of Chinese style where generally you have no means of giving an exact representation, you should act in a manner different from that of ordinary people, and then this will seem to the audience to be vaguely Chinese, and, therefore your performance will be exactly C h i n e s e . "40 What Zeami had in mind for the performance of Chinese roles, as for the other roles, was not a detailed imitation of the subject the performer was representing. Rather, by suggesting a mysterious quality in the character a performer could fire the imagination of the spectator. For instance, he refers to "a difference of degree of exact imitation": "(Y)ou must imitate as minutely as possible the various types of people of high rank as well as artistic pursuits. But in regard to country people and rustics, their humble pursuits ought not to be imitated too minutely."4i This raises the question: if the aim was not exact representation, then how could the Chinese style be differentiated from other styles, particularly in terms of its artistic quality? The inclusion of Chinese characters, settings and poetic allusions was certain to have evoked a sense of wonder in Zeami's audience. Indeed, the grandeur and imposing descriptions of historical backgrounds are recurring elements in these plays, in addition to their foreign and mysterious qualities.

The majestic description of nature as seen in Shakkyô, Ryûko and Kikujidô, 40Shidehara and Whitehouse 1, p. 212, sic. Rimer and Yamazaki translate this passage as follows: "...there is no way truly to copy the style, and so such a slight change in gesture will add something of the Chinese flavor and can give the spectators an appropriate sensation." Rimer and Yamazaki, p. 17. For the original text, see NST, pp. 26-27.

41Shidehara and Whitehouse 1, p. 218. For the original text, see NST, p. 20.

6 7 and the magnificent expressions used to describe palaces in Kanyôkyü,

Tsurukame, and Kantan, are some examples. In Nakamura Hachirô's words, contrary to Chinese plays: "In the description of imperial courts, palaces, warrior's houses, shrines and temples in No plays set in Japan, such magnificence or splendidness cannot be found; houses, often used as settings, are especially lonesome, wretched, and shabby looking, like those of straw, reeds, or thatched with bush clover. "42

It is also possible, however, that the glorious descriptions of palaces, celebratory atmospheres, and the admiration for the current emperor shown in some plays with Chinese backgrounds under certain circumstances may even evoke a peace of mind bom of Japanese nationalist sentiment.

Kanyôkyü and Tsurukame are examples. By borrowing the magnificent expressions associated with China, these plays may imply the glorification of the current reign within Japan.

For an example we may return to Tsurukame, the opening of which is described earlier. The Chinese emperor who makes an appearance is Gensô (685-762, Xuanzong in Chinese). His reign, the sixth of the Tang dynasty (618- 907), was well regarded as one of the most prosperous. In the main body of the play, however, the name, Gensô, is not mentioned. An audience is thus invited to reflect upon the glorious reign of any emperor, including one nearer to home. Thus, the glorification of the emperor reign in the play Tsurukame may indirectly suggest that of the Japanese emperor. The Chinese allusions at the beginning of the play only add to the intensity of the exaltation.

42Nakamura Hachirô, p. 189.

68 In addition to the above mentioned twenty-two plays, there are several

other plays which treat Chinese characters, or derive from Chinese

influences, such as Hakurakuten, Genjô, and Zegai. These are plays which are set in Japan, but in which Chinese characters appear or Chinese influence plays an important part. These plays express the triumph of Japanese cultural superiority over Chinese counterparts, and thus can be taken as nationalistic

plays. For example, in Hakurakuten, a great poet of the Tang period, Bai Juyi (or Hakukyoi or Hakurakuten in Japanese, 772-849), comes to Japan to check the wisdom of the Japanese. In Japan, he is told that not only human beings but all living things compose poetry, and is sent back to China on the wind

produced by the dances of several Japaneseg o d s .4 3 In Zegai, though Japan is described as "a small country like a millet seed located in a very remote

r e g i o n , "44 a Chinese long-nosed goblin (tengu) who comes to disturb the Buddhist teachings, ends up leaving Japan exhausted due to the strong power of the gods that protect Japan. Plays such as these reflect a blend of myriad concerns: on the one hand, pride in Japan's achievement, and on the other, a conscious awareness of the grandeur of Chinese culture and its influence on Japan. As mentioned before, China, as the great cultural father, had not paid serious attention to Japanese cultural achievements until the advent of modernization. Again, when we consider the relationship which had been established between these two countries before the nineteenth century, the

43por the entire text of Hakurakuten, see Yôkyoku shû (Collection of No texts), ed. Yokomichi Mario and Omote Akira, vol. 2, Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 41 (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1963), pp. 305-308. Hereafter referred to as NKBT 41.

44The text of Zegai is in Yôkyoku shû 2 (Collection of Noh texts), ed. Koyama Hiroshi, Sato Kikuo, and Sato Kerüchirô, Nihon koten bungaku zenshû 34 (Tokyo: Shôgaku kan, 1973), pp. 465-473. This quotation is from p. 464. Hereafter referred to as NKBZ 34.

69 unidirectional imbalance of cultural borrowing between them seems understandable. The effects that modernization had on changing the relationship between the two countries and the mutual impact that such a change had on their perception of the art of No are themes that will be investigated in the chapter ahead.

2.3 Summary

Remarks by Western visitors to Japan suggest that they largely viewed No against the stencil of their own culture. Their responses to No are an extension of such a view. Early witnesses to No left reports on what they encountered as observers. Their curiosity did not take them beyond the role of observers or inspire them to engage in more direct participation in the art, as was the case with later witnesses. Confining themselves to such a role, they categorized what they experienced in Japan as "theirs" in contrast to what they were accustomed to defining as "ours." Early visitors to Japan recognized No as examples of theater, but at the same time the gap that lay between what they experienced in viewing No and what they were accustomed to in their home country impelled them to create interpretive strategies for understanding what they witnessed abroad. In the case of Chinese visitors, it is probably due to the cultural power relationship between China and Japan that we find numerous accounts of writings about China by Japanese visitors, but very few Chinese writings about Japan. On one hand, China played the role of cultural parent, and scientific master to Japan's child/disciple. Hence, Japanese who crossed the ocean were primarily learners of the many aspects of China's advanced

70 culture. As shown above, allusions to Chinese sources, such as its literature and its history, are scattered throughout No libretti. Such a nod to the cultural father lent a certain credible authority to compositions in Japanese. It was only after Japan launched its modernization process that China began to regard Japan as a model which could benefit China in its further development. The number of records left by Western visitors also increased during that time, showing much variety of response in their viewing of No. Exploration of such responses will be the topic of discussion m the chapters ahead.

71 Part n

Meiji Modernization and the Struggle for New Patrons: The Second Turning Point CHAPTERS

DISSOLUTION OF THE TOKUGAWA BAKUFU AND ITS PATRONAGE

3.1 The Beginning of the Meiji Period In considering the state of No during the time of the modernization of Japan, it is important to look briefly at the transitional period leading up to the Meiji Restoration; how Japan's modernization began and what the goals of modernization were. The arrival of Commodore Mathew Perry of the United States with four black ships in Uraga at Edo bay in July 1853 marked an abrupt ending to the national seclusion policy which had been in place in Japan for the preceding two centuries. The seclusion policy had been ordered by the Tokugawa bakufu, which sought more complete control over the nation as of the late 1660s, and lasted until the arrival of Perry. Perry was sent by President Millard Fillmore to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with Japan, and to pressure Japan to relax or abolish those foreign policies which had prevented such relations. Perry returned to Japan the following year, February 1854, accompanied with a larger force of seven ships. On March 31 of that year, the first official relationship between Japan and the United States was formalized with the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, according to

73 which an exchange of consulates was established.! The United States received most-favored nation status, a provision which promised that any benefit acquired by any other nation would automatically apply to it. Japan also opened the ports of Hakodate and Shimoda to American ships for refuge, aid, and supplies.2

In 1856, Townsend Harris, the first American counsel, came to Japan, and in 1858, he succeeded in negotiating with Japan to establish commercial ties. The resulting document promised extra-territorial rights for the United States. The treaty allowed administration of U.S. law in trials of its nationals for crimes committed on Japanese soil; free trade at several Japanese ports; and fixed tariffs for Japan, which could not be changed except with both parties' consent. For Harris, this success in securing unequal treaty provisions was made possible in part by the political climate in the aftermath of the

Arrow War (Anglo-French War with China, 1856-60), and finally China's acceptance of Anglo-French terms at Tianjin. The Tokugawa bakufu feared that Japan might become the next target, and Harris also threatened Japan on this point. Thus, in spite of domestic opposition to accept such unequal provisions, the bakufu signed the treaty under the implied threat from overseas. Soon after, other Western powers such as Britain, France, Holland and Russia also secured almost identical diplomatic terms with Japan. Domestic opposition to such treaties was widespread, and consequently, doubt and mistrust towards the leadership of the Tokugawa bakufu, more specifically, towards their handling of foreign affairs, was

!77ie Japan Expedition of Commodore M. C. Perry, ed. Yokohama Archives of History (Yokohama: Yokohama Archives of History, 1982), p. 2.

2W. G. Beasley, Japan Encounters the Barbarian: Japanese Travelers in America and Europe (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), p. 37.

74 engendered among the populace. Some of the earliest and most vociferous opposition was expressed by the samurai from the domains of Western Japan, such as Satsuma, Chôshû (present Kagoshima and Yamaguchi prefectures respectively) and others. Over the following years, their cry for the overthrow of the Tokugawa bakufu and for the banishment of foreigners from Japanese land, was expressed vividly in a popular slogan of that time,

"sonnô-jôi" (Revere the Emperor! Oust the Barbarians!). The final years of the Edo period (1603-1867) bore witness to incessant confrontations between the shogunate and its opposition. Gradually, a coalition of those opposed to shogunal rule convened in Kyoto, the location of the imperial court, and succeeded in defeating the shogunal forces. The Tokugawa shogun restored administrative authority to Emperor Meiji (1852-1912) who in 1867, at the age of fifteen, assumed the throne, marking the beginning of the modem era in Japan. During the early years of the Meiji period (1868-1911), the new government engaged in radical societal reforms, including the establishment of prefectures in place of feudal domains for the regional centralization of pow er in 1871 (Meiji 4); the abolition of the samurai class and the promotion of the basic equality of all people also in 1871; in 1870, the implementation of policies advocating the unity of religion and politics based on Shinto; and the establishment of Conscription Law for all citizens in 1873. For those who had enjoyed the privileges of the rigid class system of the Edo period, especially for those belonging to the samurai class, these social changes meant a threat to their most basic means of survival.

75 One ex-retainer describes the ruins of the city of Tokyo right after the Meiji Restoration:^ Where in the recent past a great capital stood, wild plants grow thick today; decorations fall from city walls, city gates are turned into a nest for beggars and for those even worse dian beggars; truly the situation has changed to a degree unbearable even to look at for an ex-retainer. As for retainers, their children, servants whose masters had lost their domains, and those who suffered from hunger and thirst, there are no fewer than 370,000 or 380,000 in number. Because of this, 300,000 merchants have ceased production. At night, robbery is rampant, innocent victims, young and old, lie dead or dying on the streets, while those with more vigor gather around neighboring districts and thieve. It is truly unbearable to see and to hear. If we pass another couple of months like this, it will be comparable to throwing people into water and fire.

After the Meiji Restoration, those ex-retainers who had enjoyed several social and economic privileges, including an allowance given to them on a regular basis, suddenly were deprived of their income and had to find new means of survival. Facing difficulty, they dabbled in all sorts of professions, some starting new businesses, others attempting to engage in farming and manufacturing. However, many failed in their new ventures and came to ruin. During the rapid and radical social changes of the early years of the Meiji period, the Meiji leaders were fully aware that in order to withdraw the unequal treaty provisions, to avoid future threats to the nation, and to be on equal footing with Western imperial powers, modernization was inevitable. So was the establishment of a strong military force, as expressed in the governmental slogan of "fukoku-Ja/ôhei" (Enrich the country and strengthen its military). The new goverrunent was also very progressive in the adoption 3lkenouchi Nobuhiro, Nôgaku SeisuUd: Tokyo no Nd (An Account of the Ups and Downs of the Art of No: No in Tokyo), vol. 2 (Tokyo: Nôgakukai, 1926), pp. 2-3. Hereafter referred to as Ikenouchi.

76 of Western thought, study, and many other aspects of human lives, in order to modernize Japanese society. This early trend in Meiji society, which was called "bunmei-kaika" (civilization and enlightenment), reflected the social conditions of that time. One familiar example of over-Westemization was the construction of a Westem-style building, called the Rokumeikan, in 1883 (Meiji 16), built for the express purpose of entertaining foreign dignitaries through dance parties and other entertainments. Such entertainments provided "the most conspicuous examples of how ludicrously even high-ranking Japanese could behave in their desire to prove to Westerners that they were civilized and knew the social graces. "4 The ulterior motive for these highly committed attitudes to the acquisition of what was regarded as civilized Western behavior was a reflection of the national desire of that time for the revision of unequal treaties, i.e., to try to show that the Japanese were advanced enough to behave like Westerners. Nevertheless, as a result of their activities in the Rokumeikan, Prime Minister Itô Hirohumi and other high officials were dubbed "the dancing cabinet" by many of their countrymen.5 But inasmuch as the pursuit of "Western civilization and enlightenment" had become a national obsession, examples of such attitudes among the general public are

4Paul H. Varley, Japanese Culture. 3rd ed. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1984), p. 216.

5lbid.

77 also not at all hard to find. Kanagaki Robun's "Aguranabe" (The beefeater) written in 1871 characterizes the Japanese encounter with a staple of the Western diet. Kanagaki describes a conversation held between two diners in a restaurant:^

Excuse me, but beef is certainly a most delicious thing, isn't it? Once you get accustomed to its taste, you can never go back to deer or wild boar again. I wonder why we in Japan haven't eaten such a clean thing before? For over 1620 - or is it 1630 - years people in the West have been eating huge quantities of beef. [...] We really should be grateful that even people like ourselves can now eat beef, thanks to the fact that Japan is steadily becoming a truly civilized country. Of course, there are some unenlightened boors who cling to their barbaric superstitions and say that eating meat defiles you so much that you can't pray any more before Buddha and the gods. [...] In the West they're free of superstitions. There it's the custom to do everything scientifically, and that's why they've invented amazing things like the steamship and the steam engine.

3.2 No Performers and their Social Backgrounds As noted in Chapter Two, No had been under the financial umbrella of the bakufu during the Tokugawa period. According to statistics from 1783, recorded by Matsui Keijirô in Tenmei sannen onyakusha bungen chô, three hundred and twenty-four No performers enjoyed shogunal patronage.7 By 1867, there were altogether two hundred and twenty-six performers backed by such patronage.8 At the start of the Meiji Restoration, performers of the five No schools were abruptly cut off from the remuneration they had received from the bakufu, and promises formerly bestowed on them were also ^Kanagaki Robun, "The Beefeater," in Donald Keen, ed. Modem Japanese Literature (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1956), pp. 31-33.

70m ote and Amano, p. 139.

Spurukawa, p. 6.

78 dissolved. Considering this, it is not difficult to imagine the hardships that performers went through during this sudden crisis that not only robbed them of an immediate source of income, but also threatened the future of the art. For NÔ performers, who had been protected by the Tokugawa system of administration, much in the fashion of the ex-retainers described above, this change in social conditions also meant finding new means of survival. Indeed most of them had to seek other lines of work. No longer assured of patronage, no longer detached firom the fiscal realities confronting them, many were forced to abandon the art altogether. For example, Kanze Kiyokado (1867-1911), who at the outset of the Meiji period was two years of age, and the prospective twenty-third head of the Kanze school, described the situation that his family faced during the disorders of the early Meiji period. As the twenty-second head of the Kanze school, Kiyokado's father, Kanze Kiyotaka (1836-88), was at the head of the list of all five No schools which served the Tokugawa shogunate:^ Though I knew nothing about it (since it happened right after I was bom), for the head of Kanze the blow caused by the restoration was truly tremendous; and thus the house and the property in Yumi-chô were returned (to the new government) and we retired to the Kameido area for a while. Because our house owes a deep obligation to the Tokugawa family, with the conviction that we should forever be following their ups and downs — and despite many people trying to stop us — in the second year of Meiji, we moved to Shizuoka, following the path of the Tokugawa family.

^Ikenouchi, pp. 12-13. The original is in Nôgaku (Meiji 40.1).

79 It is apparent that for those who were used to enjoying all the privileges that the shogunal protection provided, the sudden changes in social climate and the concomitant demotion in their life style were often more than they could bear. Again, Kanze Kiyokado's recollection describes the situation of that time vividly, "because those who originally lived extravagantly and who did not even know how to count money now were forced to survive on a salary as meager as snot, [for such people, living on a budget] was, like shaving dried bonito, it just kept getting smaller."io The source of the meager salary that Kanze refers to merits some explanation. For the purpose of the centralization of power, a policy known as hanseki-hôkan (the restoration of feudal domains and family registers) was implemented in 1869, which effectively restored old domains and registered citizens with the new government. Upon its enforcement, the title of kazoku (the nobility) was given to former imperial court nobles and feudal lords, the title of shizoku , to the former samurai, and all the other people were known as heimin (common people). Even after the Meiji Restoration, those who belonged to kazoku and shizoku, continued to receive certain remunerations from the new government, according to former rank — though decreased greatly in amount. No performers of the five No schools that served the Tokugawa bakufu were also among those who received such remuneration. For instance, before the Restoration, Kanze Tetsunojô, who belonged to a branch family of the Kanze school, received a stipend of sixty-eight koku when he succeeded to the leadership of the house in 1859. After the

Restoration, it was reduced to sixteen koku by the new Meiji government.

About one koku of rice is equal to the amount of consumption for one person lOlbid., p.l3. The original is in Nôgaku (Meiji 40. 1).

80 per year; thus, Tetsimojô's stipend was equal to the amount of rice for about sixty-eight people before the Restoration, and for about sixteen people after the Restoration.il However, already in the middle of 1871, the new government was forced to announce the dismissal of No performers, thereby stopping the supply of stipends altogether. They were given two-years worth of stipend at the time of their dismissal.12

An official document of Tokyo prefecture issued in the fourth month of 187113 (Meiji 4) reports on this matter. It says that No performers, painters, scholars of classical letters, linked-verse poets, players of go and shôgi (Japanese chess), and musicians used to receive remuneration based on the nature of their professions; however, these would no longer be considered occupations meriting governmental support. All were in service to the former Tokugawa bakufu, and moreover, linked-verse poetry. No performance, and go and shôgi were not useful occupations, but mere pleasantries.i4 Then, the order issued by the new government lists two options for those people who engaged in such professions of pleasure. They were either to reregister their names as farmers or as merchants (in other words, they were to reregister themselves as commoners), or to remain in their current family register without pay. In any case, they were promised three-years worth of stipend at the time of this dismissal if they remained in retirement. However, the new government encouraged them to reregister as either farmers or merchants by promising five years worth of stipend if they llKurata, vol. 1, p. VII.

12lbid., p. Vm, p.30.

13Xhis date is given in accordance with the lunar calendar, in use in Japan up to1872. l^Ibid., vol. 1, p. 21.

81 chose this route.ts Despite this, the fimdmg for the five-year stipend (for those reregistering as commoners) was abolished at the end of the same year,

1871.16

Thus, though the head family of the Kanze school came back to Tokyo in 1875 after spending six years in Shizuoka, he and his house had to struggle to survive. Kanze Kiyokado worked at the Ministry of Justice as a bellboy for almost three years, starting from the age of ten, before he could go back to full­ time training as a No performer.i7 It is likely that since those performers received at least a two-year stipend in 1871, they were able to survive at least until the end of 1873, in spite of the drastic change in their daily living conditions and environment. However, beyond those two years, starting in 1874, the situation was different. This time, they would be left totally without financial support. It is between 1874 and 1875 that we start hearing tragic stories regarding the deeds of desperate performers. For instance, the Tokyo

Nichi Nichi newspaper reports on August 9, 1874 of a No performer committing suicide by drowning, due to his lack of means of s u r v i v a l , is

Also, on June 26, 1875, the Yokohama Mainichi newspaper reports the case of a No performer who sold his daughter to a trafficker in his struggle to earn his living.i9

ISlbid., p. vm , pp. 21-24.

16lbid., p. IX.

17Jkenouchi, p. 10. The original is in Nôgaku (Meiji 40. 1).

ISKurata, vol. 1, p. 50. l^Ibid., pp. 59-61.

82 Though, the working conditions of these artists were bleak during the early Meiji period, there were those who persisted in spite of the unfavorable current of the times. Umewaka Minoru (1828-1910) made arguably the foremost contribution to the preservation of the art of No in this period of financial and spiritual crisis, simply by continuing to hold performances through whatever means were available. However, even Umewaka described the conditions he first faced during this period as bleak: "When the Restoration started, because society was in great confusion, nobody believed anything like the No could be held again. So everyone looked for another occupation, and I also made my family members look for odd jobs on the side."20 He tells in his reminiscences that he kept practicing singing in the first year of Meiji in the midst of the surprise of his neighbors, who thought it was not a good time for continuing Nô .21 Already in the eleventh month22 of the very first year of Meiji, he held hakama-nô (a No performance without costumes) at the small, rehearsal No stage built at his private residence,23 and he continued holding such performances under the name of keiko-nô (practice No). Such deeds reflect his attitude. His persistence and dedication helped to ensure the survival of the art during this difficult transitional period. At nine years of age, Umewaka Minoru was adopted with a dowry into the Umewaka family, which at that time, performed the tsure (tritagonist) roles in the Kanze school. This adoption took place partly to settle a debt.

20Furukawa, pp. 11-12. The original is in Nôgaku (Meiji 35. 7).

21 Ikenouchi, pp.5-6.

22This date is given in accordance with the lunar calendar, in use in Japan up to1872.

230mote and Amano, p. 372.

83 Minoru's adoptive father owed money to Minoru's biological father. The elder Umewaka gave his adopted son his name, but little else. As a child, Minoru was forced to go elsewhere for training; thus, he ended up learning his trade from the head of the Kanze school. In 1839, going on just twelve years of age, Minoru succeeded his adoptive father as head of the Umewaka school. Because the Umewaka family was not among the official five No

schools, Minoru received only one hundred hyô of rice from the bakufu before the Meiji Restoration, less than half of what the heads of the principal

schools received.24 With that, he was obliged to support not only his adoptive father, but his mother and two younger brothers as well. On top of this, the monthly fee for his lessons with the head of the Kanze school was expensive, so that, despite his relatively exalted station, there were hardships to overcome financially. The hardships did not stop there. As a student at the Kanze school, Minoru had to endure spiteful deeds aimed at him. Because he was not a family member or direct disciple, he frequently was obliged to humble himself and beg for training. At the same time he was expected to pay his respects to his master and colleagues with gifts and lavish dinners that he really could not afford. Thus it was very difficult for him to receive proper training.25

Having endured such trials, the radical change in social climate did not deter Umewaka. He remained completely absorbed in his desire to continue practicing his art. His conviction was such that he persisted in his practice during the first year of Meiji. He writes: "No matter what, I could not think 24Urriewaka received 100 hyô (=400 fo)and Hôshô Kurô, the head of the Hôshô school, 100 koku (=1000 fo), before the Restoration. Fnrukawa, p. 18. and p. 20.

25lkenouchi, p. 309.

84 of giving up NÔ, so I kept singing even in the first year of Meiji, telling myself, 'Even if I die of starvation, I will not stop'."26 Since the Umewaka family specialized in performing the role of tsure, or companion, to actors of the Kanze school, he did not have his own No stage even before the Restoration. He used his own home as a makeshift rehearsal hall starting in 1865. With ttie fall of the bakufu and the dissolution of other performing venues, the makeshift stage in his home became a makeshift performance venue. He says of the conditions of those first years of Meiji, "It was such a shameful situation, that gradually even costumes and other stage properties passed into the possession of others; we never did a performance with costumes, so even for the curtain for the hashigakari ,27 we used a light green wrapping cloth..."28

Scholars have credited the hardships that Minoru went through — both in his poverty-stricken life and in his prior training in No when the art was still under bakufu patronage — as sources of the gutsy determination that would insure the survival of No after the Meiji Restoration.29 Minoru was forty-one years old at the time of the dissolution of the Tokugawa bakufu. His second son, Umewaka Minoru II (1878-1959), later recounted his father's claim that, at the time of the Restoration, No could not be performed and

26lkenouchi, p. 5. The original is in Nôgaku (Meiji 40. 1).

^'^Hashigakari is a part of No stage which extends from the back-left of the stage to connect the mirror room, where the performer stays before his appearance, and the main stage.

28lkenouchi., p. 7. The original is in Nôgaku (Meiji 40. 1).

29See Dcenouchi, p. 309; Furukawa, p. 18; and Omote and Amano, p, 365.

85 there were no disciples, however, within a year, the disciples were already coining back and things had started looking up.30 In addition to the of Umewaka's makeshift stage, there was another stage that continued to hold performances in Tokyo during the chaotic early years of Meiji, that of the Kongo school. Kongo Ukyô (1872-1936), a son of the head of the school who had not yet been bom at the time of the Restoration, states: "In fact, I think it may be said that No performances in the first year of Meiji were held only at our stage at likura [the present Azabu area in Tokyo]. Just because our school lost the main pillar after a short while, and there was no one capable to succeed, it has been said almost everything was done in vain. The saying that applies is, 'whoever dies, loses'."3i The loss of the main pillar is a reference to the death of his father, the head of the Kongo school in 1887, after a long illness. At only sixteen, without his father's backing, Ukyô was unable to continue his training, and departed for Kyoto in search of other means of survival. Another performer, Hoshô Kurô (1837-1917), the head of the Hôshô school by the time of Restoration, may also be credited with assuring the survival of the art. For a time, he too abandoned Nô and took up farming to support his family. Before he was solicited by Umewaka, he was thinking that he would never go back to perform ing.32 In 1911, he described the early years of M e ij i: 3 3

30shirasu Masako, "Sendai Minom no hanashi" (A talk regarding the former Minoru) in her Onô (Nô) (Kyoto: Sôsôdô shuppan, 1974), pp. 226-27. Hereafter, referred to as Shirasu.

31Ikenouchi., p. 16. The origined was in Nôgaku (1915).

32lbid., pp. 20-21.

33lbid., p. 4. The original is in Nôgaku (Meiji 36).

86 [W]e never knew what was going to happen next; really no one knew what might happen tomorrow; there were no expectations, no thoughts. I could do nothing but just live from day to day watching things develop. Since I had to leam how to use an abacus if I were to start a business, for the first time I touched one [...] and started learning; but even though one day I felt I learned something, the next morning I would forget it all in an instant.

Hôshô had been one of a select few to have the honor of performing in the special Nô performance arranged for the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869. However, due to his discouragement about the future of his art, he decided to retire from performing in 1870. According to Furukawa Hisashi, he had received one hundred koku every year before the Restoration as the head of the Hôshô school, but it was reduced to one-fifth of his original salary (50 hyô) by the new govemment.34 His uncertainty as to what he should do lingered, and by early 1871, he petitioned to come out of retirement and applied to reregister himself as a commoner. It was in 1873, in response to Umewaka's urging, that he returned to the Nô stage. However, it was not until 1876 that he finally decided to return to Nô as his full-time occupation. Thus, even Hoshô Kurô, who subsequently earned a reputation as one of the three masters of Meiji Nô, could not help but endure almost seven years of estrangement from the full-time pursuit of his art (between 1869 [Meiji 2] and 1876 [Meiji 9]). As a child performer Hoshô Kurô showed promise early and eventually succeeded the head of the Hoshô school at the age of seventeen, in 1853. His contribution to the proliferation of Nô in the Meiji period after his full-time return to his original profession was enormous. He was truly an 34Furukawa, p. 20. Calculating one hyô as equaling four to (one to equals 18.04 liter), since one koku equals ten to, his income was reduced to one fifth. (100 koku = 100 x 10 to= 1000 to : 50 hyô — 40 X 4 fo = 200 to).

8 7 accomplished performer, and earned respect from the entire Meiji Nô world

as a great leader. He contributed a great deal to the support of hayashi-kata (NÔ musicians), and oversaw the synthesized development of Nô through

his guidance and support of waki and kyôgen and hayashi-kata performers. He also trained a number of great performers to be, such as Matsumoto Nagashi (1877-1935) and Noguchi Kanesuke (1879-1953).

The third of the so-called masters was Sakurama Banma (1835-1917).

Sakurama was the seventeenth head of a family of shite performers affiliated with the Konparu school. The Sakurama family served the Hosokawa domain in Kumamoto, Kyûshû, prior to the Restoration. In 1879, at the age of forty-six, Sakurama relocated to Tokyo, where the family has remained

s i n c e .3 5 Within a couple of years after coming to the capital, he had already gained acclaim as an accomplished performer. Thus, all three masters of Meiji Nô, Umewaka Minoru, Hôshô Kurô and Sarukama Banma, had completed their basic education and training before the Restoration. When the society was in great confusion and many doubted the survival of Nô, the experience of these individuals served to anchor the art. According to Zeami, when the Nô performer is around thirty-

four or thirty-five his art is at its p e a k .3 6 It is around this time that a performer has a firm grasp of his training and accomplishments, and can articulate a vision for what lies a h e a d . 37 At the time of the Meiji Restoration, Umewaka Minoru was forty-one, Hoshô Kurô, thirty-t'.vo, and Sakurama Banma, thirty-four. These three masters, despite differences in their strategies 35/VÔ kyôgen jiten (A dictionary of Nô-Kyôgen), ed. Nishino Haruo, Hata Akira (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1987), p. 385. Hereafter referred to as Nô kyôgen jiten.

36.NST, p. 18.

37lbid., p. 18.

88 for dealing with the confusion and crises of the early Meiji period, were indeed at or near their prime, and all were qualified to make great contributions and positively influence the future of Nô. They not only left the marvels of their legendary performances, but also, through the maintenance of strict training regimens, prepared great future performers to be their successors. Umewaka Manzaburô (1868-1946), the eldest son of Umewaka Minoru, and Noguchi Kanesuke (1879-1953), a disciple of Hoshô Kurô were widely acclaimed as masters of Nô in the Shôwa period (1926- 1989)38

In addition to the three principal masters of Meiji Nô, there were many other accomplished performers in the profession during the Meiji period, including those specializing in waki roles, hayashi-kata, and kyôgen performers. According to Omote and Amano: "The early years of Meiji were a time of unprecedented crisis for Nô, demonstrated by the fact that many Nô performers were forced temporarily to leave the profession. However, such crises inspired and spurred the unification of the performers and, as a result, the blossoming of the art made early Meiji an especially notable period in the history of Nô, and produced many accomplished performers."39 It was fortunate that during the time of such a crisis for the art there were many accomplished performers; it may even be argued that the hardships made

380m ote and Amano, p. 369.

390mote and Amano, p. 365.

89 them superior. The excellence of their art elicited excitement among audiences. Moreover, it appears that there was a strong cooperative spirit among those performers, even though they belonged to different schools. Umewaka Minoru H recalls a time his father performed with Hoshô Kurô: "When things were going well, we put importance on the individual style of each school. [However,] we could not keep such things in mind [in times of crisis]. Instead, w e made a desperate effort: when we suffered hardships, we could concentrate on our art [i.e.: what is essential, that which transcends stylistic idiosyncrasies] all the m o r e ." 4 0 Records of this period support the conclusion that unification efforts among Nô performers in support of the continuance of the art, regardless of school affiliation, was at its strongest in the early part of the Meiji period. Not only professionals but also influential amateur performers were united in this effort. For example, records of programs from the early years of Meiji — such as those of performances held at the house of Umewaka Minoru^i and those at the house of Iwakura Tomomi^z — show that performers of several different Nô schools including shite, waki, kyôgen and hayashi-kata were joined by influential aristocrats, including members of the imperial household, all performing in a day's program, and often in the same play. For example, the shite of the first play, Kokaji, presented at the house of Iwakura Tomomi

(1825-1883) on April 4, 1876, was Maeda Toshika, an aristocrat, and the waki was the eighth head of the Hôshô school for waki performers, Hôshô

Shinsaku (1836-98), one of the most acclaimed waki performers of this time.

40Shirasu, p. 227.

41Ikenouchi, p. 55.

42lbid., p. 43.

90 The persistence of Umewaka Minoru and others in continuing to hold performances during the very first years of Meiji gradually paid off as new patrons to the art — including some influential persons within the new government and members of the imperial family — began to pledge their support. With the support came the reemergence of many accomplished performers. Many supporters were also amateur practitioners of the art. For example, Umewaka, could claim many wealthy men as his disciples, including those of the Mitsui and Mitsubishi financial combines.43 Iwakura started practicing Nô with Hôshô Kurô in 1876. When we look into the survival of Nô during this difficult time, the support given by these powerful figures of Meiji society cannot be ignored. Indeed, the survival of Nô was only possible with combined forces of the performers and supporters.

3.3 Supporters of Nô Among non-performers, one important supporter of the art was Iwakura Tomomi, the Japanese ambassador and plenipotentiary, who was also a member of the kazoku (the court nobility). Iwakura was among the first to recognize the role that Nô could play in Meiji Japan, at a time when the political policy makers were trying to become modem but, at the same time, hoping to retain a Japanese identity. It is likely that, as a court noble, Iwakura had familiarity with Nô prior to the Restoration. The relation between Nô and the imperial court can be traced back to Zeami's time.44 Since then, though its status has been 43Dcenouchi, p. 303.

44por instance, the title of one of Zeami's transmissions, Fûgyoku-shû, is believed to have been given by the cloistered emperor, Go-komatsu (1377-1433). NST, pp. 469-70.

91 subjugated or elevated according to the situation of each period, Nô had been a part of the imperial court culture. For example, it had long been customary for the imperial court to hold a Nô performance after the ceremony of enthronement for a new emperor.45 After the dissolution of the Tokugawa bakufu, it was court nobles and former daimyô who played crucial roles in support of No. A noted example of imperial familiarity with Nô is Emperor Meiji (1852-1912). The emperor took out and replaced any volumes to the library each time there was a need, but as for utai-bon, he kept them in his room, suggesting frequent u s e . 46 One of the kazoku members recalls the frequency of amateur practice among high officials during the early Meiji p e r i o d : 4 7

At that time there were performances by professionals gathered from among the five schools, however, because many performers had changed their profession after the Restoration, all five schools had only a small number of professionals. On the contrary, among the kazoku and high officials, it could be said that there was not one who did not practice utai. The difference was only whether or not you practice Nô on the stage.

Considering such popularity of the art among high officials, it is not surprising that as one of the leading politicians of the Meiji government who had a strong connection with the imperial court, Iwakura saw the potential

45lkenouchi, p. 60.

46lbid., p. 71.

47Maeda Toshika, "Meiji no saikô to kazoku-nô" (Meiji Restoration and kazoku-nô), Nôgaku gahô 12.9: 6-8 (1918), p. 7. Hereafter referred to as Maeda Toshika.

9 2 for Nô to be promoted as a national art. Thus, upon seeing a performance of Hôshô Kurô, Iwakura started to practice N6 under the guidance of this great master.

Iwakura's appreciation of Nô drama was greatly fueled by his experiences as the leader of a delegation overseas, where Western operas were often presented to mark official occasions. Kume Kunio, the ambassador's secretary, who accompanied the Iwakura delegation, wrote:48 Seeing those grand opera houses in Europe, I acutely felt the need for a national entertainment. However, for the entertainment to be spiritually rewarding, it could not be something momentarily popular, nor a fickle import, but it had to be something firmly rooted in the heart of the nation, this is to say, it had to include original Japanese music and dance. If we were to make a wrong decision, from the perspective of national entertainment, Japan would suffer an extreme calamity. This was how we came to realize the artistic value of Nô theater.

The delegation Kume accompanied left Japan on the twenty-third day of the twelfth month49,1871, and returned 632 days later, having visited thirteen countries in North America and Europe.50

Upon his return, Iwakura began organizing Nô performances for members of the imperial court and foreign guests in his private residence. The first was held in 1876 for the enjoyment of the Emperor, the Empress Dowager, the Empress, other members of the imperial court and influential 48lkenouchi, p. 42.

49This date is given in accordance with the lunar calendar, in use in Japan up to 1872.

SOpor a detailed discussion of the Iwakura delegate, see Izumi Saburô, Dôdôtaru Nihonjin: Shirarezaru Iwakura Shisetsudan (The Dignified Japanese: The Unknown Iwakura Mission) (Tokyo: Shôdensya, 1996). Izumi mentions that the delegate visited twelve countries (p. 16), however, according to his discussion and the map provided in this book, we can count thirteen countries; the United States, England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Holland, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. Though the delegate also docked at several port cities, including Port Said, Aden, Ceylon, Singapore, Saigon, and Hong Kong, on their way back to Japan from France, these stops are not counted in Izumi's discussion.

93 figures from the new government. This event also marked the decision by Hôshô Kurô (mentioned above) to return to the Nô stage. Gradually this sort of occasion for showing Nô performances to influential figures of the time grew more frequent. This helped promote the revival of the art. According to Furukawa, all subsequent events at the palace of the court aristocracy

(kazoku) that had the honor of the Emperor or the Empress's attendance came to be marked by performances of Nô, thus stimulating its revival.51 Kume's recollection about the first time he went to see Nô at the residence of Umewaka Minoru reflects the atmosphere of a privately held performance. The year was 1873, just two and a half years prior to the performance before the imperial family arranged by I w a k u r a : 5 2

It was the sixth year of Meiji when we came back from Europe. This year for the first time, invited by a friend while taking a walk, I dropped in to see a Nô performance. Though now the Umewaka school [is well-established], at that time it was just not doing well at all. Among the audience were some old people, people from the merchant class, shirushi-banten (craftsmen), and from the upper classes there were higher aristocrats and feudal lords. TTiere were altogether merely twenty or thirty people combined, from such various classes.

This particular audience was small, but in those days even a large audience was no more than about fifty p e o p le .5 3 Nevertheless, among those who did come to see the performances were powerful figures, ardent supporters or ardent supporters to be. Already by 1871, there was a plan under way, mediated by supporters of the art, to get a formal Nô stage moved from the residence of a former feudal lord to the home of Umewaka. By the following

51 Furukawa, pp. 16-17.

52lkenouchi, p. 47.

53lbid., p.52.

94 year, Umewaka was able to open the stage. He gave performances in honor of his ancestors. The number of audience members for this occasion skyrocketed. As the Akebono newspaper of May 10, 1875, reports, there were over seven hundred people in the audience, or a fourteen-fold increase over the capacity of his former facility.54 By 1875, with the profits from such performances, he succeeded in paying off the debts he owed, and the stage became his own. One of the other events that revitalized the art and gave encouragement to performers was the construction of a Nô stage at the imperial palace at Aoyama. It was built in 1878, for Empress Dowager Eishô, who was particularly fond of the art of Nô. The former Emperor Meiji, her husband, was also an ardent admirer of the art. On this occasion, the amount of 3000 yen was paid to seven performers, including Umewaka Minoru, Hôshô Kurô, Kanze Kiyotaka, and the Kyôgen performer, Miyake Shôichi, for the preparation of their costumes. In 1881 came another boon to the art with the foundation of the Nôgaku-sha, an association committed to the restoration and further development of Nô. It was established by an alliance of senior statesmen, members of the imperial family, court nobles, and former daimyô. The Nôgaku-sha's first major contribution was to build the Nô stage, Shiba Nôgakudô (Shiba Nô stage) within the estate of Shiba park (located in the present Minato ward in Tokyo). This stage provided a venue for the performers of the five schools, and for those who came up to the capital from various other regions, to share performances, to compete, and thus to refine

54Kurata, vol. 1. p. 58.

95 their art. It also provided more accessibility to Nô performances not only for the members of Nôgaku-sha, but also for general audiences. It was on this stage that the above mentioned Sakurama Baiuna, after coming to Tokyo from Kumamoto, first established the reputation that would eventually lead him to be considered one of the three masters of Meiji Nô. Matsumoto Kintarô (1843-1914), another great performer of the Hôshô school who had retired to Shizuoka after the Restoration, recalls: "in 1882, [1 was] advised that now that the Shiba stage is completed Nô should prosper gradually, so why not go to Tokyo..."55 In addition to the positive expectations on the part of the performers towards the work of the Nôgaku- sha, the attitude of the association's founding members towards Nô is also worth mentioning. The following recollection was written in 1918, almost forty years after the establishment of Nôgaku-sha, by the amateur performer/aristocrat Maeda Toshika, who participated in the first performance held at Iwakura's residence:56 The attitude towards Nô at that time seemed very different from that of people now. Not only were the professionals utterly serious — as in the time of the bakufu — we [in the aristocracy] practiced Nô, not simply for diversion, but with the conviction to follow the traditional forms precisely. Thus, even when we went to see performances, no one came casually dressed nor looked at their utai-bon (chant books) seven tenths of the time and the stage three tenths. Occasionally when we would see such people we laughed at them saying 'the person over there is looking at theutai-bon'. However nowadays no matter which No performance we go to many come casually dressed, and it is rare to find those who are not following the utai-bon.

SSFunikawa, p. 37. The original is in Nôgaku (Meiji 36.1).

S^Maeda Toshika, p. 7.

96 This and similar accounts provide us with a glimpse of the degree of commitment that those supporters of Nô had at the beginning of the Meiji period. It seems obvious that their purposes were not only aimed towards personal satisfaction, but aspired to a larger goal: the revival of a traditional art form which had the capacity to celebrate Japanese national identity, at a time when Japan was struggling to get a foothold in the international arena. Thus No was a convenient commodity which could fulfill both a national and international agenda. Encouraged by developments such as the establishment of Nôgaku-sha, and fortified by the strength and the breadth of the support being received, Nô performers gradually began to regain a portion of their former standing. The efforts of those performers who persevered from strong conviction during the bleak early years of Meiji, the growing support and protection of important figures in the imperial court (and often in the new government as championed by Iwakura Tomomi), and the backing from former feudal lords, all played indispensable roles in this turnaround. Thus, although it was forced to reinvent itself under the hardship and uncertainty of the early years after the Restoration, the art of Nô was slowly starting to witness signs of a new stage of prosperity already by around Meiji 10 (1878). The revival of Nô during this period was not without changes to the art itself. Some of these changes were paralleled by changes in the very agency which had been established to support it. Nôgaku-sha changed its name to Nôgaku-dô in 1890; then, in 1896, Nôgaku-kai was established to succeed Nôgaku-dô in its mission. Behind these changes was the revival in the popularity of Nô, which gave rise to (and was anchored by) increased chances for many performers who had previously retired or moved away

9 7 from the capital. Many of these performers came out of retirement encouraged by the chance to perform at the newly built Shiba Nô stage. Having passed through a period of chaos, they started to see a glimmer of hope reflected in the developments in Tokyo after 1881. Many performers now returned to the center of the activities in the capital to try out their luck. For some, especially for the heads of the five schools who had left the capital at the time of Restoration (such as Kanze Kiyotaka), signs of the revival in the popularity of Nô meant the chance for them to reclaim their former positions of authority over the ranks of Nô practitioners. The original purpose of the establishment of the Nôgaku-sha and Nôgaku-kai was to cultivate the development of the art of Nô, and to promote its worth to the public as a whole, regardless of differences of the particular schools or styles.57 However, as more performers gathered, it became more difficult to sustain unity among them. Thus far, the leading position among the circle of Meiji Nô performers held by Umewaka Minoru, had been unwavering. Since the beginning of the Restoration, it was he who had fought for the continuation of Nô, even during the most unfavorable times. Hôshô Kurô, after his decision to return to the stage through Umewaka's persuasion (and as a result of Iwakura's encouragement after Hôshô's performance in Meiji 9), had also established a firm standing as a performer. In fact, it was these two who had been responsible for drawing up the program for the opening performance at the

Shiba NÔ stage in Meiji 14 (1 8 8 1 )^ 8

S^Furukawa, p. 26. Mission statement for Nôgaku-sha.

SSpurukawa, p. 30.

98 Gradually, through the boost provided by the Nôgaku-sha, each Nô school was able to begin to gamer its own support and to build its own stage. By 1885, the Hôshô school was able to erect its own temporary stage; the Kanze school and the Kita school both followed suit in 1892.59 As each school started to implement its own organizational system, each was enabled to hold its own performances, and thereby became less dependent upon support firom the Nôgaku-sha. It was then a matter of course that the performers started to place more importance on their own performances, downplaying those sponsored by the Nôgaku-sha.

The death of Iwakura Tomomi in 1883, was also a huge blow at this time when strong leadership was much needed to unite the organization. Ikenouchi Nobuyoshi writes about the importance of Iwakura's influence on the revival of the Nô in the early years of Meiji, in his Nôgaku seisuiki:^^ At that time, the central figure championing the revival of Nô was Mr. Iwakura. Among those who worked (as policy makers), I think there were more than a few who agreed (to advocate the promotion of Nô) in order to be able to receive a favor from Mr. Iwakura, rather than as an extension of their hope to restore Nô. Anyway, on the one hand there was an argument over theatre reform, and it was raging to the extent that efforts were being made to make shibai 6i the national drama. In that kind of

59Furukawa, p. 32, pp. 38-39. The other two schools Kongo and Konparu could not establish strong leadership during the Meiji period, partly due to the death of their lemoto (the heads of the schools) in the middle of the Meiji period. The new, more formal stage for the Hôshô school was built in 1898 (Meiji 31); that of the Kanze school in 1900 (Meiji 33).

60lkenouchi, p.94.

^^Shibai refers to plays in general, kabuki, or shinpa. Shinpa, a theater movement in the middle of the Meiji period, developed new theatrical forms to advocating political propaganda. It gradually established its position as a venue for popular dramas. Here in Ikenouchi's discussion, however, shibai more likely refers to kabuki, because Engeki kairyô ron (the movement for theater reform) began as an initiative to refine kabuki b y breaking down what was considered to be its vulgarity.

99 situation, one must concede that it was possible to build a Nô stage at the imperial house in Aoyama, and to be able to build a NÔ stage in Shiba park, thanks to the strength of Mr. Iwakura's influence.

With the loss of such an influential central supporting figure as Iwakura and the concurrent strengthening of each individual school — many acquiring their own separate performing facilities and constituencies of support — the character of Meiji N5 underwent a marked shift. The development of each individual school was promoted, but the cooperative development among the various schools of Nô performers slackened, and the cooperative spirit within the inter-organizational support agency grew comparatively tenuous as well. The inconstancy of the cooperative effort of various Nô schools might be understandable if we consider the effects of the iemoto (head of a school) system, which became an enormously influential practice during the Tokugawa period. In the words of Ortolani:62

The iemoto of the powerful houses of nô became a kind of teacher/king, immensely respected and faithfully served by his disciples, with the right of allowing or prohibiting a performance, deciding who would be the main performer [...] interpreting the correctness of a certain dance pattern, punishing and expelling individuals from the school, determining the use of costumes, masks, and theatrical equipment, handling the finances, awarding rank and diplomas, and, since the Meiji era, also holding the copyright for all textbooks and material published by the school.

620rtolani, p. 105.

100 As Nô started to find a new way to survive — by situating itself in the new

social environment — it should not be surprising that the former iemoto, and both the performers and amateur practitioners who were used to the system tried to rebuild their old network. Though keeping up the activities and functions of Nôgaku-kai became more challenging, the sincere support from outside the circle of performers remained firm. For example, in 1896, the Nôgaku-kai started to hold shiki-nô (ceremonial-style Nô) at Shiba Nôgaku-dô.63 Following the manner of Nô programs that had been used by the Tokugawa bakufu, five Nô plays were performed, one each by the shite performer of each of the five Nô schools. All together five such performances were held, the last one taking place in 1910.64 This style of inter-organizational presentation, though only held once every three years, contributed to the maintenance of at least the original purpose of Nôgaku-kai, which was to promote the art synthetically, and thereby avoid the lopsided development of more influential schools. Finally in 1902, when its maintenance became fiscally more difficult due to the gradual decrease in the importance placed upon it, the Nô stage in Shiba park was moved to the Yasukuni shrine (located in the present Chiyoda ward in Tokyo) and renamed the Kudan Nôgaku-dô. With this move, a chapter written by all those performers and supporters endeavoring to insure Nô's survival during the early chaotic years of Meiji was brought to a close. Another active benefactor of the art at this time of transition was Ikenouchi Nobuyoshi (1858-1934), who came to Tokyo from Matsuyama, Ehime, in 1902 to contribute to the future development of Nô. According to 63After the establishment of Nôgaku-kai in 1896, Shiba Nôgaku-dô's official name changed to Nôgaku-kai Fuzoku Nôgaku-dô or the Nô stage affiliated with Nôgaku-kai.

64lkenouchi, pp. 192-200.

101 Ikenouchi's brother, Takahama Kyoshi (1874-1959),65 a haiku poet, their family had had a close relationship with the world of Nô. Their father's maternal grandfather had served as the head singer (ji-gashira) of the chorus in No performances held for the lord of the Matsuyama domain, and wrote many utai-bon for the Hôshô school of waki performers. Their maternal grandfather and uncle were both accomplished kotsuzumi players. Their father also practiced utai and had experience serving as the ji-gashira at Lord Matsuyama's request. After the Restoration, the Matsuyama Nôgaku

Association was organized with their father in charge. He also served as ji- gashira. Ikenouchi always helped his father in the organization and execution of performances. Takahama adds that Ikenouchi used to come to

Tokyo (where Takahama lived) to see Nô performances. Saddened by the decline in number and quality of meijin (master) perform ers,66 Ikenouchi decided to relocate to Tokyo, leaving behind his established positions as politician (a member of prefectural assembly) and successful businessman (a sericultural industry) in Matsuyama. When he decided to dedicate his life to the prosperity of the art,

Ikenouchi wrote the following in response to the conditions of that t im e : 6 7

65lbid., Endnotes: pp. 1-4.

66lbid., Endnotes: p. 2. Takahama does not give any further explanation on this point (i.e. what he means by "the decline of meijin performers.")

67lbid., p.211.

102 Lately, those obsessed with chanting Nô libretti — who might be called "yôkxfoku-yahoos" — are increasing in number day by day, and superficially Ndgaku^s appears to be enjoying prosperity. However, if we really see the truth, skilled hayashi-kata (instrumentalists) are gradually decreasing in number; waki performers (the main supporting role) too have fallen off, and those remaining are just like apes disgracing the majestic Nô stage; and if the situation stays the same, naturally the majestic art called Nôgaku cannot help but to fall to ruin. Thus, on this occasion, I am thinking of sacrificing everything and making every possible effort to protect Nôgaku.

As soon as he moved to Tokyo, Ikenouchi took steps to insure stability for a number of competent hayashi-kata by establishing a Nôgaku-kurabu

(Nôgaku club), and tried to make up for the shortage of qualified hayashi-kata by raising the money for their training fees. He writes about the situation of that time:69

Though Nôgaku suits the tastes of the general public — and it is very fortunate that lately those who want to leam the art are increasing greatly in number — even so, most of its popularity is limited to yôkyokw, as for hayashi-kata, an element of Nôgaku, it is on the other hand showing signs of becoming weak. Now, investigating the age of hayashi-kata musicians, the majority are over fifty and those younger than forty number only four. The training of hayashi-kata is no easy matter.

He also writes that in 1902 there were only five taiko (horizontal stick drum) performers and two of them were ill.70 A related problem was the insufficient salary of the hayashi-kata. Thus, the protection of the institution of the hayashi-kata was of urgent necessity when Ikenouchi set to work on these problems in 1903.

^^Nôgaku is the generic name for Nô and Kyôgen. The term started to be used as an accepted name to include both Nô and Kyôgen sometime around 1881 (Meiji 14). For further discussion on the use of this term, see Omote and Amano, p. 157.

69lkenouchi, p. 219.

70lbid., p. 227.

103 The year Ikenouchi came to Tokyo, he also started a monthly magazine called Nôgaku, to advocate the promotion of Nôgaku and discuss the necessity and means of r e f o r m .7 1 Then, two years later in 1904, he started

Nôgaku-bimgaku-kenkyû-kai (the study group of the literature of Nô drama) after a conversation with Takada Sanae, a professor at Waseda University. Ikenouchi had noted at that time, "Even among foreigners, there are those who wonder why it is that Japanese literary men are indifferent to Nôgaku when there is nothing more complete in the field of Japanese literature. Should it not then be possible to pursue research on it at Waseda University?"72

It was at this Nôgaku-bungaku-kenkyû-kai in 1908 that one of Zeami's treatises was introduced for the first time by the scholar Yoshida Togo.

Yoshida had discovered a text of Sarugaku dangi in the library holdings of Kosugi Onson, and hand-copied it two years previous to this report.73 In this way, the first of Zeami's treatises came to be published in July 1908. On the heels of this report, another fifteen treatises of Zeami were soon discovered in the holdings of Yasuda Zennosuke. They were published with Yoshida's armotations by the Nôgaku-kai in 1909, under the title of Zeami Jûrokubushû (Zeami's sixteen transmissions).74 For the first time in nearly 500 years,75

Zeami's dramatic theory had become widely accessible. The originals of these

71 Ibid., p. 212.

72ibid., "Nôgaku kenkyû," p.l.

73jbid., pp. 398-399.

74Because Part 6 of Kadeti was missing, the number of transmissions was actually fifteen. Also, several transmissions were introduced with a change of title. For details, see NST, p. 550.

75Zeami's treatises were written mainly from the 1420s to the early 1440s. An exception is Fûshikaden, whose first chapter was written between 1400 and 1402.

104 texts and Yasuda's transcriptions would be all destroyed in the Great Kantô

Earthquake of 1 9 2 3 / 6 fourteen years after their first publication. With this publication, possibilities for the scholarly research on Nô were greatly enhanced, and the interpretation of Zeami's treatises, a process which continues to the present day, was thus under way by the close of the Meiji period.

Actions taken by the Nôgaku-bungaku-kenkyû-kai testify to the innovativeness of Ikenouchi and other members. At the first meeting, the following categories of research were identified: the development of Nôgaku; comparative studies with other forms of theater (including Chinese Yuan drama, Indian drama, Greek drama, mystery, opera, and musical dramas of Richard Wagner); evaluation of Nôgaku (as dramatic poetry and as music); and influence of Nôgaku (on Japanese theater, popular songs, literature, and art) .77 The association consisted of people of various backgrounds, such as government officials, a scholar of English literature, a historian, a French missionary, and Nô scholars.

When we consider that up to that time yokyoku libretti were not viewed as objects of literary scholarship by academics, the aspirations of this association were groundbreaking. Their work represents one of the first major efforts to break with traditional views towards the study of Nô.

Yôkyoku libretti, for example, had been widely viewed only as objects for the practice of singing. The fresh approach of viewing Nô from various perspectives — as poetic drama or as music, or for its interdisciplinary influences — also shows the vitality and imagination of the association. One

76lkenouchi, p. 400.

77lbid., "Nôgaku kenkyû," p. 2.

105 of the purports of Nôgaku-kai was to promote the synthetic growth of Nô, not confined to a specific school's orientation, as had been the established precedent in the iemoto system. In retrospect, it is likely that such innovation which opened up new fields of Nô research, might have been possible only at a time when society as a whole was going through a great transformation.

Ikenouchi's work during this period appears to have been unceasing. In 1906, he launched the idea of holding short programs of Nô performances at night, in part to supplement funding of the training fees for the hayashi- kata at Kudan Nôgaku-dô. These nighttime Nô performances, called yanô- kai (nighttime Nô clubs), attracted audience members who found the brevity and time of day more suitable to their schedules. This initiative contributed to expanding the range of audiences. Yanô-kai continued for five years. Ikenouchi explains his motivation for starting this type of program in the mission statement for yanô-kai ;78 According to the traditional way, it is customary to waste an entire Sunday attending a Nô performance. Thus, unless one is really into the art and fully understands its subtleties, it is absolutely unbearable. So it is a wish lately expressed among people from many fields, that there might be some convenient way to attend two or three plays of Nô and Kyôgen, sometime in the evenings on weekdays, and thereby to come to understand the differences among the various schools.

Ikenouchi recognized that modernization and shifting social circumstances had created a class of potential spectators who worked during the daytime. The establishment of yanô-kai created an opportunity for those spectators who previously might not have experienced Nô performances.

78ibid, p. 223!

106 By 1907, Ikenouchi became the director of the Nôgaku-kai, effectively merging Nôgaku-kurabu with it, and thus continuing the work of furthering the training for hayashi-kata. He continued holding nighttime Nô performances, as well as pursuing other strategies championing the proliferation of the art. In 1908, a resolution regarding the protection of Nôgaku was passed by the House of Representatives (Shûgi-in)79 in Japan.

Four years before the end of the Meiji period, the protection of Nô officially became an explicitly stated charge of the government. By 1912, hayashi-ka

(The Department of Hayashi) had been established in Tokyo Ongaku Gakkô (Tokyo Music School), where previously attention had been given to the education of Western music exclusively. In this way, the training of hayashi- kata worked its way into the curriculum and the budget of a national school.

Another point worth mentioning is that the practice of utai was once again gaining great popularity among the general public, as it had during the previous Edo period. Through the efforts of Ikenouchi, the continuance of the art of Nô was not only given the increased insurance of better trained and motivated musicians, but it also attracted a more diverse audience.

The popularity of yôkyoku was already high even without Ikenouchi's help. It is apparent that, inasmuch as Nô was able to appeal to a broad cultural constituency including people from various classes and geographical locations, its survival was all the more assured during this turbulent period.

79xhe parliamentary system of Japan at that time was composed of two chambers: the House of Peers (Kizoku-in), and the House of Representatives (Shûgi-in). The later consisted of pubücly-elected members. However, voting rights were given to only those males who were twenty-five years old or older and also those who paid more than 15 yen of tax, which was only 1.1% of the population of Japan at that time. Shôsetsu nthonshi, p. 255.

107 This manifestation of popular interest in Nô was not an entirely new occurrence; Nô had found a similar niche in less desperate times in the urban centers and feudal domains during the preceding Edo period.

After a short hiatus at the beginning of the Meiji period, yôkyoku enthusiasts had begun to engage in their practice again. Regardless of whether those enthusiasts were former practitioners or new participants, this phenomenon shows that the deep-rooted culture of utai practice, which dates back to the Muromachi period, did not go out of fashion. In fact, this grassroots popularity of utai supported the living of professional performers greatly. Since performers no longer received regular support from the government, their income from teaching amateur practitioners became all the more important. Moreover, as each Nô school was trying to promote its own development, the relative success of securing its own students was directly tied to the degree of each school's organizational power.

Though at the end of Edo period publication of utaibon was almost completely monopolized by each Nô school and its affiliated book seller, by the Meiji period unrestrained competition resumed. This was partly due to the further development in printing techniques, such as lithography and letter-press printing.80 As the publication of new versions of utaibon came to be a prosperous undertaking, all five iemoto (heads of the schools) secured their copyrights. The certified performer-teachers of each school were notified that unless they used the utaibon authorized by the iemoto, they would be expelled from further artistic communication with the school.81 This regulation helped to establish not only the fiscal independence of each SOOmote and Amano, p. 164. The publication of utai-bon had also been unrestrained prior to the middle of the Edo period.

81 Omote and Amano, p. 164-165.

108 school, by securing income from its own copyright publications, but also the authority of each iemoto and his according system. Such a move was possible only because there were so many amateur practitioners to feed the system.

Thus, the revival of utai as a popular pasttime bolstered the position of each iemoto and accelerated the independent development of the five schools. The efforts of individual champions of the art, in support of the revival of No, can never be forgotten. Nevertheless, without the popular support of amateur practitioners, backed by their traditional practice and the increased familiarity with the art bom of such practice, the revival of No would have been questionable, and certainly would have taken a different course.

Indeed, the popularity of utai practice played an indispensable role in charting a direction for the art in this period. As the Meiji period came to a close, some leading figures of the Meiji No world also left the stage. Hôshô Kurô retired in 1906 and Umewaka Minoru passed away in 1909. But by then the foundation for the further development of the art was already firmly in place. From a beginning of total uncertainty, through various transformations, and in receipt of various forms of support. No had at least reached the point at which performers and supporters alike could put their faith in the certainty of its stability. Moreover, they could look ahead to further development and more favorable conditions. By the close of this period, fueled by the discovery of Zeami's treatises, genuine scholarly research on No was also underway. After decades of uncertainty, the combined forces of performers and various supporters had assured that the art of No would survive.

109 CHAPTER 4

NO AS A WEAPON OF DIPLOMACY: USHERING IN WESTERN GUESTS

4.1 NÔ Performances Through Opera Glasses When former American President Ulysses S. Grant visited Japan in 1879, he attended a No performance at the home of Iwakura Tomomi. Grant warned Iwakura of the current danger facing traditional art forms such as No: that its quality might deteriorate, and that it might run the risk of dying out. Therefore Grant encouraged taking extreme care to insure the preservation of the art form.i Though we are not sure what compelled Grant to make such comments, there are clues which may guide our speculation. During his almost two-month stay in Japan, together with his wife and son, he attended performances of both No and Kabuki held in his honor. What he was presented at the Shintomiza,2 a Kabuki theater which was established in 1660, was the product of Kabuki performers and producers of that time, and their efforts to keep up with the changing social situation. According to the diary of a guest in attendance that evening, what appealed most to the Grant family was the "geisha dance" presented at the very end of iDcenouchi, p. 57.

^Moritaza, a major Kabuki theater, which was established in 1660, was renamed Shintomiza in 1875.

110 the program. It was a new piece called Momiji no hashi (Maple bridge) danced by over seventy geisha. At one point in the dance, the geisha each peeled off a sleeve revealing at once the stars of the Star-Spangled Banner.

Their sashes were in dark blue and their Japanese-style sandals, orzori, were in red and white. When they opened their fans, one side revealed the U.S. flag, and the other, that of Japan. Other offerings on the program included a dance drama, and a new play written for this occasion; the latter compared Grant to the eleventh century warrior, Minamoto Yoshiie.3 In contrast to No which was presented as the art most representative of Japan by Iwakura, the performance at the Shintomiza was rather a festive show which willingly discarded artistic propriety in order to impress the distinguished foreign guests. Such an attitude on the part of the performers and producers of this event might have caused Grant to wonder about the function of the performance for native audiences. Such a performance is likely to have been perceived as less substantial than a traditional art. On the other hand. No probably offered a great contrast to such an experience. It seems plausible that in the performance of No, Grant sensed both a certain brittleness and strength: brittleness due to the volatile social climate, and strength in the way that No maintained tradition in spite of the popular currents of its time (as manifest in the reworking of Kabuki). Grant's praise for what he witnessed made a considerable impact on the performers and supporters of No during a period when Japan was caught between the need for modernization and the need to preserve its own identity. For Iwakura, No was not just an imitation of the opera he saw

3por the details of this occasion, see Nakamura Tetsurô, Seiyôjin no kabuki hakken (The Westerners' discovery of Kabuki) (Tokyo: Geki shobô, 1983),pp- 96-103. Hereafter referred to as Nakamura.

I l l overseas, but an equal counterpart to opera, rooted in Japanese soil. It had potential to become a national art testifying to the historical legitimacy of Japanese culture, at a time when the county was attempting to catch up with Western world powers. According to the various newspaper reports, magazines, and official documents gathered and edited by Kurata Yoshihiro,^ there were at least twenty-five presentations of No to foreign guests during the Meiji period, specially arranged to mark the visits of foreign dignitaries. The first one was in 1869, a special performance arranged as a part of the welcoming entertainment in honor of the Duke of Edinburgh's visit to Japan.5 Sometimes published reports of such occasions simply listed the name of the dignitary, the place where the performance was to be held, and the pieces presented .6

Occasionally, the names of the main performers were also included.

For example, the Yomiuri newspaper, on November 10, 1909, reports such an occasion, under the title of "Welcoming British General Kitchner":^

^Kurata Yoshihiro, ed., Meiji no Nôgaku 1, 2, 3, and 4 (No Theater in the Meiji Period, vol. 1, 2, 3, and 4) (Tokyo: Nihon Geijutsu Bunka Shinkôkai, 1994,1995,1996, and 1997). Hereafter referred to as Kurata, vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3, vol. 4..

SKurata, vol. 1, pp. 4-5. No was not the only event scheduled in honor of the distinguished guest's arrival. In addition to No, kenjutsu (swordsmanship), teshina (magic), sumo (sumo wrestling), hanabi (firecrackers), and takagari (falconry) were presented as entertainments marking the occasion.

6E.g., ibid., vol. 1, p. 37.

7lbid., vol. 4, p. 239.

112 On the thirteenth (of this month), from 3:00 p.m. at the Mitsui Assembly Hall in Yûrakuchô, sponsored by Marshal Terauchi, a welcome party for General Kitchner will be held, and as entertainment, there will be a No performance by the Umewaka school. The program is as follows: Nakamitsu [Manjû] (Umewaka Manzaburô, NoshimaS ), Youchi Soga (Umewaka Rokurô, Umewaka Manzaburô, Yamamoto Tôjirô).

In the report for the welcoming entertainment of September 5, 1873 for the Prince-Duke of Genoa, Italy,9 the description of the occasion was somewhat more elaborate, with samples of the menu included in addition to the program: 10 [...] on the table, there were dishes by Yaoya Zenshirô of Yoshino- chô, Asakusa, and also grilled eel by Wadaya Hirauemon of the grilled eel restaurant in Tadokoro-chô.

In addition to the reports on No performances which were specially arranged for the purpose of entertaining foreign dignitaries, we find other reports of foreigners in attendance at No performances. Some reports appear to have been made with no purpose other than to let the readers know that

foreigners were there. For instance, Chûgai Shôgyô Shinpô on May 21, 1910, reports of upcoming No performances sponsored by the Nôgaku-kai,n for May 26 of the same year, listing the time, place and program, and also the performers.12 After the performance, on May 28, the same newspaper.

SUnable to verify the given name of this performer.

9The original newspaper report reads as purinsu-jukku-do-zheeebu.

lOKurata, vol.1, pp. 42-3. A report of the Yûbinhôchi newspaper on September 8,1873 (Meiji 6).

llNôgaku-kai, Association of the art of No, (as a successor of the former Nôgaku-sha) was established in 1896 to promote the further development of the art of No.

l^Kurata, vol. 4, p. 274.

113 Chûgai Shôgyô Shinpô, again reports about the event, but this time exclusively mentions the attendance of foreigners:i3 That night, there were six foreign ladies in special seats covered by a canape of purple curtains, sitting in a row, and watching the performance eagerly. An inquiry into the identity of the blond­ haired people (whether British or French) revealed that they are associated with the English School of Miss Umeko T s u d a . i 4

Such reports reflect the public sensitivity to the tension aroused by foreign presence during the Meiji period, as well as the importance that the Japanese public and authorities attributed to foreigners' attendance of Japanese traditional art forms. Clearly, the foreigners' reactions to what they saw drew attention. For example, on July 22, 1894, the Tokyo Nichi Nichi newspaper runs a letter of thanks sent to the Nôgaku-kai by an opera singer of the German Imperial Household, Minnie Hauk, and her husband, Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, who had been invited to attend a No performance especially arranged for them on June 21 of the same year. A part of the letter reads as follows:i5 When compared with yours, our German or Austrian performance is a product of modem times. Your Association maintains the ancient forms and traditions very well. As for opera, though we had believed that Europe was the first to have created opera, we learned that before us, it had been already established in Japan, and this we find overwhelming. Especially, the fact that music, singing technique, etc., had developed earlier in Japan, this is nothing short of amazing.

13lbid., 274. Parentheses are my addition. l^Tsuda Umeko (1864-1929), at the age of eight, was one of the first female students who went to the United States with the Iwakura delegate. After returning to Japan, she established the Women's English College (Tsuda College today), and contributed to the development of women's education in Japan.

ISRurata, vol. 2, pp. 334-335.

114 Also, the Tokyo Mainichi newspaper reports the following on August 27,1908 under the title of "No theatre through foreigners' eyes";i6 The situation regarding a No performance for Welcoming Dr. Koch held at Nihon Bank Club, on the night of the 22nd, has been already reported. Dr. Koch and his wife were very much impressed by what they saw and told President Matsuo the following: In Europe, sophisticated arts such as No have been very much encouraged of late. However, in Japan's case, having already seen such artistic developments several hundred years ago, and now to witness tiiose who appreciate the art of No growing in number, this is truly admirable.

In late Meiji, the Tokyo Mainichi newspaper published what, in their perspective, appeared to be an established view of No on the part of foreign audiences. In their article entitled "Welcoming Fleet from the United States" on October 14,1908 they s t a t e : i 7

It is not at all rare that foreigners — calling our No theater 'No dance' — take it to be something which expresses our ancient national character most satisfactorily, and admire it. Now some are even proposing we make No theater a ceremordal art. Thus, for the coming Fleet from the United States, sponsored by the Mail Steamer Company, a magnificent welcoming No performance will be held at the Kudan No theater.

There is also evidence suggesting that No artifacts, including masks and costumes, were coming to be treasured highly in Europe. On November 12,

1890, the Yomiuri newspaper reports : "Recently No masks have been losing their value, however, in Europe they have been well p r i z e d ." i 8

l^Kurata, vol. 4, pp. 117-118.

17Kurata, vol. 4, p. 124.

ISKurata, vol. 2, pp. 75-76.

115 As a traditional art. No was called upon to play a distinctive role as an emblem, representing Japan to foreign visitors. Furthermore, chaimels of public information, including many major newspapers, reinforced this image for the benefit of native readerships.

4.2 Seeds of Crosscultural Transmission: the Emergence of a New Connoisseurship

In addition to the official occasions for viewing N o, there are many other accounts left by foreign residents and travelers during the Meiji period, including diplomats, secretaries of embassies stationed in Japan, and visiting scholars from a variety of fields. They came upon it through a variety of means. Each brought to his experience of No a different level of language ability and cultural preparedness, and each was able to invest to varying degrees in the act of viewing. Perhaps the most incisive factor bearing on each person's capacity to engage in No is antecedent experience. Responses of foreign visitors who encountered No reveal their direct reactions to a new form of theater, at the same time revealing things about themselves. The earliest account from this period of a foreigner attending a No play comes from Ernest Satow (1843-1929), a British diplomat who was posted in Japan from September 1862 to 1884, and who served as envoy from 1895 to 1900. With his fluent command of the Japanese language, he served as Interpreter at the Consulate in Yokohama starting in 1865, and in 1868, became the Japanese Secretary to the British Legation. He held this position for the following sixteen y e a r s . In a letter to Satow in 1869, the Japanese and Japan 1859-1991: Themes and Personalities, ed. Sir Hugh Cortazzi and Gordon Daniels, (London & N ew York, Routledge, 1991), pp. 76-81. Hereafter, referred to as Britain and Japan.

116 foreign minister wrote; "you have spoken our language with extreme facility, and the great services you have rendered to Japan have come to the knowledge of His Majesty."20 Satow writes about his experience of going to see NÔ and Kyôgen one day in December of 1868. He saw a performance of the No play, Hachi-no-ki, but confesses that a Kyôgen piece, Suehirogari, pleased him more. Satow gives his reaction to this, his first experiencer^i It was the first time a foreigner had been present at this kind of Japanese performance. No is a sort of tragedy or historical play. [...] There is no scenery and the costumes are all in an ancient style. [...] The No I could not understand until I borrowed the book fiom a Japanese lady in the next box, and was enabled to follow the text. [...] The audience consisted entirely of the samurai class.

He had no way of knowing that foreigners had witnessed the art three centuries earlier. Still, Satow's response to the No paints a portrait of its position at that time in Japanese society. However, it is not clear what Satow meant by the samurai class. The abolition of the samurai class did not take effect officially until 1871 by the enforcement of the family registration law, but by the time Satow attended the above performance, it was already the

Meiji period (as of September 8). Thus, Satow's reference to the samurai class may suggest that there were former samurai in the audience, or it may mean simply that those in the audience were comparatively prosperous.

20Bntazn and Japan, p. 80.

2lEmest Satow, A Diplomat in Japan (London, Seeley, Service & Co. Limited,1921), pp. 396- 397. Hereafter, referred to as Satow.

117 The above account also reveals that Satow brought a high level of

Japanese cultural background to his primary viewing of No. That Satow could follow the text suggests that his first experience was not representative of that of the typical foreign "outsider," but rather similar to that of an educated but uninitiated Japanese in experiencing the performance of No.

Satow's comments about other public theater entertainments provide a kind of framework for his experience of the No:22 There is some talk now and then of elevating the character of the stage and making the theater a school of morals and maimers for the young, but the good people who advocate these theories in the press have not, as far as I know, ventured to put them to practical proof, and the shibai (play) will, I hope, always continue to be what it always has been in Japan, a place of amusement and distraction, where people of all ages and sizes go to enjoy themselves without caring one atom whether the incidents are probable or proper, so long as there is enough of the tragic to call forth the tears which every natural man sheds with satisfaction on proper occasions, and of the comic by-tums to give the facial muscles a stretch in the other direction.

A comparison of Satow's responses to the two theatrical experiences reminds one of the state in which No was placed in Japanese society at that time: that it was not for "people of all ages and sizes" to "go to enjoy themselves." As mentioned in the previous chapters, though the Japanese public had familiarity with some of the content of the plays through their practice of chanting No libretti, the chance of seeing an actual No performance was rare and not a routine part of their lives. It may be that those Japanese audiences who came with the text of yôkyoku libretti, like the lady from whom Satow borrowed the text, were yofcyofcu-enthusiasts w ho were comparing the text with what was sung on the stage.

22Satow, p. 51.

118 Satow's preference for Kyôgen over No may also be explained through his seemingly straightforward preference for popular theater. Kyôgen, comical farce in contrast to Nô, uses a more colloquial style of conversation and has mundane subject matter. It is possible that the composition of the audience for the Nô performance and his need of the text for understanding what was happening on the stage might have made him feel that Nô requires a certain degree of connoisseurship for viewing. If Satow favored a theater for people of aU ages and sizes, Nô, as described in his experience cited above, must not have fit this paradigm. Another account from this time comes from A.B. Mitford (1837-1915), Second Secretary to the British Legation in Japan from 1866 to 1870. During the Duke of Edinburgh's stay in Tokyo in 1869,23 it appears that Mitford accompanied the Duke to a Nô performance. Mitford comments "So far as I know, such exhibition had never before been witnessed by foreigners, and it may be interesting to give an account of it," and adds "with the assistance of a man of letters, I prepared beforehand the arguments of the different p i e c e s . "24

The pieces that he attended were Hachiman of the Bow {Yumi yawata),

Tsunem asa, The Suit of Feathers (Hagorom o), and The Little Smith (Kokaji).

Mitford provides a kind of summary for each p i e c e 2 5 and concludes:26 The beauty of the poetry — and it is very beautiful — is marred by the want of scenery and by the grotesque dresses and make-up. In the Suit of Feathers, for instance, the fairy wears a hideous mask and a wig of scarlet elf locks: the suit of feathers itself is left

23Furukawa, p. 94.

24a.B. Mitford, Tales of Old Japan, Vol. 1, (London, MacMillan & Co., 1871), p. 157. Hereafter, referred to as Mitford.

25Mitford, pp. 157-163.

26Mitford, p. 164.

119 entirely to the imagination; and the heavenly dance is a series of whirls, stamps, and jumps, accompanied by unearthly yells and shrieks; while the vanishing into thin air is represented by pirouettes something like the motion of a dancing dervish. The intoning of the recitative is unnatural and unintelligible, so much so that not even a highly educated Japanese could understand what is going on unless he were previously acquainted with the piece. This, however, is supposing that which is not, for the Nô are as familiarly known as the master­ pieces of our own dramatists.

Edward Morse (1838-1925), an American scholar who became the first professor of zoology at Tokyo Imperial University (which was established in

1877, and later in 1949, renamed as University of T o k y o ) ,2 7 first came to Japan in 1877 at the age of forty. During his last visit to Japan, he studied utai, the chanting of Nô texts, with Umewaka Minoru. Morse gives his reasons for this pursuit in his book, Japan Day by Day: 1877, 1878-79, 1882-83-7-S The various forms or schools of Japanese music, whether vocal or instrumental, are listened to by a foreigner, first with bewilderment, and then greeted with laughter. It was a humiliating experience to attend a Japanese entertainment in which classical music was sung, music that would bring tears to the Japanese eyes, and have it greeted by the Englishmen in the audience with contemptuous laughter. You hear quaint music in the East, music that excites your interest, music that prompts your feet to beat time, but Japanese music is simply unintelligible to a foreigner. As their pictorial art was incomprehensible to us at the outset, and yet on further acquaintance and study we discovered in it transcendent merit, so it seemed to me that a study of Japanese music might reveal merits we little suspected. For that reason I studied Utai, a school of Japanese music, taking my lessons of the famous teacher Umewaka.

Whether the entertairunent of classical music he attended was Nô, or (assuming it was) whether he perceived Nô as mainly a musical

^^Mihongo dai jiten (Tokyo, Kodansha, 1989), p.l370.

28Edward Morse, Japan Day by Day , Vol. 2, (Boston & New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917), pp. 407-8. Hereafter, referred to as Morse.

120 entertainment is not clear. However, in his approach, we see his effort to try to understand, not only in his mind but through practice, the "unintelligible." Perhaps Morse would have felt less humiliated by the responses of his compatriots if he could have had a chance, like Basil Chamberlain, to wimess an early Japanese audience's encounter with Italian opera. Chamberlain (whose experiences and perceptions are discussed later) in reference to a reform movement and the Europeanization of theatre in

Japan, describes such an occasion inYokohama:29

But oh! The effect upon the Japanese audience! When once they had recovered from the first shock of surprise, they were seized with a wild fit of hilarity at the high notes of the prima donna, who really was not at aU bad. The people laughed at the absurdities of European singing tiU their sides shook, and the tears roUed down their cheeks; and they stuffed their sleeves into their mouths, as we might our pocket-handkerchiefs, in the vain endeavor to contain themselves. Needless to say that the experiment was not repeated. The Japanese stage betook itself to its wonted sights and sounds, and the play-going public was again happy and contented.

It appears that both the Englishmen with whom Morse wimessed a Nô performance and the above-mentioned Japanese audience did not or could not hide laughter when faced for the first time with an unknown form of theater. Morse, one of those curious people willing to take a step further to investigate the merit of the unfamiliar, took lessons firom Umewaka for

29Basil Hall Chamberlain, Japanese Things: Being Notes on Various Subjects Connected with Japan, (Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1971), p. 466. Chamberlain wrote the preface to this book in 1904. In his description of die Italian opera performance, he writes that it was "some years ago," thus, the date was probably around the turn of the century.

121 about a month.30 He describes his first lesson with his master in January, 1883:31

I had to sit down with legs bent directly under me in Japanese fashion. This method of sitting is intolerable to a foreigner at the outset, but I am now able to sit an hour and a half without discomfort. [...] He sang a line and I sang it after him; then he sang another; and so on through the eleven lines of the piece. After trying it twice in that way we sang together. I realized how very ridi and sonorous his voice was. Then I observed that, do what I would, my notes sounded flat and monotonous while his were full of inflections and accents, though all on one note. I felt awkward and embarrassed at the absurd failure I was making and perspired freely, though it was a cold day in January. Finally in desperation, I threw off all reserve and entered into it with aU my might, resolved, at any rate, to mimic his sounds. I [...] attracted a number of attendants who peeked through the screens to look on, in despair, no doubt, at a foreigner desecrating the honored precincts by such infernal howls.

His approach to the art, particularly through its connection to the practice of utai may be compared to the attitudes of many Japanese audiences, who come to a NÔ performance with utai-bon in their hands, looking at the written lines more eagerly than at what is unfolding on the stage. Though we are not certain whether Morse's decision to take utai lessons was prompted by his own attraction to the singing, or whether it was prompted by the common practice of learning utai on the part of Japanese amateur practitioners, his attitude is indicative of his straightforward curiosity and sensitivity, the qualities which led him to practice the art in order to be familiar with it. He is the first Westerner on record to dive into such an experience. Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850-1935), a British scholar and the first professor of language study at Tokyo Imperial University, was in Japan for

30The period is based on the diary of Umewaka Minoru. Furukawa, pp. 184-5.

3lM orse, p. 401.

122 about thirty years, beginning in 1873. In reference to his earlier days in Japan when he lived in Shiba ward in Tokyo, he writes: "that time, going to see so- called No was one of my great enjoyments."32 Chamberlain is responsible for the earliest (partial) translations of Nô plays into English for Western audiences.33 In the following he equates Nô plays with classical Greek dramas:34

Edifices - half dancing-stage, half theater - were built for the special purpose of representing these No, as the performances were called; and though the chorus, which was at the same time an orchestra, remained, a new interest was added in the shape of two individual personages, who moved about and recited portions of the poem in a more dramatic manner. The result was something strikingly similar to the old Greek drama. The three unities,35 though never theorized about, were strictly observed in practice.

Chamberlain's comparison of Nô plays and old Greek drama, especially his application of 'the three unities' to explain the similarities, calls for some clarification. Actually, Nô plays do not demonstrate a particular affinity to Aristotle's commentary on representation nor do they adhere in principle to the three unities.

32Nakamura, p. 143

33Basil Hall Chamberlain, Things Japanese , 2nd ed., (London, John Murray, Yokohama, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore, Kelly & Walsh, Limited, 1905), p. 467. Hereafter, referred to as Chamberlain. Chamberlain mentions that this book. The Classical Poetry of the Japanese, which included the translation of these plays, is "long since out of print." However, his translation of The Robe of Feathers (Hagoromo) appears in Things Japanese. The translation of Chamberlain's in question starts from the second dan of Hagoromo (deleting the first dan, the entrance of wald) until the end. Dan refer to the composite units of a Nô play. A No play can be divided into several dan such as the dan of the entrance of the waki or that of the dialogue exchange between the waki and the shite.

34chamberlain, p. 463.

35xhe three unities refer to unity of action, time, and place.

123 As discussed earlier, often Nô plays are not concerned with the unfolding of a course of events, but more likely the revelation of someone whose life-story has already passed. The fact that the events of the protagonist's lifetime are already complete allows the performer to focus on portraying his emotional quality or his essential nature, rather than his activities as a part of a larger event. Emotion as a distillation of one's deepest nature, such as the cause of extreme attachment to this world, could only be revealed fully after one's life events are over. In this sense, Aristotle's commentary on drama as, "given to such poems, as representing action,"36 is very far from what Nô plays aim to achieve. S. H. Butcher's commentary on Aristotle's idea on drama further clarifies this point. In Butcher's study

Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, he s t a t e s : 3 7

In the drama the characters are not described, they enact their own story and so reveal themselves. We know them not from what we are told of them, but by their performance before our eyes. Without action in this sense a poem would be not a bad drama, but no drama at all.

Aristotle's dramatic theory with its focus on representation and unity of action, the only unity Aristotle em phasized,38 is not compatible with Nô.

Chamberlain also refers to m u s ic ; 3 9 The music is - well, it is Oriental. Nevertheless, when due allowance has been made for Orientalism and for antiquity, it possesses a certain weird charm.

^^Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, tr. S. H. Butcher, (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1951), p.13. Hereafter referred to as Aristotle (Butcher).

37Aristotle (Butcher), pp. 335-36.

38por the further discussion on the development of the idea of three unities, see Aristotle (Butcher), pp. 288-301.

39chamberlain, p. 463.

124 Chamberlain, who once stated that although Old Japan is dead, happily the

No is not, published a book, entitled The Classical Poetry of the fapaneseAO

He also wrote his perspective on what he considered to be the relative ease of understanding Nô from a foreign perspective:^!

The No, though, more ancient and to the Japanese themselves far more difficult, is in a way easier to bring before the foreign public, because of its concise, clear-cut character. [...] If he [the reader] will keep in mind that music and dancing are of its very essence, he may perhaps be brought to see in it a far-off counterpart of the Elizabethan "masque."

Chamberlain's comments demonstrate the propensity of a detached viewer to attribute significance to what he sees, to find some way of making an experience accessible through personal association and comparative analysis. His perspective on the relative ease of understanding Nô by foreign audiences might well have been shaped by such an attitude. However, his analyses are too eager to find similarities, as in his assertions that Nô strictly observed the Aristotelian unities. On the other hand, for Chamberlain, the comparison with Aristotle provided an avenue for him to experience Nô through a pair of opera glasses, that is, within the frame of his own Western theatrical heritage. William Aston (1841-1911), who was in Japan for twenty-five years, from 1864 to 1889, as the First Secretary of the British Embassy, was also a dedicated scholar of Japanese literature. He publishedA History of Japanese

Literature in 1899, and in it refers to Nô as "the poetic art" and as "lyrical

^OChamberlain, p. 467. Nakamura mentions that the publication of this book was some time around 1878. Nakamura, p. 145.

41Chamberlain, pp. 467-468.

125 drama."42 He writes, "To the vulgar the Nô [dramas] are completely unintelligible." He refers to No's background themes as the promotion of piety, patriotic or martial enthusiasm, and love of nature, and says that for most "the staple material is the mass of legends associated with the Buddhist and Shinto religions." He continues that "In the Nô, next after religion comes poetry," adding that "A very striking feature of the Nô is the lavish use which they make of the poetic devices. [...] As dramas the Nô have little value. There is no action to speak of, and dramatic propriety and effect are hardly thought of. "43 The reason he thought that the Nô had little value as drama is elaborated in the following p a s s a g e : 4 4

The whole piece rarely occupies more than six or seven pages of print, and it usually takes less than an hour to perform. Within this narrow compass it might be expected that the unities of time, place, and action would have been observed. This is far from being the case. The action, in so far as there is any, is generally more or less coherent, but the other unities are whoUy disregarded.

Aston, like Chamberlain, views the Nô through the filter of his own expectations regarding what drama is. For Aston too, drama should observe the three unities, and without such propriety, a play fails as drama. Osman Edwards visited Japan for about six months in 1898, and published Japanese Plays and Playfellows in 1901. He had attended "a series of

NÔ (performances) produced by the Umewaka school."45 The chapter entitled

42w. G. Aston, A History of Japanese Literature (New York, D. Appleton & Company,1899), p. 197. Hereafter, referred to as Aston.

43Aston, p. 200-3.

44Aston, p. 204.

450sman Edwards, Japanese Plays and Playfellows, (New York, John lane, 1901), p. 44. Hereafter, referred to as Edwards.

126 "Religious Plays" is dedicated to his discussion of Nô which are, in Edwards' words, "in their last phase of development, the fruit of a religious revival on the part of archaeologists and patriots. They are a curious instance of wisely arrested growth." He reaches the following conclusion:46

The No are frankly didactic. Piety, reverence, martial virtues are openly inculcated, though never in such a way as to shock artistic sensibilities. Beauty and taste go far to disguise all structural deficiencies.

Edwards credits not only beauty, but the efficiency of the Nô performance. "The creative instinct works within small limits by small means, but with these means it contrives to project on its tiny stage a vital suggestion of the largest issues. The gods become marionettes for an hour, without wholly losing their godhead."47 It appears that his observations are influenced by his understanding of how the Western theatre evolved. By considering Nô within the scheme of Western theater history, Edwards concludes that the stage of the Japanese drama is behind that ofE n g la n d -4 8 Could anything less human or less dramatic be imagined than a cast of personified abstractions, bearing such names as Good counsel. Knowledge, Abominable Living, and God's Merciful Prom ises?49 We must console ourselves with the reflection that, when once the stage had freed itself from ecclesiastical fetters, the popular drama in England shot far ahead of popular drama in Japan.

The accounts left behind by those who viewed performances of Nô during this period, though limited in number, tell us something of those viewers' direct perceptions. As mentioned earlier, the first publication of Zeami's 46Edwards, p. 57.

47Edwards, p. 52.

48Edwards, p. 58.

49Here Edwards refers to English morality plays of the Middle Ages.

127 treatises by Yoshida Togo was in 1908. This was before the period that native Japanese scholars embarked upon research of a dramatic theory of Nô. Thus, those viewers necessarily had to rely on their cultural experiences in their endeavor to understand what they encountered. The later period of Meiji witnessed the arrival in Japan of Noël Péri (1865-1922), one of the first of foreign specialists on Nô. The fact that he was the only non-Japanese member of the Nôgaku-bimgaku-kenkyû-kai(study group of the literature of Nô drama), mentioned above, illustrates this point. He came to Japan from France in 1889, at the age of twenty-four, as a missionary, and remained until 1906. However, even after he moved to the Oriental Academy in Hanoi as a researcher, he continued his study and writing on Nô, including the translation of Nô and Kyôgen plays, and he periodically returned to Japan for research and other purposes (a total of five times).50 One of the turning points in his career in Japan came in 1899 when he started teaching classes in subjects including organ and harmonics at Tokyo Music School. His commentary about Nô first appeared in 1904 in

Nôgaku, the monthly magazine published by Dcenouchi to advocate the promotion of Nô and discuss the necessity and means of reform. In his article, entitled "Nôgaku is Supreme in Japanese Literature,"5i he says:52

SOpurukawa, pp. 155-56, p. 160.

5lNôgaku 2.6 (1903), pp. 25-27.

52N0gaku 2.6 (1903), p. 26.

128 I do not understand why Japanese literary specialists study things about foreign countries, but do not look into such a wonderful thing very close to them [...] There are things that the Japanese came to appreciate only after Westerners first directed their attention. If they (the Japanese) busy themselves too much going after novelties, they may regret it in the time to come.

Thus it is probable that the foreigner that Ikenouchi mentioned as promoting the establishment of the Nôgaku-btmgaku-kenkyû-kai was Péri. The following year in 1905, his "Thoughts on Nôgaku," a talk given at the study group, was also published. In it he advocates not only the value of the art as one of the greats among world literature, but also the need to preserve it as it is.53 In the same article, he reveals that it was around 1895 that he first started to take interest in Nô after translating the play, Funabenkei, and elaborates his thoughts about why foreigners appreciate Nô. A later study of his published by the Far East French Academy in 1909, entitled Études sur le drame lyrique Japonais, was also translated into Japanese. The work, consisting of nine chapters plus an introduction, was published in Nôgaku in 1913. Those nine chapters included a w ide range of topics: the literature of Nô, definition and meaning of Nô, the performers and the roles, the stage, the musical structure, mimicry and dance, the costumes and the masks, the formality and structure of Nô plays, and the categorization and program of Nô. Before the translated version appeared in print, Nôgaku had already published a review of the work, which reflected a hint of inferiority felt by some Japanese scholars towards Westerners during this time with the statement: "Though there are various scholars in our country, too, it is regretful that none have researched to this degree. That's

53Nôgaku 3.1 (1905), pp. 11-17.

129 just what one would expect from a Westerner. Truly admirable! "54 It may be said that one of Peri's achievements was that he encouraged Japanese scholars to boost the promotion and research of Nô. In 1913, during one of his return visits to Japan, he writes:55 I think it is not too unreasonable to suggest that a quality of the contemporary works being performed lately in theaters in Europe — such as that of Maeterlinck — was already manifest as early as the Ashikaga period in Japan. And yet, in spite of the fact that [the Japanese] have ready access to such artistic vision close at hand, these young literary men make a great fuss about Maeterlinck and Baudelaire. We have only to conclude that they are insulting their ancestors. Of course, the art of Nô is of a classical nature, thus its expression is very slow and elegant. Even so, the fact that they cannot find a modem and acute sensation in this classical and elegant art of their own coxmtr}^ is really quite humorous. I wonder if what is meant by 'One must go abroad for news of home,' is not something akin to this. After all, how may one begin to understand Nô libretti, without a reckoning of these symbolic factors? What else is there? What would remain but a sequence of incomprehensible dead letters?

Both Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) and Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1821-67) were leading figures in the symbolist movement, the former in the field of theater, and the later in poetic literature. In Marvin Carlson's words, "Maeterlinck never found what he considered a satisfactory way of resolving the tension between the spiritual vision of the poet and the physical world of the theatre and the actor."56 Péri, familiar with both European and Japanese theater, probably sensed that clues to the kind of theater that the symbolists sought could be found in the art of Nô. Indeed, the way a Nô play fills the gaps between the revelation of one's inner quality and its outer expression by 5^Nôgaku 8.7 (1910), p. 39.

55NÔgaku 11.7 (1913), p. 39.

56Marvin Carlson, Theories of the Theatre: A Historical and Critical Survey from the Greeks to the Present (Ithaca and London; Cornell University Press, 1984), p. 296.

130 creating an image through dance and chant, but not through realistic action, may seem to suggest an approach to resolving Maeterlinck's dilemma. Unlike Péri, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) did not encounter Nô firsthand. Nevertheless, he was also to find in Nô a model for the poetic/symbolist drama that he hoped to create. Yeats wrote: "Our unimaginative arts are content to set a piece of the world as we know it in a place by itself."57 Yeats noted that in neglecting character, Japanese artists "have made possible a hundred lovely intricacies. "58 In addition to some other works published after Peri's departure from Japan, the culmination of his study was published in 1944, twenty-two years after his death, entitled Le Nô.59 He was a pioneer-scholar in the study of NÔ. His work gave inspiration both to Japanese scholars and to those from the West who would follow in his footsteps, such as Gaston Renondeau and Paul Claudel, among others.

What also may be surprising is the degree to which Ernest Fenollosa (1853-1908), and the successors of his work were able to participate in the art. Fenollosa was bom in Salem, Massachusetts. His father was a Spanish musician, and his mother, the dauther of an old East India ship owner. Though Fenollosa's major course of study was philosophy at Harvard, he was also much interested in the arts. He sang in the chorus at Harvard and studied drawing and painting at the Art School of the Boston Museum. In 57wUliam Butler Yeats, "Certain Noble Plays of Japan" in George W. Brandt, ed. Modem Theories of Drama: A Selection of Writings on Drama and Thetre, 1840-1990 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 128. Hereafer referred to as Yeats, "Certain Noble Plays of Japan." The original is in Certain Noble Plays of Japan: From the Manuscripts of Ernest Fenollosa, Chosen and Finished by Ezra Pound, with an Introduction by William Butler Yeats (The Cuala Press, 1917).

SSYeats, "Certain Noble Plays of Japan," p. 131.

59Noël Péri, Le Nô (Tokyo: Maison Franco-Japanaise, 1944).

131 addition, he studied art history. It was his art history teacher, Charles Eliot Norton, who opened the way for Fenollosa to take a teaching position in

J a p a n .6 0 He first came to Japan in 1878, as a Professor of Economics and Philosophy (later, also Logic) of Tokyo Imperial University. While there, with one of his students, Okakura Tenshin (1862-1913), he also contributed to the establishment of the Tokyo Art School (Joki/o Bijutsu Gakko) in 1887.

Like Morse, he studied utai under Umewaka Minoru. He also did research on the art of Nô through conversations with Umewaka, studied Nô texts with Hirata Tokuboku, and was an earnest attendant at Nô performances. Hirata, a supporter and the translator of Fenollosa's study in Nô, writes: "he [Fenollosa] never fails to attend the monthly performance of the Umewaka school, seated in the very front seat facing the front of the Nô stage, and Umewaka Minoru says that among the many audience members, no one watches his art as seriously.

One of Fenollosa's contributions to the state of the arts in Japan at that time was to advocate the preservation of indigenous Japanese arts, warning against the indiscriminate imitation of things Western. According to Paul Varley, Fenollosa "evolved a grand philosophical concept along the lines of 'Eastern morals and Western technology', according to which he prophesied a Hegelian-type dialectical synthesis between the spiritual East and the material

West that would advance the world to a new cultural p l a n e . "62 Eventually, his admiration for and his efforts to preserve Japanese arts convinced the new Meiji government to advocate the importance of training in Japanese art. 60The information about Fenollosa is taken from Van Wyck Brooks, Fenollosa and His Circles with Other Essays in Biography (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., INC., 1962), pp. 1-3.

61 Furukawa, p. 105.

62Varley, p. 232.

132 That resulted in "the discontinuance of the Western-oriented Industrial Art School in 1883 and the substitution of brush painting for pencil drawing in public school art courses."63 The Tokyo Art School, to whose establishment Fenollosa contributed, began as a school which exclusively trained students in East Asian art, and that trend continued at least until the middle of the 1890s. This anecdote on Fenollosa is further evidence of the importance of Umewaka's contribution to the field of Nô, assuring its survival during the time of rapid and enormous social change towards modernization, especially in the early years of Meiji. It was just a matter of course that Umewaka and Fenollosa would inspire each other, as both took up the protection and prosperity of the Japanese traditional art as their lifetime mission. Their teacher-disciple relationship lasted for about twenty years, between 1880

(Meiji 13) and 1901 (Meiji 34)M Ezra Pound (1885-1972) describes Fenollosa's work for the preservation of Japanese artsz^s

He went to Japan as a professor of economics. He ended as Imperial Corrunissioner of Arts. He had unearthed treasure that no Japanese had heard of. It may be an exaggeration to say that he had saved Japanese art for Japan, but it is certain that he had done as much as any one man could have to set the native art in its rightful pre-eminence and to stop the aping of Europe. He had endeared himself to the government and laid the basis for a personal tradition. When he died suddenly in England the Japanese government sent a warship for his body, and the priests

63lbid., p. 232.

64According to Furukawa, pp. 180-197, based on Umewaka's diary, the date of Fenollosa's first and last lesson with Umewaka Minoru is figured to be 1883-1901. However, according to Fenollosa, he started lessons as early as 1880. Ernest F. Fenollosa, "Notes on the Japanese Lyric Drama," Journal of the American Oriental Society 22.1: 129-137 (1901), p. 129. For the starting date, I used Fenollosa's account.

65Ezra Pound and Ernest Fenollosa, The classic Noh Theater of Japan (New York: N ew Directions Publishing Corporation, 1959), p. 3. Hereafter, referred to as Pound and Fenollosa.

133 buried him within the sacred enclosure at M iidera.66 These facts speak for themselves.

The record left by Fenollosa was inherited and published in 1916 by

Ezra Pound. This book entitled 'Noh' or Accomplishment; A Study of the

Classical Stage of Japan describes the art o f No as: "the marvelously complete grasp of spiritual being [...] the Noh has its unity in emotion. It also has what we may call Unity of Image. At least, the better plays are all built into the intensification of a single Image."67 Again, a N o play does not emphasize action. The shite is often a spiritual being, such as a ghost, by its nature incapable of recourse to actions which might influence the progress of events in a play. Emotion, then, is not bom out of action, but it is the result of the intensification of an image which is created as a play unfolds. This difference between actions and emotion is also seen in Umewaka Minoru's view expressed in the following conversation between Umewaka and Fenollosa, which Fenollosa recorded:68

We spoke much of the art of it, I giving him a brief account of Greek drama. He already knew something about opera. He said the excellence of Noh lay in emotion, not in action or externals. Therefore there were no accessories, as in the theatres. "Spirit" (tamashii) was the word he used.

The work of Fenollosa also indirectly influenced William Butler Yeats. Pound spent three winters, from 1914 to 1916, in a stone cottage in Sussex, England where Yeats used to spend his winters. It was during these three winters with Yeats that Pound finished his writing on FenoUosa's notes on No plays. It was also during this time that Yeats had been introduced.

66Miidera, the Mii temple, is located in current Shiga prefecture.

67pound and Fenollosa, p. 31.

68pound and Fenollosa, p. 47.

134 through Pound, to what was for him a new form of theater.69 Yeats was quick to speak out against the current of realism that was gaining prominence in the European theater of his day. He suggested that it was targeted at the common people, and that its popularity might be attributed to the fact that realism is "...the delight today of all those whose minds educated alone by school-masters and newspapers are without the memory of beauty and emotional subtlety. "70 Yeats, like many of his contemporaries, looked to the Orient for an esthetic alternative. He muses;7i I wonder am I fanciful in discovering in the plays themselves a playing upon a single metaphor, as deliberate as the echoing rhythm of line in Chinese and Japanese painting.

Referring to the No play, Nishikigi, Yeats writes: "The men who created this convention were more like ourselves than were the Greeks and Romans, more like us even than are Shakespeare and C orneille. "72 The persons whose accounts are included here came upon No through a variety of means. In order to better their understanding of the art and of their host country, some, such as Edward Morse and Earnest Fenollosa, went so far as to engage in the practice of studying the chanting of No texts, known as utai. Others, such as Noël Péri, Basil Chamberlain, and William Aston, eventually became engaged in the study of No drama and published translations of plays. Still others, such as Earnest Satow, A.B. Mitford, and

^^Hasegawa Toshimitsu, Yeats to No to Modanizumu (Yeats, N o and Modernism) (Tokyo: Yûsiipuraningu, 1995), pp. 12-13.

70Certain Noble Plays of Japan: From the Manuscripts of Ernest Fenollosa, Chosen and Finished by Ezra Pound, with an Introduction by William Butler Yeats (The Cuala Press, 1917), p. viii. Hereafter, referred to as Yeats.

71 Yeats, p. xvi.

72Yeats, p. xv.

135 Osman Edwards left accounts reflecting their direct and curious reactions towards an unknown form of theater. W.B. Yeats, among those cited here had the least amount of cultural exposure to Japan. But arguably, it was the wealth of his experience as a poet, as well as his dissatisfaction with what he perceived to be contemporary currents in the European theatre, which compelled him to read into the texts what others among his contemporaries could not ferret out even in a live viewing.

The observations included thus far have all been contemporary to the Meiji period. It was some years later that Paul Claudel (1868-1955), a French poet, playwright and diplomat, coined the phrase mentioned previously: "drama is something that happens. No is someone that happens (Le drame, c'est quelque chose qui arrive, le Nô, c'est quelqu'un qui arrive)."73 Claudel's statement is as apt as it is concise. Indeed what may frustrate many who view No is its lack of emphasis on action: on a sequence of events which, in turn, serve to bring about successive events. The very strategy by which one may be accustomed to engaging in a drama is undermined from the outset. A No performance has a raw quality which reaches the viewer not quite complete, and which therefore requires of the viewer active, constructive participation. It is often the case that commentary on it says much about the commentator's constructive faculties. This may offer at least a partial explanation as to why Nô has had the capacity to inspire such diverse reactions from the diverse audiences who have attended to it. In contrast to the foreign witnesses of the art in the sixteenth century, the visitors to the art during the Meiji period engaged themselves with the art in much more intimate ways. The attraction of Nô to them went beyond 73Paul Claudel, L'oiseau noir dans le soleil levant, in Connaisance de l'est suivi de L'oiseau noir dans le soleil levant (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 9174), p. 197.

136 simple comparisons with the theaters of their native cultures. Some like Péri, Fenollosa and Yeats found in Nô something which was missing in the Western theater of that time, and were attracted to Nô for this very reason. There were also those who criticized Nô for not being like Western drama for reasons such as its failure to conform to Aristotle's three unities, lack of scenery, unnatural music, 'structural deficiencies,' etc. These opposing views towards Nô reveal what this theater is about. For those who view theatre through an Aristotelian lens, the experience of attending a Nô performance is likely to end up in disappointment or even frustration. However, for those who look for and apply alternative ways of viewing, or for those who are not predisposed to look in any one particular way, Nô theater also provides much inspiration. In this sense, we may be able to say that seeds of the modes in which NÔ has been received and presented overseas, especially from the later half of the twentieth century to the present, may be found in the responses by these witnesses of the Meiji period. By making dance and chant the basis of performance configuration, and by blending monomane into this foundation, Nô theater responds to what the individual audience members bring to the experience.

137 CHAPTERS

CHINESE PATTERNS OF RECEPTION

This study is situated at the crossroads of Japan, China, and the West, and hence an analysis of the process of meaning making must bridge these different cultures and histories. In previous chapters, the focus has been on Japan as the site of meaning making, and the West represented one entity that Japan emulated in its struggles to modernize. In this chapter, the focus shifts to the arena of Japan and China and, as an extension, the West, but only as it constitutes a recurring theme of the other for both Japan and China. The first section wül provide a brief overview of extant records of Chinese visitors' experiences of Nô drama in Japan during the Meiji period. Their comments reveal how processes of crosscultural construction of meaning that had occurred between Japan and China are reflected in Chinese preferences for one form of theater over another, and how theatrical forms may thus be received or rejected at the site of cultural confrontations. The second section looks into the socio-cultural context that brought the reversal of the unidirectional cultural flow between Japan and China. As described in Chapter Two, the flow had been predominantly from China to Japan throughout the premodem period. From the late nineteenth century however, it was no longer unidirectional.

138 5.1 Chinese Audiences in Japan

The records of firsthand Chinese responses to Nô between the 1870s and 1920s are thin. Given the fact that tens of thousands of Chinese crossed the Japan Sea to be hosted by Japanese cultural institutions during that same period, one cannot help but wonder at this paucity. What is more, Chinese responses on record are ambivalent at best, but more often misleading, blatantly inaccurate, or altogether disinterested. Some of those who attended live performances and left accounts of their impressions were in Japan on official embassies. Others were among the vast majority of Chinese nationals in Japan who were there to study. Like most of their Western counterparts, these were accidental visitors to the art who had come to Japan for purposes unrelated to Nô. But the cultural background of Chinese visitors who came upon NÔ was very different from the Western visitors in at least one respect. Whereas the cultural relationship between countries of the West and Japan was raw and still largely unformed, that between China and Japan had already spanned two millenia. A few official embassies from China were treated to special performances of Nô. Japanese newspapers gave very enthusiastic reports of the important visitors' responses to such occasions, though first-hand accounts by the visitors themselves are either lacking or fail to substantiate the claims of the press. In September 1902 Dai Zhen of the Qing imperial family attended a Nô performance at the Umewaka stage, but left no record of his response.! Another official visitor from Qing was Sheng Xuanhai. In October of 1908, he, his wife and daughter, and Tang Shaoyi were treated to a lavish

! A report of the Jiji shinpô on September 7,1902. Kurata, vol. 3, p. 191.

139 welcoming ceremony, and on the following day were escorted to the Kudan NÔ Theater. For their benefit, synopses of the plays to be presented had been prepared in advance. If the report by the Tokyo nichi nichi Newspaper is to be trusted, the guests "seemed to understand the content of the performances, and appeared to feel the deepest inspiration."^ Unfortunately, no account from Sheng or his party remains either.

There are some personal accounts left by visitors who stayed in Japan for longer periods. One such account was left by statesman and poet, Huang Zunxian (1848-1905). Bom in Guangdong, Huang became a counselor at the Chinese embassy in Japan in 1877, at the age of twenty-nine.3 He would later serve as a counselor in England (1890), and as consul general in San Francisco and Singapore.4 He was one of the first to write a comprehensive account of the Meiji Restoration for the benefit of a Chinese readership. His book, entitled Riben zashi shi,5 first published in 1879, covers a wide variety of topics, including the political situation of Japan at that time, customs, literature, geography, and the arts. Each entry takes the form of a poem written in response to a particular subject, followed by a brief explanation. His entry on Nô reads as follows:^

2Kurata, vol. 4, pp. 124-25. The plays presented were Momiji gari, Youchi soga, and Tsuchigumo.

3Huang Zunxian, Riben zashi ski (A record of Japanese miscellany) (Changsha: Hunan renmin chuban she, 1981), p 9. Huang was bom in 1848. Hereafter referred to as Huang Zunxian 1.

^Cihai, Cihai bianji weiyuan hui (Editorial committee of Cihai), ed. (Shanghai: Shanghai dshu chubanshe, 1989). Vol. 3, p. 5375.

SHuang Zunxian, Nihon zatsuji shi è (A record of miscellaneous Japanese things), Sanetô Keishû and Toyota Minoru, tr. Tôyô bunko 111. (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1968). pp. 221-22. Hereafter referred to as Huang Zunxian 2.

^Huang Zunxian 1, p. 196. Also, Huang Zunxian 2, p. 222.

140 Sarugaku is also called Sangaku. It is also commonly called Nô. After another transformation, it became Dengaku. [...] The head of a troupe of actors is called dayû, next come the zvaki performers, comic rolls, Kyôgen performers, and the singers, or jiutai. Many phrases originate from Buddhism. The appearance [of the performers] is similar to that of prostitute-actresses.

This passage is followed by a description of musical instruments used for No performances. In the context of a description of the string instrument known as the biwa, Huang again refers to Sarugaku:^

What is called Sarugaku is actually men singing and dancing, dressed in ladies' clothing. It started at the time of Hôjô,® and became popular during the Muromachi period. Toyotomi Hideyoshi learned it in person. After that, royalty, nobles, and the like aU powdered their faces, applied rouge, and imitated actors.

Huang does not identify how he came by this information. Many of the points he makes regarding Sarugaku are misleading; others are grossly inaccurate. The first statement above gives the impression that Sarugaku,

Sangaku, and Nô are interchangeable terms to describe one art form. However, each of these three terms has had its own independent usage in the flow of cultural history. For instance, by the Meiji period (when Huang published his book), the terms Nô and Nôgaku had come into common usage.9 His explanation of Dengaku as derivative of Nô is also misleading. We can find historical records of Dengaku-nô and Sarugaku-nô as two different types of Nô (rather than one being a derivative of the other) that

^Huang Zunxian 2, p. 227.

8The Hôjô family served as regents to the Kamakura bakufu for generations.

9por further discussion of the historical development of the use of these three terms, Sarugaku, Sangaku, and Nô, see Omote and Amano, pp. 6-8. According to Omote and Amano, until the early Heian period (794-1192), the term (as suggested by the Chinese characters) Sangaku was mainly used to mean Sarugaku which broadly referred to performing arts in general. By the Kamakura period, the term Sarugaku had become predominant.

141 were performed simultaneously and competitively.io Also, his identification of the waki, but his failure to identify the protagonist, or shite, shows the inadequacy of his knowledge about the art form he was trying to introduce. Huang's comparison of performers to prostitute actresses and his descriptions of rouged and powdered faces have no basis whatsoever in fact.

The shite performer in the majority of Nô performances wears a mask, rather than makeup. Even in the case of the unmasked zvaki performers and shite roles which do not require a mask, the performers must always reveal their plain features, free from powder or rouge. Given the false information in his claims, and the fact that there are no actual references in Huang's book to specific occasions on which he attended any of these forms of Nô, whether he ever saw a performance during his four-year stay in Japan is questionable. Since he does not identify how he came by this information, we are left to wonder about the degree to which sheer conjecture and assumptions based on more familiar Chinese dramatic forms led him to his conclusions. It is difficult to assess the damage done by the publication of such misleading reports. Certainly those Chinese who had access to Huang's book far outnumbered those who attended Nô performances. Zhou Zuoren (1885-1967) was a well-known literary man who traveled to Japan in 1906 at the age of twenty-one and stayed until 1911. He was renowned not only as the brother of the author Lu Xun (1881-1936), but also for his translation work and his active engagement in the modem literary

lOpor further discussion, see Omote and Amano, pp. 27-29.

142 movement. 11 While in Japan, besides engaging in translation work with his brother, he also studied at Rikkyô University in Tokyo.

2Tiou would later publish a Kyôgen translation, entitled Kuangyan shifan, in Beijing .1 2 In its preface, he says, "Kyôgen is what I fundamentally like." He adds "this little book is not for a study of Kyôgen. Even to study, my ability does no suffice to pursue such an endeavor. [...] The only reason I translated these Kyôgen pieces is because they are interesting and fun. I hope the readers may also find them interesting."i3 Translations of each play are followed by explanatory notes, including commentary and background information, and sometimes historical information on Kyôgen. In one such section, he contrasts the characteristics of Nô with those of Kyôgen;i4 Expressions used in Nô are magnificent, employing many set phrases, depicting heroism, and promoting Buddhist virtues. Kyôgen, which makes use of the colloquial language of its time, depicts absurdity and foolishness in society. Officials and masters in Kyôgen are all crude; priests are quite corrupt, and ghosts and supernatural beings are also tricked and cheated. It is exactly the opposite of Nô. Its humor is very naive and simple.

Zhou's impressions of a Nô performance may be found in Shichiri

Jûkei's essay, "Ono 0 mitaru shina jin no inshô" (Impressions of a Chinese who saw a Nô performance), published in his 1926 book, Yôkyoku to

llLw Xun: zai zhongri wenhua jiaoliu de zuobiao shang (Lu Xun: on the coordinates of Chinese and Japanese cultural exchange). Peng Dingan, ed. (Shenyang: Chunfeng wenyi chuban she, 1994), pp. 1019-22.

^'^Kuangyan shifan (Ten Kyôgen plays), Zhou Zuoren, tr. (Beijing: Beixin shuju, 1926). The ten plays he translated are: Koppi, Obagasake, Setsubun, Nariagarimono, Hanako, Konusubito, Kaidyamabushi, Kaminari, Dobukacchiri, and Niô. Hereafter referred to as Zhou Zuoren.

13Zhou Zuoren, p. 3.

1423iou Zuoren, p. 55.

143 genkyoku.^^ According to Shichiri, Zhou Zuoren, by then a professor at

Beijing University, had seen a Nô performance during his previous stay in Japan and had written the following account in one of his essays:i6 The developmental process of Japanese drama is generally very similar to that of China. However the process by which it became a mainstream performing art — due to its political and religious associations (specifically, its role as a ceremonial art of the bakufu) — firoze its cultural development at a certain period, and, for the five hundred years up to the present time, the artistic form of the original has been preserved. This is what is called Nôgaku. In Japan, too, it is a special art, however, if we see it from a Chinese perspective, it is even more meaningful. This is because through Nôgaku, we may make inferences about (Chinese) dramatic forms of the time before the Yuan drama.i7 Something which had already become extinct in China a long time ago, on the contrary, has been preserved overseas. Of course, it more or less went through a process of Japanese nationalistic naturalization, due to the religious thought which flourished in Japan and specific Japanese artistic characteristics. Nevertheless, these Japanese traditional and contemporary Nô and Kyôgen, the so-called tragic dramas and comedies, are all sworn brothers of Chinese ancient drama, and in them, we can find much similarity.

With this statement, Zhou claims that the art form has a Chinese pedigree, and that it may be regarded for its value as a preserved version of a pre-Yuan original. Despite the generally positive tone of his remarks, the references to the Japanese role in developing Nô as a cultural property are pejorative and condescending. Zhou reduces the Japanese influences on the

ISShichiri Jûkei, "Onô o mitaru shina jin no inshô" (An impressions of a Chinese who saw Nô performance) in Yôkyoku to genkyoku (Yôkyoku and Yuan drama) (Tokyo: Sekibunkan, 1926), pp. 3-4. Hereafter referred to as Shichiri.

16Shichiri, pp. 3-4. Shichiri does not provide the information on the source of this essay.

zaju (Yuan drama) was popular during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). "By the time the M ing dynasty [1368-1644] fell in 16M, zaju [various plays] were no longer performed at all and survived only as a genre of literature." Brandon, James R., ed.. The Cambridge Guide to Asian Theatre (Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 30.

144 art to a 'nationalistic naturalization/ He does not attribute any aesthetic value to the art form as a product of Japanese cultural traditions, but implies that No was appropriated and its development 'frozen' for five centuries. Nonetheless, Zhou Zuoren was enthusiastic about finding similarities between Nô and Chinese traditional drama. However, his contention that the two theatrical forms are kin to each other is not supported with any evidence. Moreover, by considering Nô for its relation to pre-Yuan Chinese drama, Zhou creates a cognitive category that shapes his understanding of the art, thereby shunting further exploration of its aesthetic worth. As for Kyôgen, he is content to take pleasure in its simplicity and likable humor, but does not try to grasp its role as a constituent part of the totality of a Nô performance. Nor does he relate it to his hypothesis regarding a common ancestry of Chinese and Japanese classical theatre.

Yang Banshanis is another figure who commented on the similarity of

NÔ drama and Chinese drama, specifically Jingxi (Beijing O p e r a ) . He was a

regular contributor to Yôkyokukai,^^ a monthly magazine devoted to

communication among yôkyoku circles in J a p a n.21 In one of his articles, he

introduces himself as a native of Tianjin, and a yôkyoku lover who has lived in Takamatsu, the capital city of Kagawa prefecture on Shikoku island, for a long time. After this brief self-introduction, he states that he is not a specialist of the drama of his native nation. Nevertheless, he repeatedly refers to role types of Beijing Opera, and then, builds on these descriptions by comparing

l^Little background information on Yang Banshan is known.

Jingxi is also known as fingju. In English, it is also called Peking opera.

^OYôkyokukai was first issued in 1914 by Maruoka Katsura.

^^Yôkyokukai, Yôkyokukai, éd., vols. 23 and 24 (1925-26).

145 each role type to its nearest equivalent in the Nô canon. For example, he

compares the zhengsheng (male) role in Beijing Opera to the shite role of the

N o play, Tadanori (a warrior play); that of laosheng (old male) to the shite of

Sanemori (also a warrior play: the warrior, Sanemori is depicted as a old

man); and zvusheng (martial male figure) to the shite of Funabenkei (a play

in the fifth category: the shite in the second act is a defeated martial figure). Then follows a comparison of role types of Beijing Opera with Nô masks.^ Yang himself confesses that his description of Beijing Opera in relation to Nô is not at all systematized .23 Like Zhou Zuoren, he was intrigued with the idea that No and one Chinese dramatic form share similarities, but he did not endeavor to clarify why this is so. Between 1925 and 1926, Yang Banshan contributed his impressions on

individual Nô plays under the title of "Yôkyoku zatsuei" (Miscellaneous poetry on yôkyoku) to almost every issue of YôkyokukaL‘2-^ Each of his contributions includes four such poems abstracted from plays he had read. For example, his poem on Sumidagazva^s is as foUows:26

22Yang Banshcin, "Geijutsu shûdô shina to ware o yomite" (After reading 'Geijutsu shûdô shina to ware'). Yôkyokukai 23.1: 68-72 (July 1925). Hereafter referred to as Yang Banshan 1.

23Yang Banshan 1, p.71.

2^Ydkyakukai 23 and 24 (1925-26).

25The shite of the play, Sumidagawa, is a mother on a journey in search of her son, who has been kidnapped by a trafficker. When she arrives at the Sumida river and boards a boat, the ferryman tells a story of a boy who fell ill, was abandoned by a trafficker, and died. The mother realizes that the boy was her son, and is taken to his burial sight. As she grieves and as she is lured on by ghostly apparition of her son, the day gradually breaks. For the original text, see Yôkyokushû 1 (A collection of Nô texts), ed. Yokomichi Mario and Omote Akira. Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 40. (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1960), pp. 385-94. Hereafter referred to as NKBT 40.

26Y0kyokukai 24.3:50 (1926).

146 yu tian dukou zuo kuang ren on a ferry at the Sumida river, there is a mad person xianhua tinglai dou chushen listening to a conversation, [she] went into a trance xunde jiaer maiguchu finding out the burial place for the dear child mituosheng li bei suanxin in the sound of prayer to Buddha, sadness doubles

It appears his interest was mainly in yôkyoku libretti. In the above poem on

Sumidagawa, as in others by Yang, the focus is on the textual (rather than visual or performative) content of the play at hand. For Yang, yôkyoku is an independent organism able to live detached from the other constituent parts of No performance, and the study and practice of yôkyoku, a worthwhile end in itself. In this sense, he is like many Japaneseyôkyoku enthusiasts described earlier. Huang Zunsan (1883-27), was one of the first students chosen to be sent to Japan by the Hunan province with public support. He arrived in Japan in June of 1905. During his more than seven years in Japan, he studied at Kôbun Gakuin (Kôbun Academy),28 Waseda University, and Meiji University, from which he graduated with a law degree. He kept a detailed diary of these seven years. There is only one entry in which he refers to the experience of going to see a play or gives his general impressions on Japanese theatrical forms. This entry, dated January 5,1909, states:29

27The year of his death is unknown.

28Kôbun gakuin was established in 1902 with the purpose of providing basic education for Chinese students who came to study in Japan. It was closed in 1909. Sanetô Keishû,Chûgokujin nïhon ryûgaku shi kô (A record of Chinese studying in Japan) (Tokyo: Nikka gakkai,1939), pp.101-2. Hereafter referred to as Sanetô.

29Huang Zunsan, Shinkokujin nihon ryûgaku nikki (Diary of a Qing person during his stay in Japan), Sanetô Keishû and Satô Saburô, tr. (Tokyo: Tôhô shoten,1986), p. 166.

147 Invited by a friend, I went to see a Japanese play at a theater in Hongô.30 The stage background was simple and rough, characteristics representative of Japanese tastes. Much tragedy, little comedy. The pronunciation was gloomy and unclear. Only because of the accompaniment of the shamisen [a three stringed Japanese banjo], could I keep listening. Other [theatrical forms] such as realistic drama, because they give great consideration to human expression, are very similar to Western modem drama. Neither traditional nor modem drama use gongs or drums; though in the traditional theater, shamisen and biwa are used, in modem drama, there is only movement and the spoken word.

The number of Chinese studying in Japan peaked during the period of Huang's stay. It is probable that his disinterest in Japanese theater, especially traditional theater, exemplified a similar indifference on the part of these Chinese students m general. They had crossed the ocean not to study about Japan, but to study Westem culture from a safe distance. It is important to note that many Chinese students would eventually express greater interest in the Western-inspired works of the Tsukiji shôgekijô (Tsukiji little theater). The Tsukiji shôgekijô, founded in 1924, was the first theater built to produce modem dramas in Japan. It was the original center for the shingeki (lit. new theater) movement, which attempted to create a theater of Realism as represented in the works of Ibsen, Chekhov and

Gorky, among others. Shingeki tried to break completely away from the influence of traditional Japanese theater. Zhen Hua, who studied in Japan from 1933 to 1937 recalls: "At that time, [...] the Tsukiji shôgekijô was the place we, the progressive Chinese students, frequented. There we saw many

30Hongô is in the current Bunkyô ward of Tokyo. The area used to be called Hongô ward.

148 Japaneseshingeki and European modem plays performed in Japanese."3i

Another student, who stayed in Japan from 1928 to 1930, recalls: "From the end of 1928 to the beginning of 1930,1 often went to the Tsukiji shôgekijô with friends from the Leftists Artists' Association."32

Ironically, Meiji Japan was the site of the first performance of modem Chinese drama. In 1906 the Spring Willow Society (Chunliu she) was established by Chinese studying in Japan who would later become leading figures in the development of modem drama in their native country. Their first production {Chahuanii), adapted from two acts of Alexandre Dumas' La

Dame aux Camélias, occurred in 1907.33 They received guidance firom Fujisawa Asajirô (1866-1917), a leading figure in the new theater movement in Japan and the founder ofTokyo haiyû yôsei jo (Tokyo School for Actors' Training). The Spring Willow Society's second production, an adaptation of

Harriet Beecher Stove's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (Hei -nu yu tianlu), followed in J u n e .3 4 Osanai Kaoru (1881-1918), theater critic and leading modem dramatist in Japan, who would later found the renowned Tsukiji

Little Theater, attended this performance and wrote a positive r e v i e w . 3 5

31Wa^fl seishun no nihon: chûgoku chishikijin no nihon kaisô (My youth, Japan: Chinese intellectuals' recollections on Japan), Jirunin chûgoku zasshi sha, ed. (Tokyo: Tôhô shoten, 1982), p. 133.

32lbid., p. 88. The Leftists Artists' Association was established in 1928 by Chinese students studying in Japan. The founders included Xia Yan andXu Huazhi, among others.

33.Ma Sen, Xichao xia de zhongguo xiandai xiju (Chinese Modem drama under the influence of the West) (Taipei: Shulin shudian, 1994), p. 36. Hereafter referred to as Ma Sen.

34.Ce Yihong, ed. Zhongguo huaju tongshi (A comprehensive history of Chinese spoken drama) (Beijing: Wenhua yishu chuban she, 1997, p. 12.

35lbid.

149 Just as Chinese students of natural and social sciences learned about Westem advances in these fields through Japanese sources, the pioneers of modem Chinese drama leamed about modem Westem theater conventions from their Japanese counterparts, pioneers in modem Japanese drama. The theater reform led by those Chinese dramatists was a direct reflection of the larger prevailing need for social reform in China. At the time that Chinese students began flocking to Japan, China had just suffered a defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, and imperialist aggression towards China was escalating. For Chinese intellectuals in this period, social reform was a common goal in all pursuits, and theater was no exception.36 To modernize China, and thereby regain intemational status, the study and appropriation of imperialist knowledge was primary. Traditional systems of knowledge, including Confucian precepts, had to be rejected, or so it was argued. Japanese traditional theater was perceived more as an obstacle than an aid to the development of such an idea. In particular, the use of Nô by the Japanese high officials to promote a Japanese national identity did not appeal to those Chinese theater reformists who, like their countrymen specializing in medicine and law, were there to study about the West. For these and other Chinese who came to Japan at the beginning of the century, traditional Japanese theater forms such as Nô did not hold much interest. They were largely perceived either as offspring of Chinese traditional drama, or as simply irrelevant. Though some, such as Yang

Banshan, favored yôkyoku, most visitors did not share his enthusiasm. The historical and cultural relationship that China and Japan had developed

36Ma Sen, p. 37.

150 before the modem period, coupled with Chinese interest in Westem culture, were arguably the principal factors contributing to this disinterest. To put these comments in perspective, it is necessary to understand something about the circumstances which brought Chinese visitors to Japan during this time. The following section addresses those circumstances. Of primary concem is the process by which the long standing unidirectional flow of cultural influence (from China to Japan) was reversed during the Meiji period.

5.2 Chinese Rush to Japan

In the race to assimilate Westem culture prior to the Meiji Restoration, China was way ahead of Japan. In Japan, the majority of the information regarding the West, books, magazines, and newspapers, etc., had come via China and/or through Chinese translations. Because trade and other exchanges with overseas countries had been limited to China and Holland since the early seventeenth century, aU information from overseas had to come through Chinese or Dutch translations, or in other Westem languages through the hands of Dutch or Chinese traders. It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that the first official institution for translation of Westem books was established by the Tokugawa bakufu. However, soon after the Meiji Restoration, Japan eagerly started to absorb Westem culture and concurrently develop its military strength. Its defeat of Qing forces in the Sino-Japanese war (1894-95) was a great shock to the leaders of Qing China, and marked the beginning of a shift in the tide of information about the West passing between China and Japan. In 1896 (Meiji

151 29), a year after the end of the war, thirteen Chinese students were sent to study in Japan. After that time, though there were some variations in number, the flow of students from China to Japan continued and steadily increased, reaching to over ten thousand students by 1906.37 Since the main purpose of studying abroad was to gain advanced knowledge and practical technology of the West, the first students were sent to a westem country. In 1872, twenty four years before the first Chinese students came to Japan, thirty such students went to the United States. As early as 1860 (twenty years after the start of the Opium War) the Qing government had established the first official school to teach foreign languages, called Tongwen guan (Translation House); starting in 1866, a section to teach Westem science was added, making this the first of several similar institutions established exclusively to address the study of Westem languages and science. After China's defeat in the Opium War and the consequent opening of its doors to the imperial powers, the country experienced a chain of disastrous events that extended from the mid-nineteenth into the early twentieth century. These included defeat in the Sino-Japanese war (1894-5); a failed reform movement (1898); the failure of an anti-foreign power movement that resulted in the formation of a semi-colonized state (1900); the humiliating effect on China of the Russo-Japanese war (1904-5); and the 37" xhe number of Chinese students in Japan rose to about two hundred in 1899, one thousand in 1903, thirteen hundred in 1904, roughly eight thousand by the end of 1905, and thirteen thousand or more in 1906." John K. Fairbank and Edwin O. Reischauer,China: Tradition & Transformation, Revised edition. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989). p. 394. Hereafter, referred to as Fairbank and Reischauer. Sanetô Keishû refers to a record listed in Liu dong wai shi or Ryûtô wai shi (A history of studying abroad in the East), stating that there were over ten thousand students who went to study in Japan in 1915. He also alluded toLiu dong wai shi bu (A supplement to A history of studying abroad in the East), which states that there were almost twenty thousand students in the same year. Sanetô, pp. 3-4.

152 massive student demonstration against the treaties drawn up by the imperial powers at Versailles, at the end of World War I (1919). All played indispensable parts in changing socio-political and cultural conditions as China continued its movement towards the formation of a modem culture that offered alternatives to traditional (Confucian) values. The popular slogan of the 1890s, "zhongxue wei ti, xixue zvei yong" (Chinese learning for the essential principles; Westem leaming for the practical applications), is indicative of the negotiations necessary to come to terms with contradictory social pressures. In the following, Zhang Zhidong, a senior statesmen of the Qing government, sums up governmental attitudes towards Westem education, the merits of study abroad, and the eventual choice of Japan as a prime destination for study:38

Studying abroad for a year is better than studying Westem books for five years. [E]ntering foreign school for a year is better than studying in China for three years. [F]or the country to study, X iyang (lit. Westem Sea, meaning West) is not as good as Dongyang (lit. Eastem Sea, meaning East's West, namely Japan).

Zhang elaborates on the advantages of choosing Japan as the destination:^^

The distance is nearer, thus, more students may be sent; it is more accessible to China, thus, easier to oversee; written Japanese is closer to written Chinese thus it will be easier to be well versed; Westem books are abundant, and the Japanese have already refined and tried to improve all unimportant parts of Westem study; and as the situation of Chinese and Japanese customs are similar, it will be easier to assimilate. Thus, with a 38W u N i, Zhongguoren liuxue shi hua (A record of Chinese studying abroad) (Beijing: Shangwu yinshu guan, 1997), p. 73. Hereafter referred to as W u N i.

39Wu Ni, pp. 73-74. The originals for the materials cited in footnotes two and three are found in "Quanxue pian (2), youxue di er," in Zhang Wenxiang gong quanji, vol. 203 (Beiping wenhua zhai, 1989).

153 minimum of energy, maximum results may be achieved. Nothing is better than this.

Due to its relative proximity, convenience and affordability, studying in Japan offered the opportunity to study about the West without the trouble of having to go there. It is almost impossible to estimate the exact number of students who went to Japan during this period. There were those who were sent by the central government, by provincial governments, and some who went by their own means. According to a record left by a Japanese language instructor^o who started his assignment in 1903, just as the number of Chinese students coming to Japan approached its peak, those students included not only men, but also women (who reportedly had difficulty

walking because of bound feet), the elderly (some reaching seventy), and children. Many came as parent and child or as couples, and the range of education they hoped to receive varied from elementary school to university. They came with a wide range of ability and experience, and thus the course of study they took also varied greatly. Meanwhile, the practice of sending students to Westem countries had virtually stopped between 1882 and 1902, with the exception of ministers to the U.S.A. or to England who brought two to four students to accompany them on em bassies.O verall, those who went to Japan far outnumbered those who went to Westem countries, especially at the beginning of the assimilation of Westem knowledge in the modem history of China. For example, in 1902, following the growing awareness of the necessity of absorbing Westem education, all together sixteen official students were sent

40Sanetô, p. 97.

41 Sanetô, p. 33.

154 to various Westem countries from Capital Normal University, in contrast to thirty-one students who were sent to Japan at the same time. This trend of having more students in Japan seems to have continued until 1931,^2 the year of the Manchurian Incident, the beginning of Japanese aggressive military occupation in Northern China. On September 18, 1931, a group of Japanese army officers bombed a portion of the Japanese-owned Southern Manuchurian railway, pinning the responsibility on the Chinese, to justify their military occupation of Manchuria. After 1931, records show that the number of those going to Japan gradually decreased, becoming smaller in number in comparison to the total number of those who went to other countries .43

As the numbers of Chinese students increased at the turn of the century, the quality of education offered by schools appears to have deteriorated. Those who wished to instantly acquire a skill formed the majority. In response to burgeoning demand, special schools selling a variety of certifications sprang up in Japan, and reaped profits from their eager clientele. The most popular was the so-called intensive course, in which students could take short-term classes in a variety of fields, such as the training of teachers, policing, farming, industry, commerce, business, etc.44 Records from 1906, the year the number of Chinese students in Japan reached 42According to the record of the Chinese Department of Education, in 1931, 303 students (7 official, 296 by their own expense) were studying in Japan after having received certificates to study abroad. This compares with 146 (22 official and 124 by their own expense) in the U.S.A., 138 in France, and 67 in Germany. There were all together 425 students studying in countries other than Japan. However, if we consider the Japanese registry of Chinese students studying in Japan in that same year, there are 1,421 names. This discrepancy suggests that many students found their own means to study without registering with Chinese officials. Sanetô, pp. 37-40.

43Sanet6, pp. 37-40. In 1932,227 students went to Japan and a total of 349 to other countries, following by 219 to Japan and 420 to other countries in 1933.

44Wu Ni, p. 77.

155 its peak, show that those in intensive courses comprised sixty percent of the total of about 12,000 Chinese students studying in Japan. This was followed by regular (elementary or junior high level) students at thirty percent.45 As evidenced by these statistics, many of those who went to Japan failed to achieve a high level of accomplishment in their studies. In 1906, when the Qing government held an examination to determine the official positions for students returning from overseas, eighty of the one hundred examined were students who had studied in Japan. The result, however, was disastrous, for none of those eighty passed the examination. The only individuals who passed had studied in the United States.46 This statistic, however, should not undermine the significance of the popular rush to Japan at this time. It was after this reality check that the number of students to Japan ebbed, forecasting the close of most intensive courses offered specifically for Chinese students.47 But as the numbers decreased, the quality of education and training seems to have risen. In time, the ratio of those who passed the examination rose. In later years, those candidates who had studied in Japan came to command an absolute majority among returning students who successfully passed the placement exam.48 An examination of how knowledge was transferred offers insights into the shifting power relations that existed among Japan, China, and the West. One must consider direction and destination, as well as the mode of 45Those who altered their plans and did not finish made up six to seven percent; those who entered into higher educational institutions or technical colleges, three to four percent; and finally those who entered universities formed only one percent. Wu Ni, p. 84.

46Wu Ni, p. 86.

47ln 1907, the number decreased to 10,000 students; in 1909 to 3,000; and in 1912 to 1,400. Wu Ni, p. 86.

48Wu Ni, p. 86.

156 transmission, such as publications or live performances. Lidia Lia, in her study of translingual practice in Modem China, raises the issue of confrontations which occur at the site of translation and points out that: "the interactions among Chinese, modem Japanese, and European languages have predominantly been unidirectional rather than mutual. "49 In the late nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century the

transference of knowledge was directed to China from the West, from Japan, or from the West via Japan.

By contrast, Japanese attitudes towards the former cultural father, China, had changed. Once viewed as the place to gain new knowledge, China came to be viewed as a place worthy of respect but in need of help in revitalizing its status in the intemational arena. China was the place where Japan had sent students to absorb culture starting as early as 607, and continuing for over two hundred years. Even after official embassies ceased in the ninth century, Japanese priests continued to cross the ocean to study, and as trade between the two countries continued, the current of cultural transmission had continued to be rather unidirectional, even as late as the mid-nineteenth century. That is, cultural transmission largely flowed from China eastward to Japan. However, as Japan became engrossed in the process of modernization, the target of its leaming also shifted. The pursuit of bunmei kaika (Westem civilization and enlightenment) during the first two decades of the Meiji period penetrated every layer of Japanese society. It was around the time that the Westem fever reached its peak that the long-lasting relationship of cultural father China and its child-absorber Japan

49Lidia H. Liu, Translingual Practice: Literature, National Culture, and Translated Modernity, China 1900-1937 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995). p. 19. Hereafter referred to as Liu.

157 began to reverse itself. The year 1887 (Meiji 20) marked the last publication in Japan of a Westem book translated from the Chinese language. After this publication, Japan stopped depending on China as its cultural mediator.so During the period between 1902 and 1904, under the auspices of a group of professional translation organizations in China, about 533 types of books were

translated from foreign languages into the Chinese language and published. Among those, 321 types or over sixty percent, were translated from Japanese sources.51

By the end of nineteenth century, there was also a notable change in the trends of Chinese translation practice reflecting an evolution in the specific fields of study that were attracting the attention of Chinese intellectuals. Before the Sino-Japanese War, it was widely believed that Westem countries were superior only in the fields of science and technology. Over seventy percent of translated books from foreign sources belonged either to the field of natural science or applied science. After the Sino-Japanese War, due to the recognition of the need for socio-political reform, many more translated books belonged to the cultural and social sciences, particularly law and politics.52

The massive influx of people from China especially after the turn of the century was also partly the result of the encouragement and according support by the Japanese government at that time. This unprecedented event of Chinese students coming to Japan to study also drew much attention from

SOSanetô, p. 65.

51 Wu Ni, p. 92.

52Wu Ni, p. 93. For example, eimong all the translations from Japanese sources published in book form between 1880 and 1904, 32% were in the field of the social sciences, 11% in history or geography, and 12% in natural science.

158 Japanese intellectuals. According to Sanetô Keishû, a leading scholar in the field of Sino-Japan relations, the first essay regarding the education of Chinese students was written by Ueda Kazutoshi, a pioneer in the field of Japanese linguistics. In an 1898 (Meiji 31) editorial column of the magazine Taiyô^'^ Ueda states: "In the beginning [Chinese students were] solicited [to come to Japan] by our diplomats and consulate generals, but nevertheless, it was destined to happen in due course of tim e . "54 He continues: "Only four or five years ago, Qing [the Chinese] looked down on us and disliked us, but upon certain reflections, they now respect us and trust us to educate their talents. To carry out this responsibility, what degree of determination on our part should be deemed enough?" In the following year in 1899, the former consulate general of Japan to China, Ôtori Keisuke, in his lecture at the Tokyo Academy, made reference to Chinese students:55 The dispatch of students from Qing China in both literary and military fields, is truly a wonderful way for us neighbors to get closer and the most praiseworthy act that we have heard of in recent years. [N]ow is the time to repay the debt of guidance received in the past.

The leading political, cultural, and military figures of both countries seemed to agree on the value of sending Chinese students to Japan to study. In 1898, Seijô School was the first to establish a department of foreign students specifically to accommodate and educate Chinese students. The first forty-five graduates from this school all entered the Japan Military Academy in 1900.56 As those in military majors increased, students in the fields of 53Sanetô, pp. 78-79. The original article was in Taiyô, vol. 4. no. 17 (August, 1898).

54Sanetô, pp. 78-79.

55Sanetô, pp. 81-82. The original was in Taiyô, vol. 5. no. 10 (1899).

56Sanetô, p. 77.

159 liberal arts also increased. China sent many students, and many chose to

come at their own expense with the expectation and hope of acquiring new knowledge; and the host country, Japan, welcomed such advancements with both eagerness and pride. There were also political motives behind such hopeful and welcoming attitudes by the host country, as evident in this letter sent by the Japanese consulate to the Japanese foreign minister of China in 1897, one year after the

first Chinese students arrived in J a p a n ; 5 7

The Qing officials' trust towards me is now certainly ten times more than before, because of the relationship of the current (Chinese) students and Japan; in the future, the Qing government will keep sending students to our country without interruption: in this way, the influence of our country will quietly but quickly spread over the East Asian continent. Thus, no matter how we look at this, I hope that our government will continue to receive Chinese students, and not miss out on this opportunity.

Thus, there is evidence that the seed of Japan's ambition to cultivate power on the Asian continent bore a relationship to its role in the education of Chinese students. But the extent of such ambition at that time is difficult to gauge. Chinese motives may also be inferred from actions taken by their government. The dispatch of Chinese students to Japan to acquire a Western education and knowledge of military systems began the year after the Chinese defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. This suggests that a primary motive of China was to protect itself from future aggression from the imperial powers, including Japan.

57Wu Ni, p. 74. The original is in Yano Fiunio, "Qinkoku ryûgakusei shôhei saku," in Kindai shi shiryo, vol. 74 (Chûgoku shakai kagaku shuppan sha, 1989).

160 Although confrontations over political demands and expectations began to surface later on, this reversal in the cultural relationship between the two countries appears to have happened in a rather mutually cooperative manner. It was a time when Japan, encouraged by the results of both the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars, started gaining confidence in its position, having transformed itself from a backward and weak nation, to a new member in the international arena of imperialist powers. China, in turn, was in the process of reevaluating itself, especially after the end of the Sino-Japanese War. Japan represented its closest and most Westernized neighbor (among those using Chinese characters). What made the massive unidirectional migration possible was simply, in Fairbank and Reischauer's words, "the historical circumstance that, in this dawn of their modem age, China was most eager to leam and Japan most eager to teach, as yet without serious conflicts of national interest."58

After this brief mutually cooperative period, confrontations gradually became inevitable as differences between Japan and China became irreducible.

5.3 Summary The evolving cultural relationship between Japan and China during this period is a fertile arena for discussing what Lidia Liu calls, "institutional practices and the knowledge/power relationships that authorize certain ways of knowing while discouraging others."59 What these Chinese visitors had in common was that they all belonged to a culture which had a long-standing

SSPairbank and Reischauer, p. 403.

59LÎU, p. 3.

161 relationship with Japan, informed by two millennia of Chinese cultural dominance. Chinese visitors viewed Japan as an expedient path to Western knowledge while discounting the worth of cultural properties native to Japan. This is exemplified by the attraction to the Tsukiji Little Theater, over traditional forms, and the underestimation of the intrinsic aesthetic worth of N o. The 'institutional practices' at play here included the widespread Chinese sponsorship of study in Japan, and the covert Japanese intent to 'quietly but quickly' spread its influence over the East Asian continent under the guise of repaying 'the debt of guidance received in the past.'

But as the popular Chinese slogan of the 1890s went: "zhongxue zuei ti, xixue wei yong" (Chinese learning for the essential principles; Western learning for the practical applications). Japan is nowhere to be found in this equation, even though it was the destination of the vast majority of those Chinese seeking Western knowledge. Clearly, Japan's sudden military advancement made it worthy of study, but did not merit cultural legitimacy in the eyes of its traditional cultural parent. It was merely a more approachable 'West.' The change in the directional flow of cultural influence exemplifies the processes by which meanings of forms of institutional practices and power relationships are constructed and justified at the site of confrontation. Such processes of meaning making, in turn, function to influence people's view of their world. Chinese reception of No plays a peculiar role in this portion of the study. As with many of the Western responses the commentary teUs us as much about the observer as the observed. In this case, the paucity of

162 records of Chinese visitors' responses to No during this period is itself a testament to how one's view is shaped by the political and cultural context. The inaccuracies, misunderstandings and omissions of those that did witness and/or write about No may be better understood in light of the evolving cultural relationship of these two countries, and the immanent, silent influence of imperial Western powers.

163 Part m

NÔ for Export; The Third Turning Point CHAPTER 6

NÔ AS MASCOT FOR COLONIALIST EXPANSION

6.1 Problematics in Overseas Performances The first overseas performance of No is generally considered to have been in 1954, at the International theater festival in Venice, Italy. The first monumental work to collect the records of overseas performances of No, entitled Nôgaku kaigai kôen shiyô (Survey of overseas performances of No) and edited by Nishi Kazuyoshi and Matsuda Tamotsu,! begins with a report of the above performance in Italy. It refers to it as the performance which crossed the ocean for the first time. Omote Akira and Amano Fumio also allude to this performance as hatsu no kaigai kôen (the first overseas performance) of No in their Nôgaku no rekishi (History of Nô).^ It is true that this occasion presented the first performance of No ever held in a

Western country. However, if we consider the most literal meaning of kaigai kôen as "overseas performance," the accepted view as represented in the writings of these leading scholars in the field of No presents a problem. iNishi Kazuyoshi and Matsuda Tamotsu, Nôgakii kaigai kôen shiÿô (A survey of overseas performances of No) (Tokyo: Kinsei sha, 1988), p. ii. Hereafter referred to as Nôgaku kaigai kôen shiyô.

20m ote and Amano, p. 179.

165 There were overseas performances held in countries such as Korea, China and Taiwan, almost fifty years prior to the one in Italy.

It is unlikely that these performances in Asia were simply overlooked, as there were records of newspaper reports about them. Also, Dcenouchi

Nobuyoshi's Nôgaku seisuiki,2 one of the few major works on the study of NÔ during the Meiji period, includes several references to such events. Thus, the scholars mentioned above, who cite the performance in Italy as the first overseas appearance, should have known about the performances held in Asian countries before the end of World War II. Does this mean then, that kaigai (overseas) refers only to the West? This cannot be, for even a cursory look into the aforementioned Nôgaku kaigai kôen shiyô (Survey of overseas performances of No), which records events from 1954 until 1986, lists nine performances held in China, three in India, and one each in Iran and Korea.4 To sort out these points, it becomes necessary to grapple with the notion of kaigai. It Literally means "outside of the ocean." As Japan consists of an archipelago, the geography of the surrounding ocean is not difficult to define. Thus any place outside the surrounding ocean is a foreign place, and kaigai has to be interpreted as any foreign country. Likewise, the first definition offered in a representative Japanese-English dictionaryS for kaigai is "foreign countries." Similarly, the explanation given for kaigai in a

Japanese language dictionary^ is 'gaikoku', "foreign countries," or "countries

^Dcenouchi.

^Nôgaku kaigai kôen shiyô, pp. 412-420.

^Shôgakukan Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary, ed. Kondô Ineko and Takano Fumiko (Tokyo: Shôgakukan, 1986), p. 267.

^Nihongo dai jiten (Great dictionary of Japanese language), ed. Umesao Tadao, Kindaichi Haruhiko, Itakura Atsuyoshi, et al. (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1989), p. 304.

166 overseas" as opposed to kokunai (lit. within a nation). The term kaigai appears with this usage in written form as early as the eighth century.7 Yet, it is still unclear why the performances held in Asian countries, such as in China, Korea, or Taiwan, almost fifty years prior to the 1954 performance in Italy, were not counted as overseas performances by these scholars writing in the postwar period. Was it because those places were not considered to be foreign? As Japan started to establish its position as a modem world power at the turn of the century, it also started to try to expand its territory by occupying parts of Asia. Thus, such a claim that those occupied places were not considered as foreign, but rather as territories of Japan, appears viable. However, by the end of World War U, Japanese-claimed lands were restored to their original countries. Over fifty years later, are we still continuing to embrace colonial perspectives?

Stefan Tanaka in his Japan's Orient,^ offers a persuasive account of how a history was recreated at the time of Japan's modernization at the turn of the century, and during the years following it. He attests to the powerful historical narrative which was constructed and used by the Japanese elite to promote the need for modernization in Japan.9 At the same time, such a narrative was used as the reasoning for overcoming the dilemma of maintaining Japan's own identity, while also creating an objective entity of

"^Nihon kokugo dai jiten (Great dictionary of Japanese language), ed Nihon jiten kankô iinkai, vol. 4 (Tokyo: Shôgakukan, 1973), p. 248.

SStefan Tanaka, Japan's Orient: Rendering Pasts into History (University of California Press, 1993). Hereafter referred to as Tanaka.

9According to Tanaka, the central figure in this process was Shiratori Kurakichi, who served as a professor at Tokyo Imperial University from 1904 to 1925. "Although not the 'first,' Shiratori is considered to be the scholar primarily responsible for the formation and formulation of tôyôshi as an academic and scientific field of history." Tanaka, p. 24.

167 the Orient, or tôyô (lit., eastern seas, generally translated as the Orient). Tôyô provided them "the conceptual arena in which to make claims for an area as well as a cultural typology that encompassed and located both shina [the prewar name for China in Japanese] and other Asian countries."lo Thus, "(a)s a geocultural entity, tôyô is essentially a twentieth-century Japanese concept. "11

Tanaka further explains how the creation of tôyôshi (a history of the Orient) functioned in the process of justifying Japan's position and promoting Japan's own idealization of its position in a world dominated by Western imperial powers. Tôyôshi helped to justify Japan's hope to communicate with such world powers as an equal counterpart, not as a subordinate or as a part of the Orient that Europe was colonizing. Thus, considering the pre­ modem relationship with China and the new emerging relationship with the West, "the Japanese had two parents who had to be surpassed,"i2 namely

China and the West.i3 Tanaka further states;i4

The creation of tôyôshi [...] authorized a particular Japanese view of Europe and Asia as well. It established modem Japan's equivalence — as the most advanced nation of Asia — with Europe, and also the distinction from and cultural, intellectual, and structural superiority over China. While Europe, as the lOTanaka, p. 5. llTanaka, p. 4. l^Tanaka, p. 272.

13Whereas China's weakening was taken to be the result of its having strayed from Confucian ideals, the Japanese made Confucian teaching "an oriental (tôyô) ideal." As for the other parent, the West, "Japanese historians used a developmental framework to prove that the combination of Japan's oriental past and its more recent Western education had enabled Japan to transform itself and surpass its stepparent." Tanaka, p. 273.

14Tanaka, p. 12.

168 West, became an other, that against which Japan compared itself, shina became a different other: it was an object, an idealized space and time from which Japan developed.

Tanaka's discussion suggests that the construction of tôyôshi was indispensable for Japan's centralization and modernization at the turn of the

century. Its construction made it possible to place Shina, or China — and by extension, other parts of Asia — and Japan into the same cultural entity, while at the same time asserting Japan's superiority over the others as a modem nation. That modernity also provided evidence to credit Japan equal status with the West. Thus, the practice of history making became a tool to justify Japan's imperialist motives.

Tanaka concludes that there is no fixed correlation between objects and knowledge and that "understanding is constantly recreated. His discussion of tôyô illustrates the power of language to shape (rather than sim ply describe) the way we view our world. More precisely, the term, tôyô, created a new scheme with which to understand Japan's emergence as an international power. Through the creation of tôyô, new meanings to explain the interrelationships between China and other parts of Asia to Japan could also be created.

Those scholars who suggest the first overseas performance {kaigai kôen) of No was not until 1954, seem to assume that the scope of the term kaigai excluded those territories to which Japan lay claim during the period of Japanese military advancement into parts of East Asia. If Japanese territories are excluded, then kaigai must be taken to refer to the West as sole counterpart to Japan's conceptual creation,toyô. It would also appear that in

ISjanaka, p. 7.

169 reference to periods after World War H, the concept of kaigai again includes China and other parts of Asia for these scholars. The question remains whether we should still use the schemes of this period of Japanese occupation when talking about the period. Representative works on the history of No and overseas performance records have in their use of kaigai implied that prewar performances in China should still be considered domestic performances, following the colonial logic of that time.

Shall we continue to adhere to a classification rooted in the biases of 'tôyôshi', a concept that served as a means to promote the legitimacy of Japan's occupation of China, now that the war has ended? Is it not time to explore other ways to view these past performances? From what we have seen so far, it appears that so far the leading scholars of No have honored the assumption that those performances happened in places outside the conceptual frame of the term kaigai: neither within Japan nor without. Why is this the case? What is the value in exploring other ways of understanding these performances? The next step is to look into the process of meaning making as it negotiates past objects and knowledge — that is, we will explore the performances held in Japan's territories during the time of occupation and the way they were understood at that time. This may also provide an opportunity to consider new meanings that reflect shifts in understanding, in relation to the present age.

170 6.2 First Performances Overseas

From the time that Japan started aggressive occupation of Korea, Taiwan, and China until the end of World War H, the area occupied by the

Japanese outside the Japanese archipelago was called"gaichi" (Chi., waidi) by the Japanese, meaning outside place, as opposed to naichi (Chi., neidi) or inland, which refers to areas inside the Japanese archipelago. What follows is the story of gaichi. China, Taiwan, and Korea are the focus. The rule of Taiwan by the Japanese government began in 1895 (Meiji 28) when the administrative system of the Japanese governor-general of Taiwan was established in Taipei. This came on the heels of the Sino-

Japanese War (1894-95), and as a result of the treaty ofShim onosekii6 in 1895, in which Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, and the Liaodong peninsula^^ were seized from China by Japan. Other provisions attached to this treaty included the payment of reparations, the opening of new trading ports, and China's recognition of an independent Korea. The Japanese occupation of Taiwan lasted until the end of World War U in 1945. The first performance of No in Taiwan was held on October 28, 1905 (Meiji 38), as a dedication to the Taiwan Shrineis on the occasion of its grand festival. Ikenouchi's Nôgaku seisuiki reports: "Since Taiwan became our

16ln Chinese this treaty is called Maguan tiaoyue (Treaty of Maguan). In Japanese, it is either Bakan jôyaku (Treaty of Bakan — as Shimonoseki was called at that time) or Shimonoseki jôyaku (Treaty at Shimonoseki). 1 use the last of these. l^Russia, Germany and France made a tripartite agreement and prevented Japan's occupation of Liaodong peninsula. As a result, with receipt of further reparation, Japan returned the peninsula. l^Taiwan Shrine (Taiwan jinjya) was established in Taipei on September 13, 1900 by the Imperial Household Agency of Japan. Grand festivals were held annually on October 28. Shinto dai jiten (A great dictionary of Shintô), Shimonaka Misaburô, ed. (Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1937), p. 410.

171 territory, [...] among people^^ in Taiwan, there are many who study the style

of the Kita s c h o o l . "20 Thus, the tour group was headed by BCita Roppeita, the

head of the Kita school. The program consisted of Iwafune, Hagoromo, and two Kyôgen pieces. Four days later at the Danshui-guan (Danshui Hall), Danshui, another performance was held. Again according to Ikenouchi, "upon invitation, among the over eight hundred people in attendance were The Chief Civil Administrator, Army Commanders, officers of civil and military affairs, members of business circles, and ladies and gentlemen. Though there were also forty to fifty natives, all appreciated the heroic atmosphere and

elegance."21 The No plays performed were Tamura, Aoi-no-ue, and

Hachinoki.22 in addition, there was a performance given at the central office

of the general-govemor in honor of the Emperor Meiji's birthday.23 Kokaji

was presented on this occasion. Probably it is best not to be quick to make generalizations. However, there seems to be a certain tendency discernible among the selection of plays presented at these three occasions. Their themes have a tendency to glorify elements such as the current reign of the nation, the hero grasping for victory, or fidelity to one's master. Iwafune, Hagoromo and Kokaji to a

certain degree, praise the peaceful reign of the nation; Tamura was a famous warrior of the Heian period; Sakanoue no Tamuramaro's victory at war was 19Presumably, this is a reference to Japanese nationals living in Taiwan.

20lkenouchi, p. 370.

21Ikenouchi, p. 370.

22a 1so, a shimai (the main part of the shite's dance presented without costume) of Kumasaka was performed.

23llcenouchi, pp. 370-1.

172 helped by divine intervention; and Hachinoki celebrates one retainer's devotion to his master. Only Aoi-no-ue does not seem to fit into these categories. Overall, the plays with a victorious and glorious atmosphere were selected for the first performances held in Taiwan. Two years later, when other performances were held again at the same location, the Taiwan Shrine, this tendency seems to have persisted. The first day of the two-day program of performances included Hagoromo, Tamura, and Takasago,^^ another play which praises the peaceful reign of the nation. This time the tour group consisted of the work of three No schools: Hôshô, Kanze and Kita. Play selection was probably influenced by the nature of the occasion, the festival for the Taiwan Shrine. A shrine, which is dedicated to Shiritô deities, represents the legitimacy and the reigning power of the Japanese imperial family. The circumstances of its establishment in a newly occupied foreign territory and the occasions of its festivals must have made the authorities even more inclined to choose such plays.

For example, the brief story of Iwafune , a Waki No, may be related as follows. The luaki performer (the main supporting role) disguised as an imperial envoy, receives an imperial order to buy treasure from Korea and

China at the shore of Sum iyoshi.25 Upon his arrival at Sumiyoshi with his servant, there is a child, the mae-jite (first-act protagonist), whose appearance is that of a Chinese, but whose speech is Japanese. He holds a treasured piece of jade on a silver plate and says that he plans to offer it to the emperor. The child explores the area with the envoy and praises the beauty of the shore. Then, the heavens which approve the benevolent rule of the Japanese

24Kurata, vol. 4, pp. 37-38.

25Sumiyoshi is located in the south of present day Osaka city.

173 nation, draw forth a ship loaded with treasure, on waves of clouds. The child, revealing his identity as the one who is rowing the ship, disappears into the sky. In the second act, while the imperial envoy is praising the peaceful reign of the era, the Japanese Dragon King, the nochi-jite (protagonist in the second act), who lives in the sea, appears and protects the treasure ship with the help of the Eight Great Dragon Gods.26 He rows the ship to the shore of Sumiyoshi, and takes out countless offerings of gold, silver and gems in celebration of prosperity of the nation in perpetuity.27

Though these performances were held in Taiwan, as seen above, only a handful of audience members were natives of Taiwan (forty to fifty out of more than eight hundred people). The majority were Japanese administrators, officers, businessmen, etc. In other words, these performances were mainly for those Japanese who lived in Taiwan at that time. Also, assemblies of those amateur practitioners of No dance and chant living there were held almost daily during the stay of the aforementioned No schools.28

Other performances were held on the occasion of the Taiwan Shrine festival, October 27 and 28, 1907.29 Then, a series of armual performances held in Taipei appear to have been dedicated to the repose of the souls of those

Japanese who died in the line of duty. On May 6,1909, the first such performance was held at a ceremony for the repose of 5,835 dead souls of 26According to the Lotus Sutra, the Eight Great Dragon Gods (Hachidai ryûô) is the general term for the eight dragon gods who protect the teachings of Buddhism.

27The story line of liuafiine is taken from No no jiten (A dictionary of No), Toita Michizô, ed. (Tokyo: Sanseidô, 1989), p. 61.

28lkenouchi, p. 371.

29Kurata, vol. 4, pp. 37-38. Reported by Taiwan nichi nichi shinpô on October 17,1907.

174 Japanese military men, policemen, and mariners who died in the line of duty.30 This ceremony began in 190831 and was held aimually for several years thereafter on the same date. May 6. According to newspaper reports, the presentation of a No performance seems to have been a recurrent part of the program.32

The Southern Manchuria Railroad Company was established in northeast China in 1906. This railroad company, called simply Mantetsu by the Japanese, was established based on advantages accrued as a result of victory in the Russo-Japanese War, and it became one of the foundations of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria.33 By 1932 the Japanese army had forcibly established the Manchurian empire, a puppet state, with the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Pu-yi, as its figurehead.

30Kurata, vol. 4. pp. 213-14. Reported by Taiwan nichi nichi shinpô on May 5, 1909.

3lThe first report on this occasion is in 1909. However, that report is identified as the second, implying that the first one was held in the previous year.

32Kurata, vol. 4. All reported in the Taiwan nichi nichi shinpô . Dates are May 6, 1909 (pp. 213-14); May 6 , 1910 (pp. 270-71); May 5,1911 (p. 335); and May 4,1912 (p. 456).

33Manzhou [Manchuria] is the old name referring to the area which includes the present day provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning.

175 One of the first performances held in mainland China was in 1912, when the Imayô-nô-kyôgen troupe34 toured Lüshun,3S Fengtian,36 and

Dalian. On February 21 of that year, the Manshû nichi nichi newspaper reports on a performance held in Dalian: "Those who like yôkyoku came to the opening performance with their utai-bon [chant books]. They compared the stage and their books eagerly. This was a sight seen for the first time in Dalian. "37 Again, it appears clear that these performances were held mainly for Japanese audiences who were living in these places. For example in Lushun, out of an eleven-day performing schedule, seven-days were spent on the stage of the Japanese Business Association, two-days were bought up by the Southern Manchuria Railroad Company, and one-day was spent performing for the Japanese army.38

During the Taishô period (1912-26), the records of performances held in mainland China are more numerous, though the locations of performances continue to be concentrated in the Manchurian area, especially Dalian. There were at least six occasions on which specially arranged troupes of various

34According to a newspaper article on the Yamato dated June 8,1907, Imayô-nô-kyôgen refers to a specific style of performance created by the head of this school, Izumi Yûsaburô. The school's performance combined the music of shamisen (a three-stringed Japanese banjo),koto (a long Japanese zither with thirteen strings), other dance form (other than Nô dance), etc. to the traditional form of Nô, to suit the tastes of common people. Certainly, this school was popular during the Meiji period. The school had over one hundred disciples in Kanazawa where it owned its private Nô stage. The school started activity in Tokyo in 1890. The supporters were not only commoners (including many women), but also many Kazoku people. Kurata, vol. 4, pp. 485-86.

35Lüshun (Jap. Ryojun) was a part of present day Dalian (Jap. Tairen), located at the south­ west tip of the Liaodong (Jap. Ryaoton) peninsula.

36Fengtian is the present-day, Shenyang city.

37fCurata, vol. 4, p. 488.

38Kurata, vol. 4, p. 487.

176 schools were sent from Japan during the fifteen years of the Taishô p e r i o d .3 9

It appears that by the middle of the Taishô period the base cities of the Japanese advance into mainland China, such as Dalian, already had a significant number of Japanese yôkyoku practitioners. The previously mentioned monthly magazine devoted to communication among yôkyoku circles, Yôkyokukai, published an article on the current situation in

Manchuria in 1 9 2 6 .4 0 It reports that among several yôkyoku circles in Manchuria, such as Umewaka, Kanze, Hôshô and others, Umewaka was the most popular. In Dalian alone, there were at least five such circles of the Umewaka school having all together over one hundred forty members, while one circle in Fushun4i could boast over eighty members. Korea was also occupied by Japan under similar political circumstances at this time of imperialistic power struggles. As a result of the Russo-Japanese War, at the treaty signed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in September of 1905, Japan gained a superior position on rights and interests over Korea. It was on this occasion that Japan acquired the lease of Lushun and Dalian, the railroad south of Changchun42 ûi China, and reached south of the latitude of fifty degrees north of Sakhalin ls l a n d .4 3 In 1910, the central office of the (Japanese) governor-general of Korea was established in Keijô (present day

^^Taishô no nôgaku (Nô in the Taishô period), ed. Kurata Yoshihiro (Tokyo: Nihon geijutsu bunka shinkôkai, 1998). pp. 485-86. Hereafter, referred to as Kurata, Taishô.

40kô Baishô, "Manshû Umewaka-ryû no kinkyô" (The present state of the Umewaka school in Manchuria), Yôkyokukai 24.1: 120 (1926).

41pushun Qap. Bujun) is located in the east of Liaoning province.

42Changchun is the capital of present day Jilin province. It was the capital of the Manchurian empire from 1932 to 1945, and was called Shinkyô (new capital).

43lnoue Mitsusada, Sasahara Kazuo and eight others, Shôsetsu nihonshi (A detailed explanation of Japanese history) (Tokyo: Yamakawa shuppansha, 1983), p. 271.

1 7 7 Seoul), as a result of the treaty to annex Korea. As with Taiwan, Japanese colonial rule lasted until 1945.

The first performance in Korea was held about five months earlier than the first in Taiwan. It was in Keijô, on May 25 of the same year, 1905. Held as an entertainment for the opening ceremony of the Keifu railroad which connects present day Seoul and Pusan, this performance may be considered the first overseas Nô. Led by Kanze Kiyokado, the head of the Kanze school, aU together twenty-one performers took part in the ensuing fifteen day tour.44 On May 26, there was a charity performance at the same place, and on the 28th, they performed once at a warehouse of the Pusan Merchant Marine Company in Pusan as a contribution to the volunteer fleet. 45

The Kyoto hinode newspaper reports on June 4, 1905, about the performance in Keijô: "Among the audience members, many were Japanese, and Koreans were f e w ." 4 6 The same newspaper also has a report on the performance at Pusan: "[...] the audience totaled more than two thousand, and all were Japanese. Since everything was just as it would be to see it in

Japan, it felt like the performance was being given in our native l a n d . "47 According to Ikenouchi, as the tour group started back home from Korea, they heard the news of the Battle of the Japan Sea (between Japan and Russia), and felt in great danger. However, upon their arrival on Bakan (present day

44Kurata, vol. 3, p. 374. Some details of this tour are reported in the Osaka jifi shinpô, May 2, 1905 (Meiji 38).

45Ikenouchi, p. 369.

46Kurata, vol. 3, p. 379.

47Kurata, vol. 3, p. 379.

178 Shimonoseki), they were all overjoyed with the news of the Japanese fleet's victory .48

As in the case of Taiwan, the audience in Korea also appears to have consisted primarily of Japanese. Such popularity of Nô among Japanese residents does not seem to have slackened. Five years after the above event, another performance tour to Korea was organized. On November 23, 1910, the Keijô shinpô reports, "Lately, the popularity of yôkyoku here is really extreme. There is also a variety of schools, however, it is regrettable that there are no (professional) Nô performers, and thus no (formal) performances. "49 Performances were held in Pusan on November 29 and December 1 of that year, and again in Keijô on December fourth and fifth. According to another news report, for the latter performance, the presence of royalty from among the Li family was also anticipated.so The last heir of the Korean Li dynasty was crowned Li-ô, or King Li, when Japan annexed Korea in 1910. As of this time, the Li royal family was made to follow practices of the Japanese imperial family. Eight years later in 1918, it was first proposed that a Nô stage might be constructed inside the property of a Korean shrine that was soon to be established in Keijô. The proposal stated: "(Nô) is very popular, such that nowhere in naichi (the main Japanese land, lit. inside land), either in city or in provincial town, may one fail to hear voices singing yôkyoku. In this

Korean land, too, because residents from naichi are here, one hears the sounds of yôkyoku. Also, we have noted some native Koreans who have

48llcenouchi, pp. 369-70.

49Kurata, vol. 4, p. 299.

SOKurata, vol. 4, pp. 300-301.

179 corne to like it."5i The proposal continues: "(S)ince the establishment of the Korean Shrine is to promote Shinto worship, the foundation of our country, in a new place, we, of course, have to make the plan carefully. The inseparable relationship between a shrine and a Nô stage is demonstrated in the examples of the Meiji shrine, and many other shrines in n a i c h i . "52 The Meiji shrine had been dedicated to the Emperor and the Empress Meiji. The close relationship between shrines and the Nô stage may refer not only to the fact that the grounds of shrines had provided performing spaces since the art's inception, but also to the trend of that very time period. It appears that at least for some authorities, Nô, a traditional art, provided a forum for advocating national morals by promoting the legitimacy of the Japanese imperial family. The performances listed above, though held overseas, were clearly targeted towards Japanese audiences. Furthermore, the few remaining records of responses by Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean audience members to such performances — from sources such as newspaper reporters or organizers of such occasions — largely appear to have been recorded by Japanese. Such allusions to comments by non-Japanese audience members generally include nothing but positive praise, such as "all appreciated the heroic atmosphere and elegance."53 Inasmuch as such presentations of Nô performances in gaichi were part of the war-time effort to promote the legitimacy of the reign of the Japanese nation and — on this extension, Japanese occupation of foreign lands — it is not surprising that the responses recorded should

5lNôgaku 16.7, p. 104.

52î\Jôgaku 16.7, p. 104.

53ikenouchi, p. 370.

180 contain glorification and praise, regardless of whether the alleged source of the quote was Japanese or non-Japanese.

In terms of the popularity of specific plays performed in gaichi, the Japanese occupied territory,54 based on the available records between 1905 and

1912, Takasago leads the way with five performances, followed by Tamura with four. Funabenkei, Hagoromo, and M ochizuki, share third place with three performances each. Again, as mentioned earlier, the themes of these plays have certain commonalities, especially in glorifying elements such as the current rulers of the nation, the victors in battle, or fidelity to oner's master. Probably, Funabenkei does not fall into these categories. However, it may be said that it promotes the legitimacy of the reigning family, as weU as the rightful repose of the soul of a defeated warrior.55

It is interesting to note that those Nô plays set in various places in

China were not performed in gaichi, either in Taiwan or in China. One of the purposes of presenting Nô performances in gaichi was to promote the legitimacy of the Japanese nation and of Japan's occupation of Chinese territories. Whereas the presentation of Chinese plays during other periods evoked images of courtly opulence and pastoral charm, or served to glorify

Japanese national identity (as demonstrated in the playTsurukame), this principle did not apply in gaichi. There, presenting Nô plays with Chinese settings ran the risk of backfiring. The very grandeur and magnificent atmosphere that such plays evoke threatened to undermine the legitimacy of Japanese occupation, once the performing context was moved to the referred

54The program records of the performances held in gaichi are taken from Kurata, vol. 3-4.

55For the original text of Funabenkei, see Yôkyokushû 2 (A collection of Nô texts), ed. Yokomichi Mario and Omote Akira. Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 41. (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1963), pp. 150-61. Hereafter referred to as NKBT 41.

181 place. China. The fact that the plays set in China were not performed in

China further illustrates that those plays were intended exclusively for a Japanese audience.

As for why the play Takasago , a waki nô play, was most often performed in gaichi, Sanari Kentarô's observations on the recurrent themes of yôkyoku may provide some explanation:57

Dividing Nô into five categories, the waki nô which is placed at the beginning, exemplifies what is called the celebratory Nô, or plays related to Shinto rituals. Their themes aU relate to worship of the imperial family and admiration for the nation. The waki in these plays are either imperial envoys or Shinto priests, but never shogunal envoys. As an imperial envoy, [...] the waki receives God and Buddha's benevolence in place of the Emperor, and as a Shinto priest, the waki attests to our country's Shintoism .

The exploitation of Nô for political purposes occurred within the Japanese homeland as well. According to lenaga Saburô, as Japan's war situation grew severe, especially in the late 1930s, the severity of governmental assays into thought control also increased.58 It was around this period that Nô started to be touched by the ramifications of such efforts. For example, as a result of governmental redress of public morals, some plays which involved Nô performers playing the roles of the imperial family members were completely forbidden. In order to stage other plays publicly. No performers were required to make changes in the libretti. Even phrases

56por the original text of Takasago, see Yôkyokushû 1 (A collection of Nô texts), ed. Yokomichi Mario and Omote Akira. Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 40. (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1960), pp. 219-225. Hereafter referred to as NKBT 40.

57Sanari Kentarô, "Yôkyoku no shisô" (Ideas in Yôkyoku). Yôkyoku taikan (A comprehensive collection of Nô texts), vol. 1 (Tokyo: Meiji shoin, 1931), pp. 114-22.

SSienaga Saburô, Sarugakunô no shisô shi teki kôsatsu (An inquiry into the theoretical history of Sarugakunô) (Tokyo: Hôsei daigaku shuppan kyoku, 1980), p. 7. Hereafter referred to as lenaga.

182 which could be inferred as remotely disrespectful to the imperial family were either changed or deleted.

Early examples of governmental attempts to regulate thought began with warnings issued from the National Police Department regarding the performance of some problematic plays in the late 1930s. In response to such warnings, the heads of the five Nô schools gathered together and made an agreement to refrain from performing such plays. The agreement was communicated publicly through means such as the publication of revised versions of utai-bon, and announcements in the newspapers.59 Some new No plays were also created specifically to arouse nationalist sentiment. In addition, special editions of koutai collections were published to inspire public support of the wartime effort. Original libretti were adapted to better suit such a p u r p o s e .^ o

The idea of Nô as a traditional national art — coupled with the widespread popularity of utai — probably contributed to its use as a means of promoting nationalistic thought throughout the process of Japan's modernization and its process of military occupation of other nations. Whether the performers resisted the use of their art as a means to promote nationalistic advancement (and if so, how and to what degree) is unclear.

59For a detailed discussion of revisions on some Nô plays, see lenaga, pp. 7-28.

60por a detailed discussion of thought control before 1945 and its effect on the art of Nô, see lenaga Saburô, Sarugakunô no shisô shi teki kôsatsu (An inquiry into the theoretical history of Sarugakunô) (Tokyo: Hôsei daigaku shuppan kyoku, 1980).

183 Either way, the evidence is overwhelming that their art was used as a means to strengthen the justification of Japanese occupation of territories — just as it had been used, in the face of imperial advances by Western powers at the beginning of the Meiji period, as a means to emphasize Japan's identity as a modem independent nation with a legitimizing cultural history.

184 CHAPTER 7

POSTWAR (RE)PRESENTATION OF NÔ

7.1 The Popularity of No Overseas in the Postwar Period In comparison with the nationalistic way No was championed after the Meiji Restoration, the transformation that it underwent in the postwar period may be characterized as an internationalization of the art. Overseas performances of No are not a rarity any more. The number of No-inspired works and collaborative works between No performers and other artists has been increasing greatly in recent years. Scholarship on No-related works both from practical and theoretical points of view is also increasing. One good example is James Brandon's edition of No and Kyôgen in the Contemporary

W orld, the result of an international conference of the same title held at the University of Hawaii in 1989. The following discussion addresses one of the ways in which No is currently reinventing itself, but it is by no means comprehensive. It is included here to evidence the popularity and the diversity of interest relating to No. As such, it is only a small sample of the reorientation that No has undergone in the latter half of the twentieth century.

185 It will be demonstrated that Japanese and non-Japanese audiences of the post war period are showing much in common in their viewing of No. That is to say, they are approaching it as something to which they are not accustomed, but which they find novel and interesting. Thus having passed through the time of commodification of No as a national art form, we are now seeing a brand of internationalization, whereby its appeal, even within Japan, is partly a function of its remoteness.

Yôkyoku enthusiasts and other connoisseurs remain important to the well-being of the art as a whole, but even so, new initiates appear to be the target of producers and performers of No. Whether consciously or unconsciously, they appear to present similar plays with similar intentions for audiences, regardless of whether those performances take place domestically (m Japan) or overseas. The performance of No in Venice, Italy in 1954 marked the first time the art was produced overseas in the post-World War II period. According to the record edited by Nishi Kazuyoshi and Matsuda Tamotsu,i over the course of the thirty-two years from 1954 to 1986, there were sixty-one performance tours by Japanese professional companies traveling outside Japan. Among those performances staged overseas, there were one hundred sixty-one over the course of seventeen visits to the United States between 1954 and 1986. In France twenty-three performances were given in twelve visits, and in West Germany, twenty-one in ten visits. Among Asian countries, in the People's Republic of China there were nine performances in four visits, and in India,

iNishi Kazuyoshi and Matsuda Tamotsu, ed., Nôgaku kaigai kôen shiyô (A survey of overseas performances of No) (Tokyo: Kinseisha, 1988). Hereafter, referred to as Nishi & Matsuda.

186 four performances in two visits. Altogether, such tours visited thirty-three countries. Data collected by Matsumoto Ritsuko indicates that in the seven years that followed (between 1987 and 1994), there were sixty-two such performance tours,2 averaging almost nine per year. This is about a four-fold increase compared with the frequency of the previous period. Though the most frequently visited countries, such as the United States (seventeen times), France (fifteen times), and other European countries have remained constant, the total number of countries visited increased between 1987 and 1994 to thirty-five. There are signs to suggest that the popularity of overseas performances continues to increase. Even so, these statistics raise questions as to how a theatrical form that was spawned in the isolated setting of Japan and that evolved there over a time span of almost six hundred, years stands to be received by new audiences in new contexts. By looking into the circumstances of postwar performances we may discover something about the relevance of No within and outside of Japan. They provide a unique perspective on the state of the art in this age, and a clue to its relevance in ages to come. Signs of the increased popularity of No are not only discernible in international contexts but also in domestic ones. Richard Emmert has pointed out that historical records indicate that "performances are at their most popular level in the history of the art as evidenced by comparing today's

^Matsumoto Ritsuko, "Nôgaku kaigai kôen shiryô: Showa 62 - Heisei 6" (Sample materials on the overseas performances of Nô plays: 1987-1994), Sôgô geijutsu to shite no No (Nô as total theater) 2: 50-92 (1996). Unlike the records included in Nishi & Matsuda, Matsiunoto's data does not provide the specific number of performances staged for each tour. Hereafter referred to as Matsumoto.

187 great number of performers and the frequency of performances with the records of programs from any previous period in the history of nô."3 Emmert claims that this trend is especially evident in the twentieth century, and even more so since World War H.

The nature of the popularity of Nô with both Japanese and non- Japanese audiences reflects the ways in which this art form has transformed itself according to changing cHmates and performance contexts. It is especially revealing to compare its popularity today with that enjoyed at the turn of the century. Previous chapters have shown that the longevity of this art form is related to its ability to adapt itself to changing circumstances. Such longevity is also indicative of the reflexive nature of the art itself. This chapter will address three areas of inquiry. First to be considered are ways in which performances have been organized and produced. Current performing contexts will be compared with those at the turn of the century. Secondly, characteristics of frequently performed plays (domestic and overseas) will be examined. Close observation of such characteristics may offer clues as to how performers and organizers have perceived and attempted to cope with new performing contexts. Thirdly, an overview of exchanges which have taken place between this art form and others will provide evidence of the scope of its place in the contemporary world.

3Richard Emmert, "Expanding No's Horizons: Considerations for a New Nô Perspective," in James R. Brandon, ed. Nô and Kyôgen in the Contemporary World (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), p. 20. Hereafter referred to as Brandon 1997. Emmert bases the evidence of his statement on the performance listings found in Nose Asaji, Nôgaku genryûkô (A study of the origin of Nô) (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1938), Omote and Amano (1982), and periodicals such as Nôgaku and Nôgaku Times, covering the period ranging from the Muromachi period to the present.

188 7.2 Expansion of the Scope of Performance Venues

With the increase in the number of performances both domestically and internationally, the art form has expanded into new venues outside the confines of its traditional setting. Moreover, organizers of Nô performances in the postwar period appear to have pursued ways of making the art more

accessible to potential new audiences. Observations of Jonah Salz, the director of the Traditional Theatre Training program, on recent proliferation of takigi-

nô (bonfire-lit Nô) reflect the kind of "selective, interpretive construction" that Richard Bauman has described as integral to the dynamics of a tradition in contemporary times:4

Since the 1950s, classical Japanesenoh and kyogen theater have experienced an astounding boom in popularity. Leading the way is the anomalous juxtaposition of tifis ancient, intimate form in modem, public settings during the "takigi noh," bonfire-lit summ er noh spectacles now held throughout the country, which now number over 200 aimually. Surprisingly, rather than eschew modem lighting and sound technologies in order to keep the arts "pure," noh actors seem to embrace them, while audiences revel in the glow of this mysterious "hometown of the heart."

It should be noted that takigi-nô in its earliest usage refers to the Nô performance which is held in conjunction with the Buddhist service at the Kôfuku Temple in Nara, and which dates back to the middle of the Heian period.5 This tradition was temporarily discontinued as a result of the Meiji Restoration, only to start up again in 1943.6 In its contemporary usage, the term has come to include summer spectacles which are often secular, such as

^Association for Asian Studies: Abstracts of the 1995 Annual Meeting (Association for Asian Studies, inc., 1995, p. 173.

5NÔ kyogen jiten (A dictionary of Nô-Kyôgen), ed. Nishino Haruo, Hata Akira (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1987), p. 264. Hereafter referred to as Nô kyogen jiten.

^Takigi-nô, ed. Bunka shinkô kai (Kamakura: Kamakura shi kankô kyôkai, 1978), p. 15.

189 those referred to in Salz's commentary. In this sense, contemporary takigi-nô exemplifies the emergent reorientation of Nô. The art has witnessed a reshaping of performance context directly tied to the redefinition of the potential scope of its audience. Salz examines how producers, performers, and audiences have all had

a hand in the takigi-nô boom. He further poses questions about each of these entities: "How do [producers] mediate successfully between the needs of authenticity and of mass entertainment? [...] How do [performers] reconstruct their indoor stage outdoors, employing electronically enhanced lighting and sound effects primarily to conserve, rather than improve upon, their ancient tradition? [...] How will [audiences'] continued patronage of noh effect the form? "7

Of course the paths of producers, performers, and audiences intersect at the same place where we will discover answers to Salz's questions: the performances themselves. What is manifest in a takigi-nô performance exemplifies No's capacity to adapt to new performing contexts. With respect to Salz's observations, not only producers of such events but also performers and audiences are indispensable forces supporting the creation of such experiences. Susan Bennett's articulation of the two frames through which a performance comes to life offers valuable reference points here:8 The outer frame is concerned with theatre as a cultural construct through the idea of the theatrical event, the selection of material

7ibid.

SSusan Bennett, Theatre Audiences: A Theory of Production and Reception (London and New York: Routledge, 1990), pp. 1-2.

190 for production, and the audience's definitions and expectations of a performance. The inner frame contains the event itself and, in particular, the spectator's experience of a fictional stage.

It is with the interaction of these two frames that a heuristic view of cultural construction and experience of a specific performance may be revealed. Bennett further states: "Cultural assumptions affect performances, and performances rewrite cultural assumptions."^ As we have seen in the previous chapters, performances are constantly being reoriented according to changing cultural contexts. The audience also participates in such creation of a performance through its imaginative response, based on cultural experience and understanding. On one hand, Nô is readily reinvented in new performing contexts as seen in the boom in popularity of takigi-nô. According to Irmgard Johnson, local sponsorship of takigi-nô performances make them both affordable and approachable: "One need not become a theater-going initiate concerned with lessons and techniques of 'chant' and dance, commitments need not be made to a teacher-player nor particular codes of dress and conduct observed."io As a result, takigi-nô has been greatly expanding the number of its supporters, many of whom are also newcomers to the art form. It has become a hot ticket. For example, those who hope to see Kamakura takigi-nô have only one chance in twenty! i for their wishes to come true, because seats are given through drawing lots. In the case of Ômiya city,i2 2,000 tickets placed on sale

9ibid. lOlrmgard Johnson, "Takigi Nô: Firelight Performances in Sacred Precincts," Japan Quarterly 30: 301-305 (1983), p. 302. Hereafter referred to as Johnson. lllb id .

120miya city is located in Saitama prefecture. The performance is held at the Hikawa jinja.

191 in March of 1982 for the mid-May performance of its first takigi-nô were gone within two hours.

On the other hand, amateur practitioners' support continues to be crucial to the survival of Nô, as it has throughout the major part of its

history. In the words of Nomura Shirô, a contemporary Nô performer: "Nô is in a delicate economic position today, and it will be in the future.

Performances barely break even. Financially nô depends on the many amateurs who study dance and chant."i4 Yet from another perspective both

the expansion into new performing venues such as takigi-nô and the continued support of amateur practitioners are testaments to the resiliency of an art form capable of transforming itself in the face of change. Dômoto Masaki offers another example of the art's flexibility in the face of changing circumstances. He describes the eagerness with which the performers adjusted their performances during the transitional period at the end of the war:i5 In the final days of the Pacific War, a group of nô actors volunteered a public nô performance dedicated to raising the Japanese soldiers' fighting spirit and to supporting the Japanese war effort. Within a week, the government of Japan had surrendered and the Allied Occupation had begun, and the same actors now staged a public 'Nô for Peace' (heiwa nô) performance under the auspices of the Occupation.

In terms of goverrunental support of Nô, the establishment of the National Nô Theater in Tokyo in 1983 marked yet another turning point in

13johnson, p. 302. l^Nomura Shirô, "Teaching the Paradox of Nô," (interview and translation by James R. Brandon) in Brandon 1997, pp. 208-9.

ISQuoted in Brandon 1997, pp. 99-100.

1 9 2 the reorientation of this art. Designed to house performances, train

performers, and gather and transmit information on Nô and K y 6 g e n , i 6 the National Nô Theater may be considered a realization of the vision championed by supporters of Nô, such as Ikenouchi, during the Meiji period. Regular programs with detailed explanations of the featured plays cater to a variety of audiences at a relatively low cost, compared with the performances held at the stage of each Nô school. Some programs specifically target new audiences to Nô. Prior to performances, specialists offer commentaries targeted especially at non-traditional audiences, such as high school students, foreigners, or other novice spectators. The facility was built entirely by the government and receives official support under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. It includes a main stage, a practice stage, rehearsal

rooms, a lecture hall, offices and archival s p a c e .i 7 Both the vision and the problems of current champions of the art seem to echo those faced by the early Meiji supporters. The problems include lack of unity among different schools of NÔ, the necessity of training hayashi-kata and waki performers. Despite these challenges, the center has fared better than expected in attracting audiences, and in Janet Goff's words, "the potential contribution of the theater in collecting and disseminating information about performances is considerable in view of its role as a national institution transcending the narrow boundaries of the different s c h o o l s . "is Despite such perennial challenges, governmental support is making it possible for new audiences to

16Goff, Janet, "The National Noh Theater," Monumenta Nipponica 39.4: 445-452 (Winter 1982), p. 444. Hereafter referred to as Goff, The National Noh Theater. l^Goff, The National Noh Theater, p. 446.

ISGoff, The National Noh Theater, p. 452.

193 experience the art, while assuring performers and musicians a degree of artistic continuity.

The increased number of performances held overseas during the postwar period further expanded possibilities for new performance contexts and new audiences. In 1966 the Hôshô school toured the United States and Mexico by invitation of the Japan Society, an event that was initiated by

Donald Keene. They gave seventy-two performances in thirty-six evenings at thirty-two locations over the course of fifty-five days. The size of audiences attending a given performance varied from 300 at The Virginia Art Museum, to 2500 at The Mexico National Theater. Approximately twenty percent of the audience, on average, left the performance after the first p i e c e . i ^

That twenty percent did not stay to see the second act raises another issue of concern. Working on the assumption that only a small minority understood anything about what they were seeing, Maruoka Akira has suggested that most of the audiences overseas probably come "for curiosity or to satisfy social diplomatic vanity."20 Whether or not this is the case, pragmatic concerns appear to have prevailed in the process of arranging and presenting the performances, witnessed by the fact that the same play was performed before 300 people on one night, and 2500 on another. Even if the performance quality was high for both of the above productions, the contextual frame is certain to have prepared viewers of the two events for two vastly different experiences.

l^Nishi & Matsuda, p. 42.

20rhis quote was attributed to Maruoka Akira by Horigami Ken, "Nyûyôku kôen o oete" (After performances in New York), Nôgaku Times (August, 1982).

194 To take another example, when the Kanze school performed in Athens, Greece on September 3rd, 4th and 5th of 1965, altogether more than 15,000 people attended three performances (an average of over 5000 per performance). Benito Ortolani, who witnessed the performance, comments that the first play he saw was from a seat more forward than the middle of the amphitheater, and he had a good impression. For the second play, however, he seated himself at the very back. From there, the mask was totally unrecognizable. At the beginning of the second play, many people started leaving, and that interrupted the atmosphere of the performance. Ortolani adds that even though the audience could be polite during the first play, their patience could not last through the second play, especially considering there were no explanatory devices Almost thirty years later in 1991, critic Kenneth Rea noted that overseas performances were generally more crowded than in native settings. Rea concludes: "Noh companies can attract larger audiences abroad than they do in their small theatres at home, which is one reason why the Japan

Festival is as important to the Japanese as it is tou s . "22

The experiences of Nô troupes in the West point to a correlation between the audience's preparation for participating in the performance and their relative enjoyment of it. Nô may have much to offer a Western audience, but the audience needs to come prepared for it. Audiences who

21 Nishi & Matsuda, p. 356.

22Rea, Kenneth. "No theatre like Noh theatre." The Times, p. 13 (September 17, 1991).

195 attended the first performance of Nô in Paris in 1957 called for preparatory

devices for their viewing. As Paul Demiéville observed:23 The classic theatre of Japan, the Nô, presented at the Theatre des Nations by a first-rate troupe, was a failure: at least the night I was there the audience did not respond, doubtless because this most rigidly structured form of art did not make any concession. It is thus obvious that some initiation is necessary if one wishes the Occident really to see into these foreign aesthetics, an initiation to the grammar of conventions and symbols, to technical traditions, as well as the conscious and subconscious associations with which these aesthetics are charged, with which they are suffused.

Or in the words of one American reviewer in 1971, "NECESSARILY, those who got the most out of the performance were those whose backgrounds had best prepared them for it. [...] Careful beforehand reading of program notes prepared in detail is absolutely essential to understanding of the plot. "24 If presenters of Nô do not wish to settle for an audience response which is mostly diplomatic, they may have to take care to construct a frame which will prepare their audiences to receive it more readily. It appears that both domestic and international audiences share a tendency to perceive this art form as something distanced from their regular diet of entertainment. The popularity of takigi-nô and the event of a couple thousand people thronging to a Nô performance overseas support this idea. In this sense, as long as audiences have the chance to encounter that which is different or exotic, other matters may receive less attention. J. Thomas Rimer describes this phenomenon: "Postwar audiences, in Japan as well as in the

23Quoted thus in Earle Ernst, "The Influence of Japanese Theatrical Style on Western Theatre,' Educational Theatre Journal 21; 127-38 (1969), p. 133. Hereafter referred to as Ernst. The original is in Paul Demiéville in Les Théâtres D'Asie, ed. Jean Jacquot (Paris, 1961), p. 2.

24McCafferty, James T, "Ancient Form Draws Crowd," The Columbus Dispatch, February 27, 1971, p. 8.

196 West, are entirely cut off from these older performing traditions, and without considerable education to the demands and possibilities of the nô, they inevitably see such productions as exotic."25

7.3 Frequently Performed Nô Plays The predicament of a Japanese Nô company performing in the West raises the question of what should be presented, and in what manner. The presenter needs to consider carefully not only the frame which surrounds a performance, but also the material being performed. In terms of performances staged overseas between 1954 and 1986,

Hagoromo (The Heavenly Robe) and Aoi no ue (Lady Aoi) lead the way in popularity; there were twenty-one performances of the former, and eighteen of the latter. Funabenkei follows with seventeen performances, then

Tsuchigumo (The Earth Spider) ten times, and Sumidagawa (The Sumida

River) nine times. During the period between 1987 and 1994, Hagoromo

(eighteen performances),26 leads the way again. Aoi no ue (fourteen), and

Tsuchigumo (twelve),27 continued to hold their places in order, followed by

Izutsu (with five performances).

Before we explore why Hagoromo and Aoi no ue have been so frequently performed overseas, it may be instructive to consider their domestic popularity. The findings show that these two plays are among the 25Thomas J. Rimer, "Contemporary Audiences and the Pilgrimage to Nô," in Brandon 1997, p. 185. Hereafter referred to as Rimer-Contemporary Audiences.

26Matsumoto. This count does not include one performance of han-nô (a performance of only the second act of a play) and one shimai performance(dance extracted from the highlight of a play, performed without the accompaniment of musical instruments).

27Matsumoto. This count of twelve performances does not include four shimai performances.

197 most frequently performed at home as well. According to the data gathered by Saitô Y û ic h i,2 8 which lists the number of each staged performance on a monthly basis during the period between 1989-1993, these two plays were the most commonly performed in Japan. During those five years, Hagoromo had ranked first four times, except one year in 1990 when it gave way to Aoi no ue. On the other hand, Aoi no ue held the first place twice, once sharing it with Hagoromo, the second place twice, and the third once. Saitô's data shows that the third most popularly performed play in Japan during this period was Funabenkei, holding the third place three times, and the first once, tied with Aoi no ue in 1993.

In terms of the total number of domestic performances given in these five years, Hagoromo with two hundred thirty-eight and Aoi no ue w ith two hundred eleven also clearly lead the way, followed by Funabenkei w ith one hundred seventy-nine performances and Adachigahara with one hundred forty-one.29 Moreover, a record from 1915 shows that Hagoromo was popular by then too. Following Okina?^ and Takasago, which shared the first place together (with eight performances), Hagoromo came in third (with seven performances) .31

28Saitô Yûichi, "Eimô dêta: 1989-1993" (Records of N ô performances: 1989-1993) Sôgô geijutsu to shite no Nô (Nô as a total theater) (Tokyo: Zeami gakkai, 1994). Hereafter, referred to as Saitô.

29Saitô, p. 101.

^Ookina is considered to be independent of Nô and Kyôgen plays. It is performed at the beginning of a program, especially on celebratory occasions such as New Years performances, celebration nô and memorial nô. For further information, see Nô kyôgen jiten, pp. 10-12.

31"Taishô yonendo ennô no tôkei" (Statistics on the Nô performances given in Taishô 4), Yôkyokukai 4.3: 70 (1915). Hereafter referred to as Taishô 4.

198 International Performances Domestic Performances 1954-8632 1987-9433 1989-9334 191535

Hagoromo 21 18 238 7

Aoi no ue 18 14 211

Funabenkei 17 141

Tsuchigumo 10 12

Sumidagawa 9 Izutsu 5

Takasago 8

Figure 1: Popularly Performed Plays

32The data in this column is taken from Nishi & Matsuda.

33The data in this column is taken from Matsumoto.

34The data in this column is taken from Saitô.

35The data in this column is taken from Taishô 4.

199 From these points, it appears that the popularity of Hagoromo has a

long history. Though Aoi no ue is not included in the top ten frequently performed plays in 1915, the above record tells us that the overall popularity

of these two plays, Hagoromo and Aoi no ue is both a domestic and international phenomenon, at least in recent years.

The NÔ play Hagoromo has a rather clear and straightforward story line. A fisherman who lives near the seashore of Miho,36 finds a beautiful feather robe hung on a pine branch. As he tries to take it home, a heavenly

maiden (the shite) calls to stop him. The maiden grieves that, without the feather robe, she cannot go back to the heaven. Beholding her grief, the fisherman asks to see her heavenly dance in exchange for returning the robe to her. The maiden, overjoyed with his offer, asks for her robe to dance. However, fearing that the maiden might fly away without fulfilling her promise once she has the robe, the fisherman hesitates to return it. At this the maiden responds: "Doubt exists only among you mortals. In heaven there can never be deceitfulness."^? Shamed by her words, he returns the

robe, which the maiden dons. She dances, gradually disappearing into the beautiful spring view of Miho. In the words of Kenneth Yasuda: "Hagoromo is one of the great successes of the Nô theater. It owes much of its felicity to the adroitness by which, through a most simple story-line, it conveys a stunningly ample theater experience of purity, warm with joy and beauty."38

36Miho is located in Suruga Bay in the present Shizuoka prefecture.

37Ycisuda, Kenneth K., "The Structure of Hagoromo, a Nô Play" Harvard Journal of Asiastic Studies 33: 5-89 (1973), p. 81. Hereafter referred to as Yasuda.

38Yasuda, p. 35.

200 In contrast to the purity, simple story-line, and warmth conveyed in the exchange between the heavenly maiden and the fisherman in Hagoromo, the play Aoi no ue presents a much more complicated web of human emotions. A folded robe placed in the center of the stage represents the official wife of G e n j i,3 9 Lady Aoi, in her sick bed. When a maiden in service of the shrine is summoned to determine the nature of the evil spirit possessing Aoi, the spirit of a lady (the shite) appears. This lady turns out to be Lady Rokujô, a lady of high birth with a glorious past — also one of Genji's lovers. Her spirit is devastated because of her jealousy toward Aoi, the legal wife of Genji, whose affection towards Lady Rokujô has weakened. Moved by uncontrollable anguish and suffering, her spirit approaches Aoi's bedside, strikes her, and disappears leaving a strong curse. Then a holy man is summoned, and though at the begirming Lady Rokujô's spirit resists his prayer, gradually she is appeased.

While Hagoromo appeals more with the straightforward beauty of its story-line, the purity of the heavenly maiden and the elegance of the dancing,

Aoi no ue reflects a more complicated dramatic quality, as well as a darker, more painful side of human nature. That these two plays are most commonly performed both domestically and internationally may assure us of their popularity, but it tells us little about which characteristics qualify a play for production abroad — except that perhaps one criterion for selection may be popularity at home. That question might be better addressed by asking why a play such as Tsuchigumo, which was eleventh among plays performed domestically, is more often performed overseas.

39The name of the hero of the eleventh century masterpiece, Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) written by Murasaki Shikibu.

201 What kind of considerations were on the table when producers and performers decided which plays to be presented overseas? This question may be addressed in relation to the aforementioned tour by the Hôshô school to the United States in 1966. According to Ejima Yûichi, the chief secretary of the Hôshô troupe, play selections were made based on the following considerations; (1) plays requiring many performers, Kyôgen performers, an d /or taiko (stick drum) should be avoided due to the limit of the number of participant-performers who can be on the tour; (2) pieces without masks should be avoided (since most foreigners expect masks for Nô); (3) one performance should include two plays, one of which should be a woman play, and the other, a piece which requires more dynamic movement; (4) all programs should be completed within two hours; (5) plays requiring large tsukurimono should be avoided^O; (6) because there would be more than one performance given at each location, they were to prepare three programs; (7) because of cargo expenses, the costumes should be those which may serve multiple purposes; (8) though some suggested selecting plays which are suitable for foreigners, since it is difficult to determine what is really suitable, the producers and performers decided to present the most Nô-like Nô as it is .41 After juggling such considerations the three programs they made were as follows: (a) Sumidagawa and Ebira Qian n o ) ,4 2 (b) Kayoi Komachi and

Tsunem asa, (c) K iyotsune and Tamakazura (han n o ).4 3 The average age of '^^Tsukurimono are props used for Nô performances. Almost all are constructed anew for the occasion of each performance.

4lThere is no explanation of what the producers or performers thought as "the most Nô like NÔ."

42H«n nô is a type of Nô performance in which a play proceeds from the second half.

43E]ima Yûichi, "Nô america o meguru" (Nô: Tour around the U.S.) in Nishi & Matsuda, pp. 37 -44.

202 the ten performers who participated in this tour was 33 years of age. Some

participants believe that because of this youthful energy (compared to more experienced but older performers), all seventy-two performances were successfully carried out.44

It appears that the criteria for selecting plays roughly addressed two major issues: pragmatic concerns of production, and suitability of plays for audiences. However, we cannot avoid the impression that, at least for the above overseas tour, the performer-participants' attention was focused more towards pragmatic rather than artistic concerns. A more detailed process of play selection in relation to specific audiences can be found in another example of an overseas performance tour. It was in 1964 that a leading actor of the Kita sdriool, Kita Sadayo, and his

assistant, Tomoeda Akiyo, directed a performance of Ikkaku Sennin incorporating American actors at the Institute for Advanced Study in Theater Arts (lASTA). Leonard Pronko provided two reasons for this selection: (1) "since a

Kabuki drama based upon Ikkaku Sennin had been presented at lASTA several years earlier, the differing treatments of the same story facilitated a comparison of the two theatrical techniques"; (2) "the demon play is more dramatic than the other types of Nô, [...]"45 The second reason supports a remark made by Reid Gilbert, who participated and performed in the above

Ikkaku Sennin production. He suggested that Ikkaku Sennin may also have been chosen because it has a story.46 Clearly, the suspicion was pervasive that 44rbid„ p. 39.

45Pronko, Leonard, Theater East and West (1967), p. 97. Hereafter, referred to as Pronko.

46presentation made by E. Reid Gilbert as a guest speaker at a class on Nô theater, on Feb. 27, 1995. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

2 0 3 the refined but unfamiliar performance style of Nô needed a boost from a catchy story. .

Ikkaku Sennin belongs to the fourth category of plays. The shite is a one-homed wizard who lives in a remote mountain in India. After a power struggle with the Dragon God, he has shut all dragons inside a rocky cave, and has caused rainfall to cease all over the nation. The king devises a scheme and sends a lady to the mountain where the wizard lives, having her pretend that she has lost her way. At the wizard's, she encourages him to drink sake (rice wine). As he is attracted to her beauty and enjoys her dance, he gradually joins in the pleasure and finally passes out in a drunken stupor. The lady checks to be sure he is out cold and leaves for the capital. It is then that the rocky cave breaks open and the Dragon God bolts out. Though now the awakened wizard tries to fight back, his supernatural power has already been lost. The Dragon God summons a great rainfall and disappears.

Given the examples above it may be suggested that genzai (living) Nô plays were considered to be more accessible overseas than mugen Nô

(especially prior to 1987). In genzai Nô, such as Ikkaku Sennin, the shite draws on experience in this world within the actual flow of time, and by and large the characters are living persons. Thus, unlike the shite in mugen Nô, who appears as a ghost or a spirit, the shite in genzai N ô is more apt to enact the events of a story as they unfold in time, often involving interactions with other characters. Considering the dramaturgy of both types of Nô plays, it can be said that genzai Nô, rather than mugen Nô, are more readily accessible to new audiences due to the very characteristic of having a story. This is especially true when other layers of signification are unfamiliar.

2 0 4 Zeami accounted for the necessity to respond to the level of

connoisseurship of a given audience. In Fûshikaden, he says:47

performance exclusively in a style too inaccessible to the ordinary audience will again cause failure to win public applause [...] you perform the nô in a manner varying with the circumstances, so as to impress even the foolish eye as something indeed interesting. On deep enquiry into the way of the world we see that he who escapes adverse criticism whenever he plays, before the nobility, at shrines and temples and even at Shinto festivals in rural districts and in remote provinces, will be worthy of the name of well-blessed expert actor.

Though there is no way to know if Zeami's tactics would have changed to cope with the new international audiences which developed in the twentieth century — or if so, how they would have changed — we can at least explore what style of plays have been considered most appropriate for performances overseas. One recommended feature, as mentioned above, seems to be a clear story-line. It appears this has been a consideration not only for No performances but also for other traditional performing arts selected for touring overseas, including Kabuki and Bunraku. Kawatake Toshio, who accompanied the first Kabuki tour to the United States in 1960 and a tour to the Soviet Union in 1961, recalls that dramatic plays with clear plots were most favored. For example, in the latter tour, whereas both Dôjôji and Narukami received only two to five curtain calls.

47shidehara and Whitehouse 2, p. 192. For the original text, see NST, p. 45.

205 the more dramatic play, Shunkan, received an average of twelve to thirteen.48

Dôjôji is one of the most famous dance pieces in the Kabuki repertory: the heroine, rejected in her love for a priest, transforms herself to a vengeful serpent. This is expressed through sections of dance, punctuated by seven

costumes changes. Narukami is a Kabuki version of the aforementioned

Ikkaku Sennin. The difference is that when the priest (instead of the wizard in the original Nô version) falls asleep after drinking, the princess herself, who was sent to seduce him, breaks the spell that has shut up the dragon, and thereby brings on the rain. Then the priest, in his rage, transforms into a

demon and chases the princess.

The Kabuki Shunkan is traces to a story in the famous fourteenth

century war chronicle, Heike monogatari (The Tale of Heike). Shunkan has been exiled to a deserted island with two others as a result of an unsuccessful plot against the powerful leader of his time. When the ship from the capital arrives, he finds out that a pardon is given to two of his companions, but not to him. In Shunkan's despair, however, the second envoy delivers a message which says he should be allowed to board the ship, but only as far as the coast, not to the capital. As the three of them try to board, the first envoy forbids one of Shunkan's companions to take his bride whom he married while in exile, then abruptly informs Shunkan that his wife has been killed; thus Shunkan feels his return to the capital would be futile. Against their refusal, Shunkan persuades his companion to take his bride in Shunkan's place. When the first Envoy blocks this motion Shunkan kills him, assuring his

48Kawatake Toshio, "Gaikokujin no mita nihon geinô," in Hikaku geinô ron (Comparative theories of performing arts), ed. Geinôshi Kenkyûkai, Nihon no Koten Geinô 10, (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1971), pp. 325-50. Hereafter referred to as Kawatake.

2 06 own continued exile. As the ship leaves the shore, he finds himself in total loneliness.

Taking the above discussion into account, the popularity of Aoi no ue may also be due to the plot line that the play presents. The complexity of that plot together with the psychologically motivated action allow an audience used to realistic drama to feel they are on familiar ground; at the same time, some may find it morally affirming to witness a cleric overcoming supernatural odds to tame the vengeful ex-lover of Genji. The increased domestic popularity of Aoi no ue during the later half of the twentieth century may suggest that the general Japanese public is accustomed to plays with features of the modem realistic drama introduced earlier in the century. However, according to the questionnaire distributed to the audience of the 1968 U.S. and Mexico tour of the Hôshô school, the most favored aspect of the performance was costuming, followed by music and then the simplicity of the art f o r m .4 9

Given that Hagoromo, too, depends for its effects on peaceful and tranquil atmosphere of an extended dance section, it should not be surprising that it is often considered a suitable play to be presented both domestically and overseas. Of course, one cannot generalize about audience preference on the basis of one tour, but such responses provide clues for further exploration. Consideration of these points may also provide at least some indication as to why Tsuchigumo, a fifth category play, is more frequently performed overseas than in Japan. As a warrior named Minamoto no Yorimitsu is in his sick bed, a mysterious priest (the mae-jite) appears and throws a thread from a spider web. However, wounded by Yorimitsu's sword, he disappears.

49Kawatake, p. 349.

2 0 7 In the second act, a warrior chases the mysterious priest by tracing the trail of dripping blood from his injury. As he and other warriors arrive at the site where the priest disappeared, a demonic earth spider appears. Though the spider attempts to snare the warriors in his web, in the end they are victorious and the demon spider is exterminated. The simplicity of the plot and the spectacle of streaming shreds of thin Japanese paper cast out at the warriors by the spider have probably tipped the balance for this play more than once. It also might have helped that this play makes it easier for the performers to intensify the spectacle on the spot as needed. Rimer recalls the time when he witnessed one performance in Washington, D.C. in 1988, and the performers tried to adapt their performances to the audience overseas as follows: "In the case of The Earth

Spider {Tsuchigumo), for example, the performer who took the role of the earth spider took as many occasions as possible to throw out his webs, represented by those wonderful showers of paper, at his hapless opponent. By the end of the performance, the stage was littered with mounds of this elegant debris, certainly not a sight I ever witnessed in Japan, where such hurling about would surely be seen as overstatement. "50

Brandon, however, presents a story which suggests that such overtly spectacular choreography is not only for audiences overseas, but simply for a

'new audience': "When Umewaka Rokuro (1907-79) performed The Earth

Spider in Tokyo in the 1960s, he felt the average Japanese spectator would respond better to showy action than to yugen and so he advertised, 'I'll be throwing out lots of spider webs so don't miss the performance'.Brandon

SORimer-Contemporary Audiences, p. 185.

SlBrandon 1997, p. 159.

208 then cites Nagao Kazuo to further this claim: "The Earth Spider is considered a suitable play for new audiences in Japan because it is brief and it contains rich taiko drumming not found in most plays in the repertory. "52

Not only spectacle but also other features such as the length of performance time have been adjusted for the sake of new audiences. Kongo Hisanori, the head of the Kongo school commented concerning the first overseas tour of his school in 1984:53

We staged the performance just as we would have done in Japan, but it seemed as if it was a bit too long for people from another country who were seeing noh for the first time. Subsequently we made an effort to gradually shorten the performance times. In keeping with the custom overseas we also took curtain calls, but as we were unaccustomed to this practice we were a bit embarrassed at first.

Thus, increased accessibility to international audiences is a defining characteristic of the transformation that No underwent in the postwar period. During the period of modernization, Japanese high officials tried to establish No as a national art, and thus contributed to the building of stages, and to the heightening of the legitimacy of the art through the invitation of foreign dignitaries. As champions of the art struggled to reestablish its place, they promoted the image of No as a national art rooted in tradition, and, therefore, deserving of efforts to preserve it as such. The producers and performers of the postwar period faced very different challenges due to further contextual changes brought on by the expansion of performing contexts, including venues overseas. The art, again, adapted to its new milieu and its practitioners became more sensitized towards the background and

52lbid., p. 159.

53Kongô Hisanori, "The Appreciation of Noh Overseas," Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry 5: 50-53 (1994). On this tour, they performed the No plays, Yashima and Hagoromo.

209 preparedness of its audiences. One consequence of this change in approach was the transformation of the popular image of No: It went from being known principally as a national art form to being widely recognized for its intrinsic values, independent of its role in support of a national identity. This is so not only for international performances but also for domestic ones. It seems reasonable to say that the resiliency No demonstrated after the Meiji Restoration continued to be its salvation. As seen in the popularity of takigi-nô, domestically, too, performers, promoters and other champions of the art have constantly searched for new ways of adapting to new contexts, and seeking out new and different audiences and sources of patronage.

7.4 Future Prospects

Nakamura Tetsurô, a theater critic and the author of Seiyôjin no kabuki hakken (The discovery of Kabuki by Westerners), has noted that No has been the subject of more extensive discourse among Western scholars in comparison to K a b u k i.5 4 He identifies five causes for this interest among Western scholars: (1) the history of the study of No by Westerners since the beginning of the twentieth century; (2) the relative ease of translation of No texts and the literary value of the translations, which may be read as poems due to their length and the symbolic quality of the diction; (3) the study of No as literature; (4) characteristics of the No itself - its simplicity and clarity, the complete independence of time and space, and its inward spirituality; (5) the accessibility of the study of No to foreign researchers and practitioners through the traditional system of No schools.55

54Nakamura, pp. 230 - 231.

SSNakamura, pp. 231 - 236.

210 Nakamura's analysis cites issues of practicality and circumstance which contribute to the interest in No over Kabuki, but it does not adequately address the experiential qualities of the art as performance. If it were only pragmatic issues which made No more available for scrutiny, it surely would have become just another bead in the string of exotic Oriental imports the West has fingered and cast aside with the decline of market value.

However, the increase in popularity of performances of No overseas in recent years (only in part represented by the above accounts), the expansion of both Japanese and non-Japanese audiences, and the increasing number of artists of other disciplines inspired by No seem to indicate that something more than pragmatic concerns has assured its survival and proliferation. Following the path of the early pioneers who encountered and engaged in the art to differing degrees during the Meiji period, new initiates (Japanese and non-Japanese) are increasing in numbers and in the diversity of their involvement.

It was in 1916 that William Butler Yeats's No-inspired work. A t the

Hawk's Well, was first staged. The work was, in his own words, "a form of drama, distinguished, indirect and sym bolic."56 Paul Claudel's essays on No that grew out of his experience living in Japan during the 1920s, and his later creative experiments that were influenced by his appreciation of No, inspired others to follow. Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), inspired by the art through

Arthur Waley's The Noh Plays of Japan, created Der Jusager (The One Who

Says Yes) and Der Neinsager (The One Who Says No) based on the No play,

Tanikô (The Valley Hurling), in 1930. These are well known examples of

56yeats, p. 221.

211 artists who were drawn to this art form early in the twentieth century and who allowed it to influence their own creative work. Moreover, the postwar era has engendered frequent and intimate exchanges among practitioners and audiences, making No more accessible to a wider range of people than it was during pre-war times. One of the major changes is that the opportunities to attend actual performances have increased greatly, due to overseas performances of increasing frequency and the relative ease of exchange brought by development in rapid telecommunication and transportation. Actor and director Jean-Louis Barrault saw No performances in 1957 in

Paris and in 1960 in Japan, leading him to seek out an artistic exchange with Kanze Hisao and the Kyôgen performer, Nomura Mansaku (b. 1931). Kanze also spent six months in Paris in 1962 studying contemporary Western theater. Encountering Sumidagawa (The Sumida River) in 1956 during a visit to Tokyo, Benjamin Britten (1913-76) was inspired to use it as the basis for his Curlew River. These are only a few early examples of exchanges betw^een No and artists from other disciplines, which had intensified and accelerated in frequency by the latter half of the twentieth century. Collaborations between No performers and both Japanese and non- Japanese contemporary theater artists, the numbers of foreigners who study this art form in Japan and achieve a high level of proficiency, and new experiments and creative efforts by performers and artists have aU been increasing in recent years. Meanwhile, the horizon of new exchanges and, by extension, the cultivation of new audiences, continues to expand. How then may one summarize the appeal of No?

212 As we have seen, early encounters with the art revealed that answers to the question could vary greatly. Some criticized No for not being like the drama of their native culture, or simply for being unintelligible. Others admired it because No offered something lacking in the theater of their native cultures. Still others went so far as to engage in practice and/or translating the texts of plays. It seems that such plurality of response is still a defining characteristic of No performances. Some, like Barrault, find in No something they consider missing from their own artistic activities. In response to his viewing of No in 1960 in Tokyo, Barrault noted: "This made an astonishing contrast with the dust of our old theatres, the random accumulation of our furniture [...] the poverty of our costumes, the negligence of our theatrical activity — to say it all, the lack of true respect that one had in Europe for the theatre."57 Or according to Earle Ernst: "Since the Renaissance, the Western theatre has undergone a slow process of fragmentation into the discrete forms of opera, ballet, musical comedy, and 'legitimate' drama. It is now searching for a total theatre in which acting, voice, movement, dance, and music are fused into an inseparable whole. The Noh and the Kabuki demonstrate just such an aesthetic fusion. "58

Some, like Jennifer Dunning, a critic of The New York Times, saw something very contemporary in the dance of the shite in the play,

Kakitsubata (The Iris): "A complex geometry was marked in dance that would have looked at home in the most experimental of postmodern

57Quoted in Gillespie, John K., "L'Oeil Ecoute; The Impact of Traditional Japanese Theatre on Postwar Western Performance," in Modem Drama 35: 137-48 (1992), p. 139. Hereafter referred to as Gillespie.

58Emst, p. 138.

213 concerts."59 Still others, like dancer choreographer, June Watanabe, immersed themselves in training. Watanabe found that against her prediction, "the discipline of Noh wasn't opposed to freedom but was a way into a deeper freedom, one of mastery of my art and my body."60 Robert Wilson, a contemporary American theater artist, responded: "the more formal theatres like [Noh and Kabuki] which are full of the artificial, are much more natural [than naturalistic plays]. There's more mental space. There's time to reflect, to think. They seem much closer to nature than this theatre we call naturalism. "6i Broadway choreographer, Jerome Robbins, witnessing many rehearsals at lASTA, spoke of the differences between American theater and No that inspired him: "It has thrown a whole new light on theater for me, particularly on American acting styles. Our acting is limitless, casual, sloppy, anything-you-want. But this style refines and refines and refines movement. "62

Not all were prepared to embrace the subtle refinement that captured the interest of Jerome Robbins. Seven years later. New York Times critic Howard Thompson, for one, found it difficult to connect "[o]ccidentally speaking," the two halves of the program, namely "Kyogen (satire) and Noh

59 Jennifer Dunning, "Dance: N oh Theater,"The New York Times C: 16 (September 1,1982).

60Quoted in Judith Cobum, "A Modernist Says 'Yes' to Noh," The LA Times, pp. 53-4 (May 5, 1996).

6lQuoted in Gillespie, p. 140.

62pronko, p. 98.

2 1 4 (tragedy)." He also suggests an alteration in the choreography: "while the

intense ‘Aoi-no-ue ('Lady Aoi') exuded a sinister crescendo in a tableau of ghostly revenge, it might have been more intriguing played on roller skates. "63

Still others betray somewhat perplexed views. A teacher from Florida who attended a No program in Nagano during the 1998 Olympic game was quoted in a major newspaper: "It was very interesting. The first one

[Hagoromo] seemed very, very slow, but I loved the last one [Shakkyol]. Overall, it's a lesson in patience."64 An American critic who attended the same program thought: "Emotions and expression always have been a big part of American theater. But in the classical Japanese noh play, actors hide their emotions no matter what the storyline."65 On the other hand, some like a New York Times dance critic. Jack Anderson, found the relation between characterization and dance appealing: "For this theatergoer unfamiliar with Japanese, the evening's most interesting presentation was 'Momiji Gari,'66 because of the way characterization was established through dance."67

63Thompson, Howard, "Noh-Kyogen Group Presents a 2D Bill," New York Times, March 27, 1971, p. 17. 'Roller skates' may be an allusion to Pelican, a 1963 dance for two men on roller skates and a woman in Pointe shoes, by Robert Rauschenberg for the Judson Church group.

64Quoted in Mike Snider, "Program traces ancient culture Noh shows mix songs, 1-act plays," USA Today, p. 12E (February 16, 1998). The name of 'the last play' is not given in the article.

65lbid.

66in the first act of the play, Momijigari, a warrior encounters a group of ladies who are maple- tree viewing during his hunting trip. He joins their banquet, and as he enjoys their graceful dance, he falls a sleep. In the second act, one of the ladies reveals her true identity as a demon and appears to the now awake warrior. Through a fight, he exterminate the demon.

67jack Anderson, "Noh and Kyogen Specialties By Companies From Tokyo," The New York Times, p. 22 (October 5,1989).

215 There are, also, multiple views toward so called 'fusion' productions.

For example, Jeremy Kingston, a Times critic, having seen Sotoba Komachi performed in English (Authur Waley's translation) thought: "Without masks, colorful costumes or evident gestural communication in the dance, there is not much Noh to be seen. "68 After seeing a performance of the

English NÔ play. Drifting Fires, written by Janine Beichman, and first presented at Tsukuba Expo in 1985, a Nôgaku Times critic, Nagai Kazuo, commented: "Bom before our eyes was a drama infinitely close to, and yet also far from, noh."69 Some draw inspiration from yet other features of this art form, such as the physicality and spirituality of performers. Suzuki Tadashi, one of the foremost Japanese contemporary theater artists, attests that “no does suggest a unique resolution to the issue of commonality that is inevitably confronted when the theatre as a conununal enterprise, surpassing time and space, attempts to establish its finite existence."70

Resiliency of this art form and its increasing popularity reflected in multiple transformations may be just one testimony to its staying power and potential for further expansion. At the same time, without the more stable legacy that has been handed down from generation to generation through each performer's physical body, nothing is possible. As the long history of this art form was possible only through the work of such performers, the

68jeremy Kingston, "Cloud of un-Nohing," The Times, p. 41 (February 17,1990).

69Quoted and Translated in Janine Beichman, "Noh in English: Encounters Far and Near," in Japan Quarterly 33: 88-92 (1986), p. 91. The origincd statement was introduced in Nôgaku Times by N agai Kcizuo.

70suzuki Tadashi, The Way of Acting: The Theatre Writings of Tadashi Suzuki, tr. Thomas Rimer (New York: Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 1986), p. 32. Hereafter referred to as Suzuki Tadashi.

2 1 6 current and future possibilities also depend on them. As Monica Bethe and Karen Brazell have observed:7i

Thus it is clear that noh is attractive to a large number of artists, Japanese and foreign alike. The traditional theatre remains healthy in Japan and noh troupes increasingly travel abroad. Experiments with noh practices and noh texts occur in many countries with and without the involvement of professional noh performers. Many aspects of noh have not only proven to be cross-culturally transferable, but also to have potentials for development that go far beyond the traditional bounds of noh. There remains, however, the questions of just what one can and should label "noh." The noh system is a totality of and in itself. Every element contains the essence and reflects the whole, but none constitutes noh itself unless it appears in its proper place within the entire system of noh practice.

Expansion of performing contexts for No in the postwar period suggests that there are similarities in the ways in which the art has been promoted both overseas and domestic settings. Organizers of performances in new contexts seem to be reaching out to their audiences, often choosing production strategies that favor accessibility to those new audiences over servitude to an established practice based in the traditions of their respective schools. The support of the great number of amateur practitioners of utai in Japan, studying No under the tutelage of professional mentors, continues to be as strong as ever in the history of the art. Such unwavering support by amateur practitioners is key to the economic stability of performers. On another front, new audiences to the art, regardless of whether they are foreign or Japanese, seem to share similar preferences in their viewing of performances. Organizers' views on what should be presented to such audiences also share common features. Meanwhile, exchanges with other art

71 Monica Bethe and Karen Brazell, "The practice of noh theatre," in By Means of Performance: Intercultural studies of theatre and ritual, Richard Schechner and Willa Appel, ed. (Cam­ bridge, New York, Port Chester, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 192.

2 1 7 forms and artists firom different disciplines continue to expand performing venues for No, both overseas and in Japan. Towards the continued existence and increasing popularity of No, the nature and scope of reorientation and reinvention strategies by performers, promoters and other champions of the art continue to unfold ever more curiously and resiliently. In the words of Zeami; "the style of expression will change over time, having old and contemporary versions [...]"72

72Quinn, p. 86.

2 1 8 CONCLUSION

NÔ is a contemporary art.

Throughout its six hundred year history, it has played a consequential and responsive role to its contemporaneous setting, and it continues to do so today. The art form has survived crises in its patronage, and each time has reinvented itself to adapt to its changing milieu. With each of these processes of reorientation. No has gained a new audience representing a broader social constituency. During the Edo period attempts by the bakufu to control the institutional supports of No did not discourage widespread interest and

practice of its constituent arts (especially utai) among the populace. It was precisely this popular interest that would eventually make it possible for those unrelenting professional performers of the Meiji period (such as Umewaka Minoru) to find and develop new audiences that crossed social and economic classes. Loss of the bakufu's patronage was therefore a severe, but, ultimately, not a fatal blow to the profession at large. Acquisition of support from this new, much broader cultural constituency — a multi-faceted network which eventually came to include politicians, highly regarded scholars, and members of the imperial household — was instrumental in assuring its survival. In retrospect, one may point out that events of this period foreshadowed the necessity for adaptive strategies which would help 219 the profession at large reinvent itself when the time came again to seek out new modes of patronage.

Eventually, the Second World War would bring about the dissolution of the core of this domestic constituency. But by that time, the groundwork had been laid for professional performers and other champions of the art to redefine its potential audience. The ensuing expansion of the art to venues overseas gave them that opportunity. Thus, in response to each crisis, interdependent social, cultural, and political factors have been key to the art's successful reorientation. For example, the Meiji Restoration created an economic crisis for No performers, prompting those few who did not leave the profession altogether to reinvent a necessary role for themselves and the art in that society. Concurrently, the new government found itself facing two simultaneous image crises. To the imperial Western powers it was trying to prove itself as a country with a legitimate cultural heritage; at home it was trying to promote modernization — the advancement of Western culture — without appearing to have forsaken its Japaneseness. The appropriation of No as a national emblem could not have come at a more opportune time for those desperate performers. At the same time No provided a convenient twofold solution to the dilemma of the Meiji government: domestically, by anchoring the national identity in a Japanese art, and, internationally, by exploiting that same image as proof of cultural legitimacy. It was reassuring to members of the public to leam of the presence of foreign visitors No performances and their praise was important. The press eagerly and enthusiastically published such anecdotal trivia. But the commodification of the art form did not stop there. Within East Asia, No

2 2 0 was transformed into an instrument for justifying military advancement and occupation. Towards this end the heads of the five No schools willingly exercised self censorship, particularly in matters of play selection.! In this way No was successfully used to legitimize both prongs of Japan's international agenda: its right to self-determination, and its right to colonize other territories within East Asia. Moreover, the longevity of No is not adequately explained by its 'temporal continuity.' That is, it would not be accurate in light of the evidence available to compare the continuance of No — as an art form or as a profession — to that of a natural object rooted in the past and persisting merely by not going away. It would be more accurate to describe the journey of No during this period as the 'emergent reorientation' of a cultural phenomenon which was able to survive a very difficult transition, with the contemporaneous support of cultural, political and social forces. With the post-war growth in popularity of No among international audiences, the trend of reorientation has continued. Producers of overseas performance venues have necessarily targeted a largely uninitiated, non- Japanese audience. This change in performance contexts has prompted performers and presenters to rethink and renegotiate traditional modes of presentation in a manner that is specific to the target venues. A domestic example of this same phenomenon may be seen in the rise in popularity of takigi-nô, designed to appeal to largely uninitiated contemporary audiences in Japan.

Ipor a detailed discussion of revisions on some N o plays, see lenaga, pp. 7-28.

2 2 1 As a result of these developments, the issues facing those interested in the future of the art may no longer be reduced to simple binary opposites — domestic vs. international; traditional performance vs. collaborative hybrid; traditional venues vs. new orientations such as takigi-nô. As Xiaomei Chen has noted, "criticism is best served not by separating dichotomies [...] but by engaging these binary oppositions in a constant and continuing dialogue without ever claiming one version of 'truth' at the expense of celebrating the diversities of all 'truths'."2 For example, it might be tempting to view developments recounted in this study as evidence of how imperialist power influenced the would-be 'colonized'.3 But a careful look at the roles No played in the intercultural developments of Meiji Japan calls into question the usefulness of such

2Xiaomei Chen, Occidentalism: A Theory of Counter-Discourse in Post-Mao China (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 155. Hereafter, referred to as Chen, Occidentalism.

3Colonial practices are a central feature of "Orientalism" as the term was coined by Edward Said in his landmark book of the same title. Said argues that intercultural power relationships constructed the notion of the Orient and the Occident. The powerful dominated the powerless as a natural law, and the former invested to sculpt the latter as its other, a reflection of itself. Thus, Orientalism is more an Occidental creation than one of geographical nativity. Said challenges general acceptance of this cultural institution, and proposes the 'unlearning' of such practice. As illustrations of the various kinds of uneven power relationships which contributed to the creation of Orientalism, Said lists the following four exchanges:

power political (as with a colonial or imperial establishment) power intellectual (as with reigning sciences, like comparative linguistics or anatomy, or any of the modem policy sciences) power cultural (as with orthodoxies and canons of taste, texts, values) power moral (as with ideas about what "we" do and what "they" cannot do or understand as "we" do)

Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1978).

2 2 2 discourse in explaining the evolution of the art form during this period.^ For the notion of a ^modernized' Japan was not an imperialist but an intercultural invention, and it is important to recognize the crucial role played by discursive practices initiated within Japan, as well as those from without. The figures in the Meiji government who appropriated No as a national emblem did so not just for the benefit of Western guests, but also for Chinese dignitaries, and domestically for a public at odds with modernization. Moreover, colonialist acts — which make up the core of Orientalist discourse — were initiated within the 'Orient' as seen in the complex history of cultural exchange between Japan and China. One cannot properly understand the role of NÔ in Japan's international cultural exchanges during this period without embracing multiple perspectives. The survival of No during the period of rapid modernization in Japan was made possible by a number of players who, in differing degrees and for a variety of purposes, ensured the art form's continuity. For some of these players (Umewaka, Iwakura, and Ikenouchi, among others) the continuation 4ln Chen's words:

Said seeks to show how Western imperialist images of its colonial others—images that, of course, are inevitably and sharply at odds with the self-understanding of the indigenous non-Westem cultures they purport to represent—not only govern the West's hegemonic policies, but were imported into the West's political and cultural colonies, where they affected native points of view and thus themselves served as instruments of domination.

Indeed, among the anecdotal accounts in Chapter Two, it is not difficult to locate examples of "Western" visitors to No describing what they see in a manner that is diametrically at odds with native understanding of the same phenomena. Also Chapter Four recounts how figures close to the Meiji government appropriated No as a legitimizing icon to present to distinguished European and American visitors as evidence of its cultural heritage, a fact that on its face seems to suggest a small country oppressed by the language of its would-be colonizers, forced to commodify a sacred cultural property. But Chen's analysis goes on to demonstrate problems of views that adopt totalizing strategies and make universal claims, favoring instead a position which recognizes that all discourse is local, and cultural phenomena should be viewed in light of their own historical exigencies. Chen, Occidentalism, p. 12-13,167.

2 2 3 of the art was their primary end; others (such as foreign visitors and yôkyoku enthusiasts) contributed to the art's continuation in less deliberate ways. But in addition to these social movements carried out for the survival of No, fundamental aesthetic issues have been equally important for attracting and retaining a variety of audiences throughout its history. The variety of responses shown in this study is itself a testimony to the reflexivity of a No performance, as intended and provided for in Zeami's theoretical and practical transmissions. The steps he took to try to communicate that understanding to successors of his art resulted in some of the most important extant treatises on performance in world literature. The steps taken by his

successors have applied fundamental esthetic issues which assure this reflexivity as No emerges into the diaspora of world culture. One can only assume that Zeami's work has flowered in many more ways than he could have possibly imagined. Since the end of World War H, modes of presenting No are coming to be as varied as modes of reception have been in the past. Constantly reinventing and reorienting itself, the art is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to discuss independent of its temporal and local setting. Recent developments in the way No is produced have endeavored to reach new audiences, yet throughout its history it has also attracted and maintained an ardent core of connoisseurs and amateur practitioners, who have embraced No through study of its constituent arts. Discussions of No are, perhaps, most useful if they acknowledge that it is both a traditional and a contemporary art, and that these properties need not be mutually exclusive.

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