Stefanie Thomas, Ohio State University
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Visual Disability in Kyōgen Zatōmono Viewed in a Sociohistorical and Religious Context Stefanie Thomas, Ohio State University Abstract respective shite’s blindness does indeed seem to serve as an adjunctive In Noh’s sibling art of Kyōgen, a property to other factors the theatrical form employing many of the playwright and audiences would have same conventions as the former but found worthy of ridicule. treating its subjects with levity rather than gravitas, one subcategory of plays which has fallen out of favor with contemporary audiences is zatōmono, Kyōgen, the classical Japanese i.e., plays in which the shite (primary theater form inextricably linked to the character) is a blind person. Today, “poetic, quasi-religious musical drama” researchers of Japanese theaters are left of Noh, is primarily known as short, with the question of whether these plays are supposed to make fun of the humorous interludes that provide sightless characters’ disability, or comic relief between the serious plays whether playwrights and audiences of the Noh repertoire, which usually during the Sengoku and early Edo do not feature “dramatic conflict” periods saw social and/or political (Serper 307). However, it would be context in the sufferings of the blind. erroneous to see the former as a mere This study seeks to explore the vehicle of one-note, lighthearted above question by providing a comedy; rather, the relationship of historical overview of the historical these two intertwined arts, performed periods during which Kyōgen on the same stage, is considered to developed and flourished, and by have been influenced by the Chinese analyzing the plots and original libretti concept of the yin/yang (in/yō) of three plays: Chakagi zatō (茶嗅座 harmony of contrasts, the importance 頭 , The Tea-Sniffing Blind Men), of this dichotomy being evident in Tsukimi zatō ( 月見座頭, Moon- theoretical treatises on Noh and Viewing Blind Man; this play is Kyōgen such as Zeami Motokiyo’s present in literature collections in two Fūshi kaden (The Transmission of the diverging versions, and both have been Flower through the Forms) and the considered for the purposes of this Ōkura school’s Waranbe-gusa (To My paper), and Kawakami zatō, (川上座 [Young] Followers) (Serper 308-9). 頭, The Blind Man at Kawakami). It The formative contrasts inherent in will show that, inasmuch as intent is this juxtaposition, such as dark/light, discernible in textual as opposed to quiescent/mobile, feminine/masculine, performed versions of these works, the weak/strong and so forth, gain an The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 41 additional dimension in these two textual variations are common, which stage arts, namely that of fiction vis-à- complicates pinpointing the exact vis reality (Serper 308). Zvika Serper social milieu in which these plays quotes Ōkura Toraakira (1597-1662), were composed. However, by the thirteenth master of the Ōkura providing a short historical overview school of Kyōgen, on the of the blind performers who often dichotomous/complementary nature of occupy the shite, or primary, role in his art as follows: “Noh turns fiction them, it is possible to place the into reality. Kyōgen turns reality into dramatic depiction of these fiction. Noh is in front. Kyōgen is entertainers into a general social backward” (309). The complementary context and thereby propose a basic nature can also be discerned in another exegetical framework. assertion found in the Waranbe-gusa: In this paper, the author takes a “Sewa ni, shimote no nō wa kyōgen ni look at the sociohistorical and nari, shimote no kyōgen wa nō ni naru religious backdrop against which to” (“In the world, the underside/lower Kyōgen zatōmono came into being, part of Noh becomes Kyōgen, and the and offers an interpretation of the underside/lower part of Kyōgen treatment of blind characters in three becomes Noh”) (Kitagawa 301). plays, namely Chakagi zatō (The Tea- Kyōgen, then, while ostensibly Sniffing Blind Men), Tsukimi zatō (The mirroring Noh, is implicitly capable of Moon-Viewing Blind Man), and evoking more than laughter in its Kawakami zatō, sometimes only fictionalized depiction of real people. known by the title Kawakami (literally This is particularly visible in the plays The Blind Man at Kawakami, entitled classed as shukke zatō kyōgen by Don Kenny as Sight Gained and (“priest/blind people plays”) in the Lost in his anthology of play Ōkura school, and zatōmono in the translations, The Kyogen Book [212]). Izumi school (Cavaye et al. 185). The former two plays showcase These plays at first glance are visually disabled characters hardly comical in their frequently contextualized within the formal depicted cruelty towards the disabled. ranking system of the guild for the Nowadays rarely performed, they blind (Tōdō-za), with Chakagi zatō fictionalize societal and religious including multiple blind characters, thought towards the blind in the and Tsukimi zatō featuring a single farcical yet acutely socially aware blind person interacting with a sighted manner typical of the art form, and man. No guild classification is may provide an interesting glimpse at mentioned in the final play. the complex interactions of Kyōgen According to the Nōgaku daijiten, performers and itinerant blind two of these plays fall somewhat entertainers at the time the plays were outside of the standard zatōmono plays, first performed. As Kyōgen was an whereas the third, Chakagi zatō, as a improvisational art prior to the Edo bangaikyoku (“out-of-repertoire play”), period, it is difficult to date the pieces is not mentioned at all in the entry for analyzed with precision; additionally, zatō kyōgen. Kawakami is the only The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 42 play in which the shite is not The connection between blindness introduced as a zatō or kōtō, and the and the performing arts has a long play is also classified as “couple play” tradition in the history of Japan. After (fūfumono) due to its plot (392). the introduction of the biwa from Tsukimi zatō, on the other hand, was China to Japan via Kyūshū during the composed at some point during the Nara period, blind performers in the later Edo period, and therefore is guise of monks began traveling the “removed from the restraints of land, chanting syncretic jishinkyō Buddhist thought” (bukkyō shisō no (literally “regional god sutra”) sokubaku kara hanare), instead narratives and healing prayers to its directly showcasing the pathos of the accompaniment and functioning as blind man being subjected to cruelty Buddhist missionaries among the by an able-bodied person (392). general populace (Kana 75). In the However, these three plays showcase Heian period, a contingent of these the breadth of the zatōmono category blind monks arrived in the capital, precisely because they differ slightly forming an association with the from the other plays of the category. Buddhist temples of the area and First of all, aside from Chakagi taking up the performance of sutras zatō, no other plays show a group- and hymns as a full-time profession internal hierarchy modeled after that of (Kana 75). As the era came to a close, the Tōdō-za according to Morley (50), the blind performers proceeded from enabling an analysis of how this exclusively working in and around ranking structure is treated within the temples to adding performances in work. Secondly, in avoiding Buddhist private residences, acquiring the overtones, Tsukimi zatō allows for public moniker of biwa hōshi (“lute isolation of potential societal priests”) (Kana 75). After the considerations within its plot. Finally, proliferation of the Heike monogatari, in Kawakami, the sociocultural factor which, according to the Tsurezuregusa, is minimized due to a lack of guild was first given to the blind priest classification, and due to the married Shōbutsu for recitation by the former couple being the only people on stage, court noble Yukinaga in the mid- which makes it possible to concentrate thirteenth century (Morley 51), many on the religious implications of the biwa hōshi in the capital devoted piece. The author will analyze the themselves to the performance of different portrayals of the sight- sections of this tale (Kana 75-6). impaired with consideration given to Contingents in more rural areas also these distinctions. In doing so, the sang imayō-like popular songs and perception of blindness as recounted legends and interesting tales representative of a social institution, from the surrounding villages (Kana vis-à-vis sightlessness as an individual 75-6). The initial organization of blind phenomenon within the historical and performers in a guild named Tōdō-za religious contexts given below, will (“guild of the right way”) began become clear. between the end of the Kamakura period and the initial decades of the The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 4, No. 1, August 2018 43 Muromachi period, providing the overheard the confessional tales of visually impaired in its fold with a blind performers near temples. Such measure of societal standing and tales would have been motivated by representation (Kana 7; Golay 141). the collective bias against blind Although initially providing stability performers, who were considered in as well as the exclusive right to recite medieval Japanese religious thought to the Heike under the auspices of the have defied the teachings of the Ashikaga shogunate, the Tōdō-za lost Buddha, and to have been struck down political and economic support in the with blindness as a result (76-8). period of societal upheaval caused by Golay, meanwhile, tells of an the Ōnin Wars (1467-1477), forcing unspecified record of monogatari-sō, guild members into an itinerant “who may have been blind,” having lifestyle until the beginning of the been invited to perform kyōgen at a Tokugawa period (1603-1867) private gathering in 1416, and (Morley 51). speculates that some of these plays Carolyn Anne Morley considers may have been composed by a blind this time period, referred to as person (139, 141).