能のあらすじ・見どころ Summary and Highlights of Noh Fuji (Wisteria) English
Summary
A group of priests traveling from the province of Kaga (Ishikawa Prefecture) to Zenkoji Temple (Nagano Prefecture) decides to visit the village of Himi (Toyama Prefecture) to see the famed shoreline of Tago. The marvelous view of the bay with the wisteria flowers in full bloom calls an old poem to one of the priests' minds, and he recites it. Then, a woman from the village of Himi appears and admonishes the priests for not remembering a poem that praises the beauty of the wisteria flowers. The woman recites poems about the wisteria, suitable for the scenery, including the poem, "Tago Bay / Colored to the bottom/With waves of wisterias/ Adorning my hair/For you to see."
When the priest asks her who she is, she hints that she is the spirit of the wisteria flowers and disappears.
After the woman disappears, the priests meet a villager. The villager tells the priests about the story of when the Nara period (710-784) poet Ōtomo no Yakamochi and Nawamaro at his company came to this shore and composed poems of the wisteria flowers here and how that made "wisteria of Tago" famous. When the priests tell the villager about the woman they had just met, the villager says she must have been the wisteria spirit. The villager recommends the priests offer prayers to console the spirit and goes away.
As the priests begin to give the prayers, the spirit of the wisteria appears at nightfall. The spirit expresses her gratitude to the priests and dances as she celebrates how the seasons turn around the shore. The wisteria spirit disappears as she sings of the passing spring, like the wisteria flowers that come in full bloom at the end of spring.
Highlights
There are a number of noh plays featuring spirits of plants as the main character. The spirit of the kakitsubata iris in Kakitsubata, the plantain tree in Bashō and the maple in Mutsura appear as female figures, while the spirit of the pine in Akoya no Matsu, the cherry tree in Saigyō Zakura, the willow tree in Yugyō Yanagi are depicted as old male figures.
Kura no Imiki Nawamaro's poem, "Tago Bay / Colored to the bottom/With waves of wisterias/ Adorning my hair/For you to see," is in the nineteenth volume of Japan's oldest anthology, Manyōshū. The content of the poem can be rephrased, "The wisteria flowers by the shore of Tago are so brilliantly in full bloom that even the water of Tago Bay seems to be colored in their reflection. I shall take some of these flowers and put them in my hair (or decorate my crown) for you who have not seen this beautiful sight yet." The introductory words for the poem note that this poem was composed on the occasion when Nawamaro accompanied Ōtomo no Yakamochi, one of the editors of Manyōshū and the new provincial governor, visiting the shore of Tago to see its wisteria flowers. The title of the noh play is "Wisteria" in Japanese, and the play's narrative is centered on this poem.
Please enjoy the dance of the wisteria spirit, expressing the beautiful scenery of the ancient poem, as well as the stage piece of a pine tree with a wisteria vine in bloom and a crown adorned with wisteria flowers.
Fuji is included in the repertory of the Kanze, Hōshō and Kongō Schools of noh. While they all share the central feature of the dancing wisteria spirit, the lyrics on the script differ by school. The Kanze School script is thought to have been created in the mid-Edo period (1603-1867) based on the Hōshō School play. The playwright of the original play in the Hōshō School is said to be either the second feudal lord of Kaga, Maeda Toshitsune, or the fifth feudal lord of Morioka, Nanbu Nobuoki. Both lords were known to be connoisseurs and patrons of noh.
Today, the shoreline of Tago is no longer extant, but there is a shrine called Tago no Ura Fujinami Jinja, which is famous for its wisterias.