能のあらすじ・見どころ Summary and Highlights of Noh Go English
Summary
A priest (waki) from Hitachi Province (Ibaraki Prefecture today) travels to Kyoto and arrives at the edge of the city at Sanjo. The priest whispers a waka poem composed by Hikaru Genji in a scene in the Tale of Genji where he longs for Utsusemi, mentioning a shell of a cicada that flew away as a metaphor for a robe left behind by Utsusemi as she fled. A woman (mae-shite) then appears before him and offers lodging for one night at her home and a game of go. The priest recalls a scene in the Tale of Genji where Utsusemi plays go with her stepdaughter Nokiba no Ogi. The woman hints that she is the ghost of Utsusemi and disappears.
A man (ai) living near the woman’s house appears and tells the story of Genji and Utsusemi.
At night, the priest gives a Buddhist service to Utsusemi. Her ghost (nochi-shite) and the ghost of Nokiba-no-Ogi (tsure) appear, and they play a game of go. Having lost the game, the ghost of Utsusemi recounts the time when she fled, leaving only her robe, when she had noticed Genji sneaking into her room. She confesses the sweet sorrow she experienced through her fleeting romance with Genji. She then dances a dance expressive of unsettled feelings with Nokiba-no-Ogi. The priest awakens from his dream, seeing no sight of the ghosts.
Highlights
Go draws material from the chapters “Hahakigi” and “Utsusemi” of the Tale of Genji. The play is ascribed to Saami, a noh playwright of the Muromachi period (1336-1573). It has long been a bangai play, which is a play that is not included in the standard repertory, and was not performed over a long period of time. However, it was revived in 1962 by the Kongō School and in 2001 by the Kanze School, performed at the Ohtsuki Noh Theatre, and many times since then.
The waka poem (Like the cicada / Leaving behind its shell / Beneath the tree […]) recited by the priest in the first half of the play was composed by Hikaru Genji in the Tale of Genji, expressing his longing for Utsusemi. Utsusemi was the second wife of the Iyo Deputy. Genji spends a night with Utsusemi during their first encounter. The second time, however, Utsusemi flees from him, resulting in Genji mistakenly spending the night with Utsusemi’s stepdaughter Nokiba no Ogi. The name “Utsusemi,” meaning a shell of a cicada, is derived from the way that Genji compares the robe she left during this escape to a shell left by a cicada as a result of molting. This noh play is partly based on a scene from this second visit in the literary work where Genji spies on the two women playing go.
A highlight of this play is the way that the unease and heartache of the romance between Hikaru Genji and Utsusemi is depicted from Utsusemi’s point of view and intertwined with a game of go she played with Nokiba-no-Ogi (the latter loses in the Tale of Genji, but Utsusemi loses in the noh). A go board is placed on stage, and the game is acted out with gestures. The lines also skillfully incorporate go jargon such as “nebama,” “shichō,” and “kō-date,” as well as titles of chapters of the Tale of Genji. Other highlights include the way that the noh reproduces how Utsusemi leaves her robe in the room. Please enjoy this noh that gives a glimpse into the world of the classical literary work Tale of Genji.