能のあらすじ・見どころ Summary and Highlights of Noh Shōki English
Summary
A man who lives at the foot of Mount Zhongnan in China is bound for the imperial capital Chang’an (today Xi’an). He is on a journey to present a petition to the emperor, but he is stopped by a mysterious villager. The villager says that he has vowed to destroy evil demons and protect the land. If the emperor is governing wisely, he shall appear at court and manifest an auspicious sign. He then asks the traveler to deliver this message to the emperor.
Puzzled, the traveler asks about the man’s identity. The villager replies that he is Shōki, who took his own life after failing the civil service examination. He then shows a miracle before disappearing.
A commoner living at the foot of Mount Zhongnan appears and recounts Shōki’s background, instructing the traveler to offer prayers for him and wait for his marvels. As the traveler performs memorial rites for Shōki, Shōki himself, carrying a treasured sword, appears. He destroys the demons lurking within the imperial palace and fulfills his vow to protect the realm.
Highlights
The character of Shōki was worshipped in China as a guardian deity who drives away illness-bearing demons. In Japan, a custom developed of displaying images or figurines of Shōki during the Boys’ Festival on the fifth day of the fifth month, praying for children’s health. In the Hekija-e painting (a National Treasure dating back to before the thirteenth century), which depicts benevolent deities subduing plague demons, there is an image of Shōki grasping a small demon and gouging out its eyes. This connects directly to the character of Shōki in the play, portrayed as a fearsome divine being who exterminates demons.
Although the play does not recount it in detail, Shōki’s tragic end is well known: despairing over his failure in the civil service examination for the shinshi rank, he smashed his head against the palace steps and died. When the text states, “I am Shōki, who was a shinshi…,” it alludes to the fact that he was posthumously awarded official rank by the emperor.
Shōki’s author is thought to be the famed playwright Konparu Zenchiku, son-in-law of Zeami, who wrote what are considered to be among nō theatre’s finest plays. In the first act, there is a passage beginning with “A human life is like clouds driven by the wind…” which expresses the impermanence of the world and Shōki’s sorrow. This lament of the ill-fated prodigy is strongly emphasized. The passage appears in Zeami’s musical treatise Go’on kyoku jōjō (Articles on the Five Sorts of Singing) as an example of a chant expressing human sorrow, suggesting that it originally existed as an independent chant later incorporated into this play.
The highlight of the second act is Shōki’s dynamic performance. The main actor appears in a bold, martial figure carrying a sword, and in the finale he draws the blade and powerfully slashes the demons.