The Noh Plays of Japan (12 page)

Once, when she was growing old, the poet Yasuhide asked her to go with him to Mikawa. She answered with the poem:

"I that am lonely,
Like a reed root-cut,
Should a stream entice me,
Would go, I think."

When she grew quite old, both her friends and her wits forsook her. She wandered about in destitution, a tattered, crazy beggar-woman.

As is shown in this play, her madness was a "possession" by the spirit of the lover whom she had tormented. She was released from this "possession" by the virtue of a sacred St
Å«
pa
*
or log carved into five parts, symbolic of the Five Elements, on which she sat down to rest.

In the disputation between Komachi and the priests, she upholds the doctrines of the Zen Sect, which uses neither scriptures nor idols; the priests defend the doctrines of the Shingon Sect, which promises salvation by the use of incantations and the worship of holy images.
^†

There is no doubt about the authorship of this play. Seami
(Works,
^‡
p. 246) gives it as the work of his father, Kwanami Kiyotsu-gu. Kwanami wrote another play,
Shii no ShoshO
in which Sh
ō
sh
ō
is the principal character and Komachi the
tsure
or subordinate.

Seami also used the Komachi legend. In his
Sekidera Komachi
he tells how when she was very old the priests of
Sekidera
invited her to dance at the festival of Tanabata. She dances, and in rehearsing the splendors of her youth for a moment becomes young again.

By Kwanami

PERSONS

PRIEST

We who on shallow hills
*
have built our home

In the heart's deep recess seek solitude.

(Turning to the audience.
)

I am a priest of the K
ō
yasan. I am minded to go up to the Capital to visit the shrines and sanctuaries there.

The Buddha of the Past is gone,

And he that shall be Buddha has not yet come into the world.

SECOND PRIEST

In a dream-lull our lives are passed; all, all That round us lies Is visionary, void.

Yet got we by rare fortune at our birth

Man's shape, that is hard to get;

And dearer gift was given us, harder to win,

The doctrine of Buddha, seed of our Salvation.

And me this only thought possessed,

How I might bring that seed to blossom, till at last

I drew this sombre cassock across my back.

And knowing now the lives before my birth,

No love I owe

To those that to this life engendered me,

Nor seek a care (have I not disavowed

Such hollow bonds?) from child by me begot.

A thousand leagues

Is little road

To the pilgrim's feet.

The fields his bed,

The hills his home

Till the travel's close.

PRIEST

We have come so fast that we have reached the pine-woods of Abeno, in the country of Tsu. Let us rest in this place.

(They sit down by the Waki's pillar.
)

KOMACHI

Like a root-cut reed,
*

Should the tide entice,

I would come, I think; but now

No wave asks; no stream stirs.

Long ago I was full of pride;

Crowned with nodding tresses, halcyon locks,

I walked like a young willow delicately wafted

By the winds of Spring.

I spoke with the voice of a nightingale that has sipped the dew.

I was lovelier than the petals of the wild-rose open-stretched

In the hour before its fall.

But now I am grown loathsome even to sluts,

Poor girls of the people, and they and all men

Turn scornful from me.

Unhappy months and days pile up their score;

I am old; old by a hundred years.

In the City I fear men's eyes,

And at dusk, lest they should cry "Is it she?"

Westward with the moon I creep

From the cloud-high City of the Hundred Towers.

No guard will question, none challenge

Pilgrim so wretched: yet must I be walking

Hid ever in shadow of the trees.

Past the Lovers' Tomb,

And the Hill of Autumn

To the River of Katsura, the boats, the moonlight.

(She shrinks back and covers her face, frightened of being known.
)

Who are those rowing in the boats?
*

Oh, I am weary. I will sit on this tree-stump and rest awhile.

PRIEST

Come! The sun is sinking; we must hasten on our way. Look, look at that beggar there! It is a holy St
Å«
pa that she is sitting on! I must tell her to come off it.

Now then, what is that you are sitting on? Is it not a holy St
Å«
pa, the worshipful Body of Buddha? Come off it and rest in some other place.

KOMACHI

Buddha's worshipful body, you say? But I could see no writing on it, nor any figure carved. I thought it was only a tree-stump.

PRIEST

Even the little black tree on the hillside

When it has put its blossoms on

Cannot be hid;

And think you that this tree

Cut fivefold in the fashion of Buddha's holy form

Shall not make manifest its power?

KOMACHI

I too am a poor withered bough.

But there are flowers at my heart,
^†

Good enough, maybe, for an offering.

But why is this called Buddha's body?

PRIEST

Hear then! This St
Å«
pa is the Body of the Diamond Lord.
*
It is the symbol of his incarnation.

KOMACHI

And in what elements did he choose to manifest his body?

PRIEST

Earth, water, wind, fire, and space.

KOMACHI

Of these five man also is compounded. Where then is the difference?

PRIEST

The forms are the same, but not the virtue.

KOMACHI

And what is the virtue of the St
Å«
pa?

PRIEST

"He that has looked once upon the St
Å«
pa, shall escape forever from the Three Paths of Evil."
^†

KOMACHI

"One thought can sow salvation in the heart."
^‡
Is that of less price?

SECOND PRIEST

If your heart has seen salvation, how comes it that you linger in the World?

KOMACHI

It is my body that lingers, for my heart left it long ago.

PRIEST

You have no heart at all, or you would have known the Body of Buddha.

KOMACHI

It was because I knew it that I came to see it!

SECOND PRIEST

And knowing what you know, you sprawled upon it without a word of prayer?

KOMACHI

It was on the ground already. What harm could it get by my resting on it?

PRIEST

It was an act of discord.
*

KOMACHI

Sometimes from discord salvation springs.

SECOND PRIEST

From the malice of Daiba...
^†

KOMACHI

As from the mercy of Kwannon.
^‡

PRIEST

From the folly of Handoku...
^§

KOMACHI

As from the wisdom of Monju.
⁺⁺

SECOND PRIEST

That which is called Evil

KOMACHI

Is Good.

PRIEST

That which is called Illusion

KOMACHI

Is Salvation.
*

SECOND PRIEST

For Salvation

KOMACHI

Cannot be planted like a tree.

PRIEST

And the Heart's Mirror

KOMACHI

Hangs in the void.

CHORUS
(speaking for
KOMACHI,
)

"Nothing is real. Between Buddha and Man

Is no distinction, but a seeming of difference planned

For the welfare of the humble, the ill-instructed,

Whom he has vowed to save.

Sin itself may be the ladder of salvation."

So she spoke, eagerly; and the priests,

"A saint, a saint is this decrepit, outcast soul."

And bending their heads to the ground,

Three times did homage before her.

KOMACHI

I now emboldened

Recite a riddle, a jesting song.

"Were I in Heaven

The St
Å«
pa were an ill seat;

But here, in the world without,

What harm is done?"
*

CHORUS

The priests would have rebuked her;

But they have found their match.

PRIEST

Who are you? Pray tell us the name you had, and we will pray for you when you are dead.

KOMACHI

Shame covers me when I speak my name; but if you will pray for me, I will try to tell you. This is my name; write it down in your prayer-list: I am the ruins of Komachi, daughter of Ono no Yoshizane, Governor of the land of Dewa.

PRIESTS

Oh piteous, piteous! Is this

Komachi that once

Was a bright flower,

Komachi the beautiful, whose dark brows

Linked like young moons;

Her face white-farded ever;

Whose many, many damask robes

Filled cedar-scented halls?

KOMACHI

I made verses in our speech

And in the speech of the foreign Court.

CHORUS

The cup she held at the feast

Like gentle moonlight dropped its glint on her sleeve.

Oh how fell she from splendour,

How came the white of winter

To crown her head?

Where are gone the lovely locks, double-twined, The coils of jet?

Lank wisps, scant curls wither now On wilted flesh;

And twin-arches, moth-brows tinge no more

With the hue of far hills. "Oh cover, cover

From the creeping light of dawn

Silted seaweed locks that of a hundred years

Lack now but one.

Oh hide me from my shame."

(
KOMACHI
hides her face.
)

CHORUS
(speaking for the
PRIEST
)

What is it you carry in the wallet string at your neck?

KOMACHI

Death may come today—or hunger tomorrow. A few beans and a cake of millet: That is what I carry in my bag.

CHORUS

And in the wallet on your back?

KOMACHI

A garment stained with dust and sweat.

CHORUS

And in the basket on your arm?

KOMACHI

Sagittaries white and black.

CHORUS

Tattered cloak,
*

KOMACHI

Broken hat...

CHORUS

She cannot hide her face from our eyes; And how her limbs

KOMACHI

From rain and dew, hoar-frost and snow?

CHORUS
(speaking for
KOMACHI
while she mimes the actions they describe
)

Not rags enough to wipe the tears from my eyes!

Now, wandering along the roads

I beg an alms of those that pass.

And when they will not give,