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Eguchi (play)
''Eguchi'' (江口) is a Noh play of the third category, written by Zeami, around a fragment (the courtesan’s sermon) by Kan'ami. The play combines two legends, one related of the holy man Shōkū (concerning the identity of the courtesan of Mura with the bodhisattva Fugen) and the other related of the monk Saigyō: (the admonishment of the courtesan of Eguchi). Plot summary A travelling monk arrives by night at the port of Eguchi. Seeing a cairn, he enquires about its origin and is told that it commemorates the Lady of Eguchi, a former courtesan and poetess, who was subsequently considered to be a manifestation of a bodhisattva, specifically Fugen Bosatsu, Bodhisattva of Universal Virtue. During a rainstorm, the 12th-century monk Saigyō had asked for shelter at her house, but was refused entry. He reproached her with an impromptu poem, complaining that “you are stingy/even with the night I ask of you,/a place in your soon-left inn” Her devastating reply hinged on a Buddhis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kan'ami
was a Japanese Noh actor, author, and musician during the Muromachi period. Born in Iga Province, Kan'ami also went by and . He is the father of the well-known playwright . Theater Kan'ami's career began in Obata, Nabari-shi, Mie when he founded a sarugaku theater group in the Kansai region on the main Honshu island. The troupe moved to Yamato and formed the Yuzaki theater company, which would become the school of Noh theater. He grew in popularity and began making trips to Kyoto to give performances. In 1374, the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was in the audience of a performance and was so impressed by it that he became Kan'ami's patron. Kan'ami was the first playwright to incorporate the Kusemai song and dance style and Dengaku dances from rustic harvest celebrations. He trained his son Zeami Motokiyo in his style, and his son eventually succeeded him as director of the Kanze school of Noh. Kan'ami died in Suruga Province. Notable works *''Sotoba Komachi'' *''Ji'nen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zeami
(c. 1363 – c. 1443), also called , was a Japanese aesthetician, actor, and playwright. His father, Kan'ami Kiyotsugu, introduced him to Noh theater performance at a young age, and found that he was a skilled actor. Kan'ami was also skilled in acting and formed a family theater ensemble. As it grew in popularity, Zeami had the opportunity to perform in front of the Shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. The Shōgun was impressed by the young actor and began to compose a love affair with him. Zeami was introduced to Yoshimitsu's court and was provided with an education in classical literature and philosophy while continuing to act. In 1374, Zeami received patronage and made acting his career. After the death of his father in 1385, he led the family troupe, a role in which he found greater success. Zeami mixed a variety of Classical and Modern themes in his writing, and made use of Japanese and Chinese traditions. He incorporated numerous themes of Zen Buddhism into his works and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 million in the 2020 census, it is also the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, which is the second-largest metropolitan area in Japan and the 10th largest urban area in the world with more than 19 million inhabitants. Osaka was traditionally considered Japan's economic hub. By the Kofun period (300–538) it had developed into an important regional port, and in the 7th and 8th centuries, it served briefly as the imperial capital. Osaka continued to flourish during the Edo period (1603–1867) and became known as a center of Japanese culture. Following the Meiji Restoration, Osaka greatly expanded in size and underwent rapid industrialization. In 1889, Osaka was officially established as a municipality. The cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood. In the Early Buddhist schools as well as modern Theravada Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( Pali: ''bodhisatta'') refers to someone who has made a resolution to become a Buddha and has also received a confirmation or prediction from a living Buddha that this will be so. In Mahayana Buddhism, a bodhisattva refers to anyone who has generated '' bodhicitta'', a spontaneous wish and compassionate mind to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. Mahayana bodhisattvas are spiritually heroic persons that work to attain awakening and are driven by a great compassion (''mahakaruṇā''). These beings are exemplified by important spiritual qualities such as the "four divine abodes" ('' brahmaviharas'') of loving-kindness (''metta''), compassion ('' karuṇā''), emp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saigyō
was a famous Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period. Biography Born in Kyoto to a noble family, he lived during the traumatic transition of power between the old court nobles and the new samurai warriors. After the start of the age of Mappō, Buddhism was considered to be in decline and no longer as effective a means of salvation. These cultural shifts during his lifetime led to a sense of melancholy in his poetry. As a youth, he worked as a guard to retired Emperor Toba, but in 1140 at age 22, for reasons now unknown, he quit worldly life to become a monk, taking the religious name . He later took the pen name , meaning “Western Journey”, a reference to Amida Buddha and the Western paradise. He lived alone for long periods in his life in Saga, Mt. Koya, Mt. Yoshino, Ise, and many other places, but he is more known for the many long, poetic journeys he took to Northern Honshū that would later inspire Bashō in his '' Narrow Road to the Interior' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Unfettered Mind
is a three-part treatise on Buddhist philosophy and martial arts written in the 17th century by Takuan Sōhō, a Japanese monk of the Rinzai sect. The title translates roughly to "The Mysterious Records of Immovable Wisdom". The book is a series of three discourses addressed to samurai but applicable to everyone who desires an introduction to Zen philosophy, the book makes little use of Buddhist terminology and instead focuses on describing situations followed by an interpretation. Its contents make an effort to apply Zen Buddhism to martial arts. Chapters All three chapters/essays are addressed to the samurai class, and all three seek to unify the spirit of Zen with the spirit of the sword. Of the three essays in the treatise, two were letters: * Fudōchishinmyōroku, "The Mysterious Record of Immovable Wisdom", written to Yagyū Munenori, head of the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū school of swordsmanship and teacher to two generations of ''shōguns''; and * Taiaki, "Annals of the Sword ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Takuan Sōhō
was a Japanese Buddhist prelate during the Sengoku and early Edo Periods of Japanese history. He was a major figure in the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism. Noted for his calligraphy, poetry, tea ceremony, he is also popularly credited with the invention of the ''takuan'' pickled radish. Biography Takuan Sōhō was born as the second son of Akiba Tsunanori, a samurai and senior retainer of the Yamana clan in the town of Izushi, in Tajima Province (present-day Toyooka, Hyōgo). When he was eight years old, the Yamana clan were defeated by the forces of Oda Nobunaga led by Hashiba Hideyoshi, making his father a '' ronin''. In 1582 Takuan entered the temple of Shōen-ji in Izushi as an acolyte, and in 1586 he was sent to the temple of Sōkyō-ji, also in Izushi, to further studies. In 1591, Maeno Nagayasu, the lord of Izushi Castle during this period, invited Kaoru Sotada a disciple of Daitoku-ji's Shunoku Sōen to administer Sōkyō-ji and Takuan became his disciple. When Kao ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanka
is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the '' Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poems" from the longer . In the ninth and tenth centuries, however, notably with the compilation of the '' Kokinshū'', the short poem became the dominant form of poetry in Japan, and the originally general word ''waka'' became the standard name for this form. Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki revived the term ''tanka'' in the early twentieth century for his statement that ''waka should be renewed and modernized''. ''Haiku'' is also a term of his invention, used for his revision of standalone hokku, with the same idea. Form Tanka consist of five units (often treated as separate lines when romanized or translated) usually with the following pattern of '' on'' (often treated as, roughly, the number of syllables per unit or line): :5-7-5 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saigyōzakura
is a Noh play by Zeami about the famous poet Saigyō, regarding his well-known love for cherry blossoms. Background Saigyō was renowned for his love of the flowering cherry - what he himself once called "my lifelong habit of having my mind immersed in blossoms". As a recluse however, he sometimes found himself in conflict with the Japanese habit of collective blossom viewing: as he wrote in his Sankashū, "Leave me in solitude/O Cherry flowers./Draw not people,/for they come in crowds". Plot Wishing to be alone with his cherry-blossoms, Saigyō is annoyed by the arrival of a party of (potential) viewers; and, on admitting them, composes a waka blaming the cherry tree for their intrusive presence. That night he is visited by the spirit of the cherry-tree, who rebukes him by pointing out the separateness and independence of all living creatures from human concerns. The two then converse, before the play ends with an extensive dance celebrating cherry flowers, exceptional sak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Priest And The Willow
is a Noh play based on the experiences of the 12th-century poet and travelling-monk Saigyō. Original kernel Saigyō was travelling to North Japan, when he sat in the shade of a willow-tree, later identified by Bashō as being close to the village of Ashino, and wrote a waka: " ‘Just a brief stop,’/ I said when stepping off the road/into a willow's shade/where a bubbling stream flows by,/as has time since my ‘brief stop’ began". Main theme A wandering priest, Yugyō Shonin, is given directions by an old man who recites Saigyō's poem before vanishing: the priest then realises it was the spirit of the willow tree. By reciting a prayer to Amida Buddha, he enables the spirit to attain Buddhahood, for which the willow spirit thanks him in a dance sequence. Later developments Buson wrote a haiku on rocks and willows underneath the Pilgrim's Willow Tree, alluding to the Noh play.L Zolbrod, ''Haiku Painting'' (Tokyo 1982) p. 12 See also * ''Eguchi'' (play) *'' Matsuyama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matsuyama Tengu
''Matsuyama tengu'' (松山天狗 ''Goblins of Matsuyama'') is a Noh play revolving around the ex-emperor Sutoku and his ghostly encounter with the poet Saigyō. Historical background The failure of the attempt by retired emperor Sutoku to seize power in the Hōgen rebellion led to his exile in Shikoku. His former associate Saigyō was shocked by the events: "A great calamity shook society, and things in the life of Retired Emperor Sutoku underwent inconceivable change". Saigyō thereafter kept in touch with his former emperor, and after his death made a pilgrimage to his place of exile, Matsuyama. There he wrote the tanka: "Let it be, my lord./ Surely this is nothing/ like the jewel-floored/ palaces of your past, but can/ anything alter what’s occurred?". Theme Saigyō's poem played a key role in the Noh play ‘Goblins of Matsuyama'. There, however, it formed part of the encounter between Saigyō and (the spirit of) Sutoku, figured in goblin form, and as a demonic influen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
