''Aoi no Ue'' (葵上, Lady Aoi) is a

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

Japanese

Noh is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...

play based on the character

Lady Aoi is a fictional character in '' The Tale of Genji'' (''Genji Monogatari''). Daughter of the Minister of the Left (Tō no Chūjō's sister) and Genji's first principal wife, she marries Genji when she is sixteen and he is only twelve. Proud and dist ...

from the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

novel '' The Tale of Genji''. It is an example of the fourth category of "miscellaneous" Noh plays. ''Aoi no Ue'' was the first of many Noh plays based on ''The Tale of Genji''. It is sometimes attributed to

Zeami Motokiyo (c. 1363 – c. 1443), also called , was a Japanese Aesthetics, aesthetician, actor, and playwright. His father, Kan'ami, Kan'ami Kiyotsugu, introduced him to Noh theater performance at a young age, and found that he was a skilled actor. Kan ...

or to his son-in-law

Zenchiku was a skilled Japanese Noh actor, troupe leader, and playwright. His plays are particularly characterized by an intricate, allusive, and subtle style inherited from Zeami which convolved yūgen with influences from Zen Buddhism (his Zen master ...

; the extant version of the text is likely a reworking of a version written for the troupe of a contemporary, Inuō.

Play

In the backstory, Prince Genji, who was married to his wife Lady Aoi at a young age, has taken a mistress,

Lady Rokujo The word ''lady'' is a term for a girl or woman, with various connotations. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the equivalent of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. Infor ...

. Lady Rokujo had been married to the crown prince, but his death had left a much less powerful widow. Rokujo had previously destroyed another mistress of Genji through a jealous apparition. Following an episode in which she is humiliated in public by Lady Aoi, Rokujo is enraged to discover that Aoi is pregnant. Genji begins ignoring Rokujo, and in her jealousy her living spirit leaves her body and possesses Lady Aoi, resulting in Aoi's falling sick – the starting-point of the play. The action of the play focuses on a ''

miko A , or shrine maiden,Groemer, 28. is a young priestess who works at a Shinto shrine. were once likely seen as shamans,Picken, 140. but are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized role in daily life, trained to perform ...

'' (female shaman) and a priest summoning and exorcising the spirit of Lady Rokujo from her attack on the body of Lady Aoi. Aoi does not appear on stage - rather, an empty kimono serves to represent her. Rokujo initially appears in a sympathetic vein, lamenting the transience of life and beauty: “We are brittle as the leaves of the bashō / As fleeting as foam on the sea...now I wither like the Morning Glory”. Then, seized with anger, she renews her attack on Aoi, whose deteriorating condition leads to the summoning of the priest/saint and his incantations finally lay Rokujo’s angry spirit to rest. Noh roles being historically played by men, the first woman to play the lead role in ''Aoi no Ue'' was Uzawa Hisa..

Analysis

Victor Turner Victor Witter Turner (28 May 1920 – 18 December 1983) was a British cultural anthropologist best known for his work on symbols, rituals, and rites of passage. His work, along with that of Clifford Geertz and others, is often referred to as ...

, in ''The Anthropology of Performance'', wrote about the relationship between ''The Tale of Genji'' and ''Aoi no Ue'', calling them different kinds of metaperformance and discussing the difference between the story in a novel and in a theatre. *

Yukio Mishima , born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Nationalism, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was ...

did a modern adaptation in

Freudian Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...

terms, which was set in a hospital.Modern and Contemporary Adaptations of Classical No Drama p. 128-30
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Notes

External links

Noh plays Photo Story and Story Paper
Noh plays Works based on The Tale of Genji Plays based on novels {{Japan-lit-stub

Play

Analysis

See also

Notes

Further reading

External links