Leiter S.L. Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre

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LANGUAGE • 211

• the way of strength and crudeness: ‘‘Three days after its birth, a

tiger wants to eat an ox.’’

• the way of crudeness and leadenness: ‘‘The ﬁve skills of the ﬂy-

ing squirrel.’’

KYU

NO MAI. The most ‘‘rapid dance’’ in no

, performed by female

demons in a few unique plays, like Do

-ji. See also MAIGOTO.

LANGUAGE. No

plays depend on a combination of prose and verse,

although the latter dominates, and the language is ﬁlled with allu-

sions to classical Japanese and Chinese lite ratu re and h istory (see

LITERARY SOURCES) and complex word play. The prose includes

sinicized pronunciations of the words and expressions that use the

verbal endings ‘‘so

’’ and ‘‘so

rae.’’ The verse is similar to waka

poetry and uses a seven-ﬁve-syllable meter (shichigocho

), traditional

for most Japanese poetry. Often, the words are arranged illogically,

the focus being more on musical rhythm than on rational meaning.

Much use is made of Buddhist terminology that few but specialists

understand. Contemporary audiences do not generally follow all the

linguistic complexities, even when reading the libretto during a per-

formance, but the plays are nevertheless appreciated as rich verbal

fabrics. The lines often allude to famous poems that reﬁned audi-

ences were expected to recognize, or may be verbatim borrowings.

The emotion associated with the original would then be conﬂated

with that of the individual in the play. One very important element is

the waka, a 31-syllable poem that ﬁgures in many plays and may

even provide the inspiration for the plot. Other rhetorical elements

include the engo ‘‘verbal association,’’ whereby a homonymic word

is connected to both the words it follows and those it precedes,

thereby giving it multiple meanings; kakekotoba (‘‘pivot words’’), a

pun playing off different meanings in a homonymic word, and so on.

Kyo

gen plays use much more straightforward language than no

with certain noticeable conventions, such as the ending of most sen-

tences with the copula verb gozaru. Few Japanese profess great dif-

ﬁculty in following the dialogue, which is based on adaptations of

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212 • LIGHTING

Muromachi period speech. Also, the same passages are often heard

in different plays and there are other repetitive devices that help give

kyo

gen its charm. Word play is common, especially that based on the

poetry style called shu

ku, which depends on double entendres. Some

of the fundamental plot twists turn on someone’s (usually the ser-

vant, Taro

-kaja) misunderstanding of a phrase of word, such as when

kane no ne, meaning ‘‘the sound of bells,’’ is taken for ‘‘the price of

gold.’’ Plays incorporating renga (linked-verse) poetry are consid-

ered to have the highest level of wordplay. Kyo

gen dialogue (called

serifu in contrast to the mondo

of no

) has a dramatic give and take

quality missing in no

, where dialogue has a more narrative quality.

One of kyo

gen’s most characteristic linguistic devices is the use of

onomatopoeia. The actors accompany many actions with vocaliza-

tions that suggest their sound, from opening a door (gara gara gara)

to sawing (zuka zuka zuka) to pouring sake from a full cask (dobu

dobu dobu) to playing the shamisen (tsureten tsureten tsureten). The

manner of performance counts far more with audiences than the liter-

ary quality of the writing.

Bunraku and kabuki make use of similar word play devices, but

their most distinctive contribution, which is especially strong in

kabuki, is the use o f shichigocho

meter in standard dialogue

sequences. Kabuki also includes a number of standard rhetorical

devices, including wari zerifu, watari zerifu, yakuharai, and sutez-

erifu.

LIGHTING. ‘‘Stage lighting.’’ Traditionally, Japanese performing arts

were given outdoors, using natural light, as many of them, especially

folk theatre (minzoku geino

), still do. Open-air performances typi-

cally occur in shrine compounds, parks, and agricultural ﬁelds, and

use natural light. Kyo

gen and no

originally were staged outdoors. A

number of such theatres are still used. Only the stage is roofed, and

the stage is situated so that it receives indirect sunlight. These forms

are usually seen indoors today, with ﬂat, white lighting illuminating

the stage.

In the ﬁrst third of the 18th century, the theatres of bunraku and

kabuki,

which

also originally were open-air structures, were roofed,

protecting both performers and audiences. Light entered through

high windows at the sides (see MADOBUTA), the shutters being

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LITERARY SOURCES • 213

opened and closed by functionaries. Candles also came into use for

illumination. One of the two principal uses for candles in kabuki was

in decorative, hanging paper lanterns (bazuri cho

chin). A kind of

spotlight effect was also possible through the use of the sashidashi

technique of holding a lit candle before an actor’s face. Some shosa-

goto and jidai mono used the rurito (‘‘lapis lazuli lanterns’’), candles

set in small receptacles hung before the scenery to create a unique

decorative effect. Candles often led to ﬁres so many restrictions on

their use were instituted.

Gas lighting was introduced at Yokohama’s Gaiety-za in 1873, and

in 1878, Tokyo’s reconstructed Shintomi-za (see MORITA-ZA) was

able to present the ﬁrst evening performances. Kerosene lamps,

which needed no generators, gained popularity in 1887 at Osaka’s

minor playhouses. Arc lamps were ﬁrst seen at Kyoto’s Gion Kaburen-

in 1883. And incandescent lighting was provided for the new

Kabuki-za in 1889.

Today’s bunraku and kabuki productions use modern lighting

technology as appropriate to the needs of speciﬁc plays. Productions

of highly conventionalized plays may use ﬂat, white light to suggest

the Edo-period approach, while other plays may employ more atmo-

spheric effects, especially for nighttime scenes. In general, the audi-

torium remains lit but not as brightly as the stage. When the kabuki

hanamichi is used, lights embedded along its sides are brought up.

LITERARY SOURCES. No

plays make extensive use of classical

Chinese and Japanese literature as source material for both plots and

language, and many descriptions of no

texts call them ‘‘tapestries’’

of allusions. Poems in the classical tanka style or from other kinds of

poetry, including Chinese examples, may be quoted in full or in part,

perhaps only a few words. In the past, educated audiences could be

expected to recognize many, if not all, the allusions, which made the

experience of seeing no

that much more enjoyable. Among the chief

sources are

• Manyo

shu

(A Myriad of Leaves), an eighth-century compilation

of poems.

• Kokinshu

(Collection of Ancient and Modern Poetry, 905).

• Shin Kokinshu

(New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poetry,

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214 • LITERARY SOURCES

1206), a collection especially notable for the quality of yu

gen in

its poems, making it highly suitable for no

playwrights.

• Wakan Ro

eishu

(Collection of Japanese and Chinese Poems for

Chanting Aloud, 1013).

• Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, eighth-century pseudo-historical chroni-

cles employed by many hatsubanme mono.

• Konjaku Monogatari, 12th-century s tories from In dia, China,

and Japan.

• Yamato Monogatari (Tales of Japan), 10th-century collection of

stories.

• Genpei Jo

suiki (Chronicle of the Rise and Fall of the Genji and

the Heike), an important 48-volume source for nibanme mono

dealing with Kamakura period.

• Ise Monogatari (Tales of Ise), 9th-century collection of legend-

ary love tales about the handsome courtier Ariwara no Narihira,

and waka poetry, of which he was famed as a writer.

• Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji), Lady Murasaki Shikibu’s

world-renowned 11th-century romance about the many loves of

the Shining Prince, Genji.

• Heike Monogatari (Tale of the Heike), a war epic that was well

known through its recitation by blind biwa players, and whose

episodes inspired many no

plays about tragic samurai who died

in battle.

• Soga Monogatari (Tale of the Soga Brothers), epic about the leg-

endary revenge acted out by the Soga brothers.

• engi, stories of the legendary origins of temples and shrines, as

in Taema and Seiganji.

• setsuwa, Buddhist moral tales, important to such plays as Koji-

dan, Go

dansho

, and Hosshinshu

• the beautiful poetess Ono no Komachi, whose legend ﬁgures in

such works as Kayoi Komachi, O

mu Komachi, Sekidera

Komachi, So

shi

Arai

Komachi, and Sotoba Komachi.

• Chinese legends, which inspired such plays as Basho

• slave trading of children, a social vice that forms the background

of Hyakuman, Jinen Koji, Kagetsu, Miidera, and Sumidagawa.

Kyo

gen plays have different sources, summed up by Hayashi

Kazutoshi and Laurence Kominz as: ‘‘folk tales, comic sections of

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MACHIIRI NO

• 215

religious tales, parodies of religious teaching, and ﬁctional exaggera-

tions of actual daily occurrences’’ (in Leiter 1997, 54).

Bunraku and kabuki draw their historical materials from the

medieval chronicles, such as the Heike Monogatari,theGikeiki

(Tales of Yoshitsune), the Ise Monogatari,theTaiheiki,theSoga

Monogatari, and the Genpei Jo

suiki. Also important, especially for

sewa mono, were stories taken from such narrative forms as rakugo

and ko

dan, and from a variety of different forms of popular Edo-

period ﬁction, such as go

kan, which often treated vendettas.

MA. The complex notion of ‘‘timing’’ or the use of ‘‘pauses.’’ It covers

the intervals between musical beats, words, or movements, and is an

especially important part of the actor’s technique for expressing the

psychological essence of his role; it is closely bound to his breath

control (iki).

MACHI AWASE. Bunraku’s ‘‘waiting to join’’ technique whereby, in

order for the narrative and the puppets to be synchronized, the

chanter and shamisen accompaniment temporarily stops, waits for

the action to reach a certain point, and then resumes.

MACHIIRI NO

. Also cho

nin no

(‘‘townsman’s no

’’), these ‘‘town no

’’

presentations were given during the Edo period to the general public.

They took place on important shogunate ceremonial occasions, such

as the announcement of a new shogun, births, marriages, coming-of-

age ceremonies (genpuku), or on the occasion of a shogun’s visit to

the Tokugawa mausoleum at Nikko. The earliest was at Edo Castle

in 1607. Machiiri no

were sponsored not only by the shogunate in

Edo but in castle cities run by the various clans—each of which

patronized no

actors—all around Japan.

In Edo, there were ﬁve days of performances. On the ﬁrst, the

city’s populace was allowed to attend, each district being allotted a

certain number of theatregoers who alternated places, ﬁve times dur-

ing the morning and ﬁve times during the afternoon. All spectators

were given umbrellas to guard against rain. The military class zeal-

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216 • MACHI MAWARI

ously guarded no

as its own special art, allowing the general popu-

lace to see it was considered a boon from the rulers, but it was also

a time when critical comments, normally prohibited, were aimed at

ofﬁcials. Some even shouted out to the shogun something like

‘‘Boss’’ or ‘‘Kingpin’’ (oyadama), a remark more likely t o be

directed at a kabuki star. Machiiri no

familiarized the populace with

and this, in turn, led to a good number of no

plays being adapted

by kabuki. See also KANJIN NO

MACHI MAWARI. Also machi bure, the Edo-period Kamigata prac-

tice of a kabuki troupe parading ‘‘around the town’’ the day before

an opening, beating a drum, and advertising its new production. The

company would then return to the theatre and line up on stage for a

ceremony. Touring actors did something similar on arriving in pro-

vincial towns. See also NORIKOMI.

MACHINEE. ‘‘Matinees,’’ ﬁrst used in kabuki in 1912 at the Teikoku

Gekijo

, when the European plan of presenting one or two a week was

introduced, the target being people with limited means, including

students. The shows charged lowered admissions and featured rising

young actors. A monthly run was 25 days, with eight matinees.

Today’s practice offers two programs a day, the earlier of which may

be referred to as a matinee. See also NIBUSEI.

MACHI UTAI. In a no

play, the ‘‘waiting chant,’’ chanted by the waki

and his attendants in anticipation of the shite’s reappearance at the

start of the play’s second act (nochiba) at which point the kyu

(see

JO-HA-KYU

) or concluding section commences. See also YO

K-

YOKU.

MADOBUTA. Also akari mado (‘‘light windows’’), sliding ‘‘window

shutters’’ near the ceiling of Edo-period kabuki theatres at either side

of the auditorium, over the sajiki seating, controlled by men who reg-

ulated the amount of light streaming in. Since plays were produced

during daylight hours, and ﬁre regulations limited the use of candles,

this was a principal way of controlling stage lighting. Quickly clos-

ing the madobuta could create blackout effects.

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MAI • 217

MAEGAMI KATSURA. Premodern adolescent males did not shave

their forelocks until they reached maturity, so these ‘‘forelock wigs’’

were created for characters who required forelock hair. There were a

number of styles, many of them represented in the theatre. Women’s

wigs also have a forelock portion, as do some for mature men.

MAGE. The ‘‘topknot’’ worn by bunraku and kabuki characters as a

major part of their wigs, many of which are named for their mage

style. Male, female, and children’s wigs all have mage, and one can

instantly tell much about a character’s status, age, and profession by

his or her topknot. About 63 male styles are used, and about 48

female. Combined with back hair (tabo) and sidelock (bin) styles,

numerous variations exist.

MAI. One of several words for ‘‘dance’’ used in all forms of traditional

Japanese theatre. In no

and kyo

gen, where all movement is always

highly formalized and performed in time to rhythmic principles, it is

based on mai.(See MUSIC: NO

.) A no

performance is said to be

danced, not acted, even though the actor also has considerable

opportunity to display his vocal techniques. Even walking or stillness

are considered dance. Thus acting is an aspect of dance, not the

reverse. Still, despite no

’s being considered a dance drama, there are

a small number of plays in which there is little or no dance at all;

those in this category are said to have the highest rank (kurai). An

example is Sekidera Komachi. Kyo

gen is more realistic than no

, but

its plays have an abundance of dance sequences and kyo

gen actors

must spend years perfecting their dance techniques.

Mai also refers speciﬁcally to the long, second-act (nochiba)

dances of no

plays. Words that refer to nondance movement include

the now rarely used shikata, meaning mimic movement, and tachi-

mawari (not to be confused with kabuki’s use of this term).

Mai in no

is based on slow, solemn, gliding movements (see

HAKOBI; SURIASHI) as the actor, holding the kamae position,

pro-

ceeds

in various prescribed patterns, forward, back, across, and

around the stage. At certain climactic moments, he may leap or stamp

(hyo

shi). As he moves, his upper body remains erect and he does not

bend, change the position of his torso, or move his head, so he seems

to be sliding rather than walking. During a performance, the head is

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218 • MAI

kept in a ﬁxed position, only rarely moving up and down or from

side to side. The arms may move as long as they are in accord with

the movements of the feet, although foot movements have more of a

rhythmic feeling than do arm movements. There is barely any wrist

movement. The foot movements carry much of the meaning of the

dance, even during mimetic sequences. Thus, the dancer may move

forward a step or two, pointing into the distance at something with

the left hand, but even when he does not actually point, his foot

movements must convey the same idea. Moving backward and for-

ward can suggest the difference, respectively, between discourage-

ment and excitement. See also KATA.

dance movements range from the abstract and symbolic to the

mimetic. The latter are highly polished, reﬁned, and abstracted from

everyday reality. The dance may be performed in conjunction with

verse chanted (utai) by the jiutai, where it reinforces the meaning of

the words, or it may be performed to instrumental accompaniment,

in which case it is mainly abstract, following formal structural princi-

ples. All long dances follow the same basic choreography; another

basic choreography informs shor t er dances. The context, tempo,

character’s appearance, musicians’ interpretation, and actor’s inter-

pretation make each example unique.

Zeami formulated the three fundamental character styles under the

term santai (‘‘three bodies’’); though their names reﬂect ideas of age

and gender, dances in these styles sometimes cross boundaries,

allowing the actor to use a combination of styles in his interpretation.

There are many terms for no

dance patterns, each of them suitable

to speciﬁc plays and characters. (See MAIGOTO.) The same patterns

are found in many plays and one may even see much the same dance

in various plays, although in each case it will bear different meanings

and feelings because of differences in the words, tempo, costumes,

masks, and so on. Some dances are unique to a single play, like the

ranbyo

shi in Do

-ji. Dancers may use any of a number of hand

properties when dancing, including weapons such as swords and

halberds, but most dance is accompanied by a chu

kei-type fan.

rhythms are unique and complex, often being based on a lack

of congruence between the movements of the actor, the percussion

background, and the chanted language. Instead of the regular inter-

vals that make up standard rhythms, no

employs irregular intervals

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MAIGINU • 219

within a regular framework, so the dancer and the musicians must be

in perfect harmony.

Kabuki uses mai to differentiate dancing that was originally circu-

lar or rotational—and that developed from bugaku through no

—from

odori, which developed later and involves leaping movements.

Today, it is common for both mai and odori to be conﬂated in buyo

written with the characters for mai and odori, which represents

kabuki dance. Mai is more formalized than odori, the latter allowing

the performer greater freedom. See also SHOSAGOTO.

MAI BATARAKI. ‘‘Danced action,’’ a two-part, highly physical no

mai

of the taiko mono type, with dynamic tempo, associated with power-

ful gods (as in Kamo), demons, animals, and ghosts (as in Funa Ben-

kei), all of them wearing fearsome masks and striking headgear.It

is also considered a hatarakigoto. Examples include Chikubu Shima,

Kokaji, and Tsuchigumo. See also MAIGOTO.

MAI BAYASHI. Also mai hayashi or, simply, hayashi,aconcert

recital of no

‘‘dance and music’’ (nikyoku) in which only a major

dance (mai) section is given by a shite,wearingmontsuki and

hakama, and—unlike a shimai—with full musical accompaniment.

A narrow-tipped fan is used instead of the chu

kei. If another charac-

ter must accompany the dance with chant (utai), a single jiutai

chanter takes that part. Typically, the performance begins with the

shite kneeling

and

chanting in front of the chorus area; when he has

to move, he rises and begins to dance. In Hagoromo, it would begin

with the sashi: ‘‘How does it look, the Palace of the Moon?’’ (Tyler

1992, 105), progress through the kuse and the jo no mai, and con-

clude after a shortened version of the ha no mai (see also MAI-

GOTO). These performances are longer than shimai, taking 10 to 20

minutes, but sometimes the entire second-act (nochiba) dance, last-

ing half an hour, is given.

MAIGINU. A no

dance robe. Unlike the cho

ken, which is basted so

that the front and rear can come apart, it is sewn together. It also

lacks a tie cord at the breast. It may be worn in tsubo-ori or koshi-

maki (‘‘draped from the waist’’) style. See also COSTUMES: NO

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220 • MAIGOTO

MAIGOTO. ‘‘Dance pieces’’ performed by the shite in a no

play to the

music of the fue, kotsuzumi, and o

tsuzumi, and using no jiutai

accompaniment. (See also MAI.) These are considered the core of

most no

plays, although 34 plays (such as Hachi no Ki) have none.

During a maigoto, the fue and hand drums work together to provide

the rhythmic accompaniment, the drums alone provide the rhythm,

or the fue ignores the rhythm of the drums and plays an independent

rhythm (ashirai). When only the hand drums are played, the section

is called a daisho

mono, but when the taiko is added, it is a taiko

mono. These terms are used in the names given to various maigoto.