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Paper short abstract:

This presentation will analyze the intertextual resonances in the jailbreak Nō play Haruchika. Additionally, I will hypothesize how the outlaw plot reconfigures the ritual structure of Nō drama.

Paper long abstract:

In Haruchika (1464), the titular character shakes off his bodily and crinal shackles and escapes from a jail cell. Unlike the bulk of Nō plays of imprisonment which conclude with pardons, Haruchika thematizes the physical prowess of its lead character and the ecstatic release of rebellious impulses. Such plays reveal an alternate genealogy of Nō plays quite distinct from our typical aestheticized picture of phanstasmal plays of suffering spirits granted spiritual deliverance. Yet little is known about the play, which has neither been annotated nor studied.

This presentation will connect Haruchika's "caged superman" to a range of medieval setsuwa (anecdotal stories) (1) about "muscle men" (2) about jailbreaking outlaws (3) about shaking off crinal fetters (4) and about dissidents. I will show that some intertextual resonances play up cosmic unchaining while others, drawn from Chinese sources, morally justify the escape. At the same time, the outlaw plot contains these anarchic impulses in a predictable narrative frame. Likewise, the family plot grounds the story in filial piety. Haruchika thus offers an intriguing case study of how political subtexts in setsuwa both facilitate disorder and offer stabilizing frames. Abstracting further, it allows us to theorize how jailbreak in Nō drama features a double move of social turbulence and assured statis. This presentation will consider the "dangerous" jailed figure in light of Nō's ritual origins in the "aesthetics of impurity." As Michele Marra has suggested, Nō actors were professional scapegoats who reminded viewers of the threats faced by itinerant outcaste groups; temples used Nō performances to ritually exorcise danger and impurity. Does the jailbreaking outlaw play up this danger of "impurity" or provide a story template of ecstatic release from those ritual bounds? This presentation will suggest that the play equivocates, pursuing both lines of thinking. At the same time, the play illustrates Richard Schechner's efficacy-entertainment theory of drama as ritual and performance, a continuum in which each pole informs the other.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper will examine the impact of performing arts such Heike chanting, kōwaka (dance drama), Nō, and kyōgen on the rhetoric and expressions found in sixteenth-century Japanese Christian literature, and accordingly situating these influences within cross-cultural flows.

Paper long abstract:

The arrival of the Jesuit priest St. Francis Xavier in Japan in 1549 marked the beginning of Christian missionary activities in Asia and broad cross-cultural exchanges between Asia and the West. In particular, the moveable-type press brought back to Amakusa by the Tenshō embassy (a Japanese youth delegation sent to the West) led to the publication of various kirishtanban (lit. “Christian press”) texts in romanized Japanese. The most well-known of these are the abridged edition of The Tale of the Heike (Feique no monogatari, 1592), more commonly known as the Amakusaban Heike monogatari, and a Japanese translation of Aesop’s Fables (Esopono Fabvlas, 1593). Such publication efforts were once vaguely understood as undertaken by missionaries. In recent years, however, scholars have uncovered the involvement of Japanese Christians and their domestic helpers, including those like Fabian Fukan, the Japanese convert responsible for the Amakusaban Heike monogatari, and the father-child pair of Yōhō Paulo and Vicente Tōin who compiled Santosu no gosagyō (The Deeds of Saints and Apostles, 1591). Building on the discovery of such Japanese involvement, I argue that these texts are a valuable repository of Japanese literary and dramatic observations. Furthermore, I contend that these texts need to be reappraised as Japanese classics born of cross-cultural contact, reversing their relegation to the periphery in Japanese literary history.

In this paper, I examine the relationship between kirishtanban texts and the performing arts. In particular, popular performing arts genres of the time, such as kōwaka (dance drama), Nō and kyōgen left an impact on such early Christian literature. For example, these Christian texts often contain descriptions of performance styles and trends of time, providing valuable clues to theatre historians. Moreover, the Amakusaban Heike monogatari is narrated as a conversation between a reciter, Kiichi Kengyō (whose name recalls Heike chanters) and his listener Uma no jō, thus borrowing the performative idiom of the Tale of the Heike. Japanese performance genres, in turn, influence Christian dramas of the time. This paper will consider these dynamic cross-cultural interactions in the performing arts.

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Paper short abstract:

This presentation will demonstrate that Kanze Motomasa’s play Yoroboshi is based on stories from the preaching context by focusing on the motif of a wandering husband and wife pair found in an earlier variant of the play written by Zeami.

Paper long abstract:

Recent research on Nō drama has revealed that plays about madness (monogurui nō) are based on setsuwa (anecdotal stories) from the world of Buddhist preaching (shōdō.) For example, the play Sakuragawa (桜川) is based on the tale “About a poor woman in Kendara” in the collection Shijuhyaku innenshū （私聚百因縁集, 1257). The plays Tango monogurui （丹後物狂）and Shikijimonogurui （敷地物狂）are likewise based on the preachings of the Tendai priest Enshō and incorporated into texts such as the Sangokudenki (三国伝記, late fourteenth to early fifteenth century) and Jikidaninnenshū (直談因縁集,1585). This presentation argues that the Nō play Yoroboshi (弱法師) by Kanze Motomasa likely also had its origins in popular Buddhist preaching. Though the current performance tradition only has one shite (“doer” or main role), an extant version of the play copied from Zeami’s handwritten libretto has the shite accompanied by his wife as tsure (shite’s companion). The inclusion of the wife is the key to my argument.

　 Previous scholarship has argued that the play Yoroboshi may have been derived from the sermon-ballad Shintokumaru(説経節,しんとく丸). It is unlikely that Yoroboshi was based on Shintokumaru because the works have different endings. Instead, a story found in early Buddhist scriptures, the account of the Indian prince Kunala, is the likely source for Yoroboshi. The original Indian story–about the travails of a blind son who is cast out by his father because of a false accusation, and then later reunited with him–influenced both Yoroboshi and Shintokumaru. But the Zeami- transcribed variant of Yoroboshi follows the original Indian account very closely, featuring the wanderings of the blind man together with his wife.

　Such stories of spousal love between Prince Kunala and his wife are found in Buddhist tale collections such as the Sangokudenki, Hokkekyōjikidanshō（法華経直談抄,1546）, Innenshō (因縁抄,Muromachi Period)and the afore-mentioned Jikidaninnenshū. I contend that Kanze Motomasa likely composed Yoroboshi while alluding to these Buddhist anecdotes of Prince Kunala, stories often cited during Buddhist sermons.

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Paper short abstract:

The Koiji no sōshi emaki occupies a central place among Muromachi period love tales and incorporates many setsuwa. This presentation will analyze the visual language of the illustrated scroll, connecting it to construction of love in Nō plays such as Koi no omoni, Unrin'in, and Kayoi Komachi.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation introduces a picture scroll produced in the late Muromachi period and situates it within the context of setsuwa (anecdotal literature) and performing arts. Though little is known about this work, as it has neither been annotated or published, it is of great interest because it tackles the themes of heterosexual and same-sex love. Currently known as the Koiji no sōshi emaki (Illustrated Tale of the Paths of Love), it consists of a series of tales, with key scenes illustrated and narrated in brief passages. One could therefore see Koiji no sōshi emaki as a setsuwa emaki (pictorialized collection of tales), but it is better understood as a singular otogi zōshi because of the consistency of its theme.

The term koiji (love's path) refers to the course of a love affair, particularly when such love is without reason, without chance of success, or false in some way. Building on these associations, the Koiji no sōshi emaki also thematizes heedless love, a theme also found in the forerunner of amorous tales, the otogi zōshi Jōruri jūnidan sōshi (The Tale of Lady Jōruri in Twelve Parts). A similar theme is found in Himeyuri (Princess Lily), in which a princess's menoto preaches the path of love to her charge. The adumbration of love's torments is likewise thematized in Takafusa no koizukushi (1177) and the Muromachi period tale Sagoromo no taishō. The Koiji no sōshi emaki emerges from this literary context and represents its flourishing in a Muromachi period, when such tales were increasingly common. The thematization of difficult love in plays such as Unrin'in, Kayoi Komachi, Umegae, and Koi no Omoni is one illustration of this development. This presentation will focus on the visual language of the scroll to hypothesize the narrative of construction of love that comes to be utilized in these different genres.