Paper short abstract:

This paper explores misreadings and reinterpretations related to the Noh play Kinuta as cases of cultural reception. The paper concentrateson 1: the play itself as a medieval Japanese misreading of Chinese poetry and 2: a recent film as an American adaptation of Japanese medieval story-telling.

Paper long abstract:

Kinuta (The Fulling Block) is regarded as one of Zeami's greatest plays. At its heart, however, is a misreading of its sources.

Kinuta's inspiration derived from Chinese poems collected in Wakan Rōeishū concerning women pounding the fulling block (an equivalent to the current doing the ironing). Zeami participated in a medieval misreading of the genre, which has been traced to a commentary used at the time by Japanese learner readers of Chinese. One explanatory note in particular, partially based on varying kanji usages, alters the meaning significantly, but it reflects Japanese medieval cultural assumptions about women. It alters the motivation of the feminine voices of the poems. Zeami placed this motivation at the core of his play.

In 2017, an American professor of art, an afficionado of Zen arts, very taken with the play Kinuta, (partly from Royall Tyler's Penguin translation) approached me to provide some background to help him generate a playscript for a film adaptation he wished to make. As the project progressed, it became clear that we understood the play in quite different ways. To me these fundamental differences had their roots in cultural orientation, in other words, in the expectations of the film maker despite his strong interests in Japanese culture and religion. The film that he eventually produced, altered the import of the story radically, but was a fine work of art, appreciable in its own terms. It was in fact, the change of interpretation he brought to the play that was central to its appeal to its audiences. The original story would likely have led to puzzlement.

The roots of the misreadings considered in this paper appear to be mediated by commentary and translation, however, they also related closely to the cultural orientations of two creative artists: Japanese assumptions about the role of women in narratives, and American concerns about the position of women. It is likely that the universe of story-telling in the minds of the authors overrode what was outside their cultural expectations. Nevertheless, this was essential to the creation of effective works of art.