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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.