- UKAI
- AYA NO TSUZUMI
- AOI NO UYE
Note on Ukai.
Seami tells us (Works, p. 246) that this play was written by Enami no Sayemon. “But as I removed bad passages and added good ones, I consider the play to be really my work” (p. 247).
On p. 245 he points out that the same play on words occurs in Ukai three times, and suggests how one passage might be amended. The text of the play which we possess to-day still contains the passages which Seami ridiculed, so that it must be Enami no Sayemon’s version which has survived, while Seami’s amended text is lost.
It is well known that Buddhism forbids the taking of life, especially by cruel means or for sport. The cormorant-fisher’s trade had long been considered particularly wicked, as is shown by an early folk-song:[109]
“Woe to the cormorant-fisher
Who binds the heads of his cormorants
And slays the tortoise whose span is ten thousand Æons!
In this life he may do well enough,
But what will become of him at his next birth?”
This song, which is at least as old as the twelfth century, and may be much earlier, seems to be the seed from which the No play Ukai grew.
UKAI
(THE CORMORANT-FISHER)
By ENAMI NO SAYEMON (c. 1400).
PERSONS
- PRIEST.
- SECOND PRIEST.
- FISHER.
- YAMA, KING OF HELL.
- CHORUS.
PRIEST.
I am a priest from Kiyosumi in Awa. I have never yet seen the country of Kai, so now I am minded to go there on pilgrimage.
(Describing the journey.)
On the foam of white waves
From Kiyosumi in the land of Awa riding
To Mutsura I come; to the Hill of Kamakura,
Lamentably tattered, yet because the World
Is mine no longer, unashamed on borrowed bed,
Mattress of straw, to lie till the bell swings
Above my pillow. Away, away! For dawn
Is on the hemp-fields of Tsuru. Now the noonday sun
Hangs high above us as we cross the hills.
Now to the village of Isawa we come.
Let us lie down and rest awhile in the shelter of this shrine.
(The FISHER comes along the hashigakari towards the stage carrying a lighted torch.)
FISHER.
When the fisher’s torch is quenched
What lamp shall guide him on the dark road that lies before?
Truly, if the World had tasked me hardly
I might be minded to leave it, but this bird-fishing,
Cruel though it be in the wanton taking of life away,
Is a pleasant trade to ply
Afloat on summer streams.
I have heard it told that Yushi and Hakuyo vowed their love-vows by the moon, and were changed to wedded stars of heaven. And even to-day the high ones of the earth are grieved by moonless nights. Only I grow weary of her shining and welcome nights of darkness. But when the torches on the boats burn low,
Then, in the dreadful darkness comes repentance
Of the crime that is my trade,
My sinful sustenance; and life thus lived
Is loathsome then.
Yet I would live, and soon
Bent on my oar I push between the waves
To ply my hateful trade.
I will go up to the chapel as I am wont to do, and give my cormorants rest. (Seeing the PRIESTS.) What, have travellers entered here?
PRIEST.
We are pilgrim-priests. We asked for lodging in the village. But they told us that it was not lawful for them to receive us, so we lay down in the shelter of this shrine.
FISHER.
Truly, truly: I know of none in the village that could give you lodging.
PRIEST.
Pray tell me, sir, what brings you here?
FISHER.
Gladly. I am a cormorant-fisher. While the moon is shining I rest at this shrine; but when the moon sinks, I go to ply my trade.
PRIEST.
Then you will not mind our lodging here. But, sir, this work of slaughter ill becomes you; for I see that the years lie heavy on you. Pray leave this trade and find yourself another means of sustenance.
FISHER.
You say well. But this trade has kept me since I was a child. I cannot leave it now.
SECOND PRIEST.
Listen. The sight of this man has brought back something to my mind. Down this river there is a place they call Rock-tumble. And there, when I passed that way three years ago, I met just such a fisherman as this. And when I told him this cormorant-fishing was reckoned a sin against life, I think he listened; for he brought me back to his house and lodged me with uncommon care.
FISHER.
And you are the priest that came then?
SECOND PRIEST.
Yes, I am he.
FISHER.
That cormorant-fisher died.
PRIEST.
How came he to die?
FISHER.
Following his trade, more shame to him. Listen to his story and give his soul your prayers.
PRIEST.
Gladly we will.
FISHER (seats himself facing the audience and puts down his torch).
You must know that on this river of Isawa, for a stretch of three leagues up stream and down, the killing of any living creature is forbidden. Now at that Rock-tumble you spoke of there were many cormorant-fishers who every night went secretly to their fishing. And the people of the place, hating the vile trade, made plans to catch them at their task. But he knew nothing of this; and one night he went there secretly and let his cormorants loose.
There was an ambush set for him; in a moment they were upon him. “Kill him!” they cried; “one life for many,” was their plea. Then he pressed palm to palm. “Is the taking of life forbidden in this place? Had I but known it! But now, never again....” So with clasped hands he prayed and wept; but none helped him; and as fishers set their stakes they planted him deep in the stream. He cried, but no sound came. (Turning to the PRIEST suddenly.) I am the ghost of that fisherman.
PRIEST.
Oh strange! If that be so, act out before me the tale of your repentance. Show me your sin and I will pray for you tenderly.
FISHER.
I will act before your eyes the sin that binds me, the cormorant-fishing of those days. Oh give my soul your prayer!
PRIEST.
I will.
FISHER (rising and taking up his torch).
The night is passing. It is fishing-time.
I must rehearse the sin that binds me.
PRIEST.
I have read in tales of a foreign land[110]
How sin-laden the souls of the dead
Have toiled at bitter tasks;
But strange, before my eyes
To see such penance done!
FISHER (describing his own action).
He waved the smeared torches.
PRIEST (describing the FISHER’S action).
Girt up his coarse-spun skirts.
FISHER (going to the “flute-pillar” and bending over as if opening a basket).
Then he opened the basket,
PRIEST.
And those fierce island-birds
FISHER.
Over the river-waves suddenly he loosed....
CHORUS.
See them, see them clear in the torches’ light
Hither and thither darting,
Those frightened fishes.[111]
Swift pounce the diving birds,
Plunging, scooping,
Ceaselessly clutch their prey:
In the joy of capture
Forgotten sin and forfeit
Of the life hereafter!
Oh if these boiling waters would be still,
Then would the carp rise thick
As goldfinch in a bowl.
Look how the little ayu leap[112]
Playing in the shallow stream.
Hem them in: give them no rest!
Oh strange!
The torches burn still, but their light grows dim;
And I remember suddenly and am sad.
It is the hated moon!
(He throws down the torch.)
The lights of the fishing-boat are quenched;
Homeward on the Way of Darkness[113]
In anguish I depart.
(He leaves the stage.)
PRIEST (sings his “machi-utai” or waiting-song, while the actor who has taken the part of the FISHER changes into the mask and costume of the KING OF HELL.)
I dip my hand in the shallows,
I gather pebbles in the stream.
I write Scripture upon them,
Upon each stone a letter of the Holy Law.
Now I cast them back into the waves and their drowned spell
Shall raise from its abyss a foundered soul.
(Enter YAMA, KING OF HELL; he remains on the hashigakari.)
YAMA.
Hell is not far away:
All that your eyes look out on in the world
Is the Fiend’s home.
I am come to proclaim that the sins of this man, who from the days of his boyhood long ago has fished in rivers and streams, were grown so many that they filled the pages of the Iron Book;[114] while on the Golden Leaves there was not a mark to his name. And he was like to have been thrown down into the Deepest Pit; but now, because he once gave lodging to a priest, I am commanded to carry him quickly to Buddha’s Place.
The Demon’s rage is stilled,
The fisher’s boat is changed
To the ship of Buddha’s vow,[115]
Lifeboat of the Lotus Law.[116]
AYA NO TSUZUMI
(THE DAMASK DRUM)
ATTRIBUTED TO SEAMI, BUT PERHAPS EARLIER.
PERSONS
- A COURTIER.
- AN OLD GARDENER.
- THE PRINCESS.
COURTIER.
I am a courtier at the Palace of Kinomaru in the country of Chikuzen. You must know that in this place there is a famous pond called the Laurel Pond, where the royal ones often take their walks; so it happened that one day the old man who sweeps the garden here caught sight of the Princess. And from that time he has loved her with a love that gives his heart no rest.
Some one told her of this, and she said, “Love’s equal realm knows no divisions,”[117] and in her pity she said, “By that pond there stands a laurel-tree, and on its branches there hangs a drum. Let him beat the drum, and if the sound is heard in the Palace, he shall see my face again.”
I must tell him of this.
Listen, old Gardener! The worshipful lady has heard of your love and sends you this message: “Go and beat the drum that hangs on the tree by the pond, and if the sound is heard in the Palace, you shall see my face again.” Go quickly now and beat the drum!
GARDENER.
With trembling I receive her words. I will go and beat the drum.
COURTIER.
Look, here is the drum she spoke of. Make haste and beat it!
(He leaves the GARDENER standing by the tree and seats himself at the foot of the “Waki’s pillar.”)
GARDENER.
They talk of the moon-tree, the laurel that grows in the Garden of the Moon.... But for me there is but one true tree, this laurel by the lake. Oh, may the drum that hangs on its branches give forth a mighty note, a music to bind up my bursting heart.
Listen! the evening bell to help me chimes;
But then tolls in
A heavy tale of day linked on to day,
CHORUS (speaking for the GARDENER).
And hope stretched out from dusk to dusk.
But now, a watchman of the hours, I beat
The longed-for stroke.
GARDENER.
I was old, I shunned the daylight,
I was gaunt as an aged crane;
And upon all that misery
Suddenly a sorrow was heaped,
The new sorrow of love.
The days had left their marks,
Coming and coming, like waves that beat on a sandy shore ...
CHORUS.
Oh, with a thunder of white waves
The echo of the drum shall roll.
GARDENER.
The after-world draws near me,
Yet even now I wake not
From this autumn of love that closes
In sadness the sequence of my years.
CHORUS.
And slow as the autumn dew
Tears gather in my eyes, to fall
Scattered like dewdrops from a shaken flower
On my coarse-woven dress.
See here the marks, imprint of tangled love,
That all the world will read.
GARDENER.
I said “I will forget,”
CHORUS.
And got worse torment so
Than by remembrance. But all in this world
Is as the horse of the aged man of the land of Sai;[118]
And as a white colt flashes
Past a gap in the hedge, even so our days pass.[119]
And though the time be come,
Yet can none know the road that he at last must tread,
Goal of his dewdrop-life.
All this I knew; yet knowing,
Was blind with folly.
GARDENER.
“Wake, wake,” he cries,—
CHORUS.
The watchman of the hours,—
“Wake from the sleep of dawn!”
And batters on the drum.
For if its sound be heard, soon shall he see
Her face, the damask of her dress ...
Aye, damask! He does not know
That on a damask drum he beats,
Beats with all the strength of his hands, his aged hands,
But hears no sound.
“Am I grown deaf?” he cries, and listens, listens:
Rain on the windows, lapping of waves on the pool—
Both these he hears, and silent only
The drum, strange damask drum.
Oh, will it never sound?
I thought to beat the sorrow from my heart,
Wake music in a damask drum; an echo of love
From the voiceless fabric of pride!
GARDENER.
CHORUS.
I beat the drum. The days pass and the hours.
It was yesterday, and it is to-day.
GARDENER.
But she for whom I wait
CHORUS.
Comes not even in dream. At dawn and dusk
GARDENER.
No drum sounds.
CHORUS.
She has not come. Is it not sung that those
Whom love has joined
Not even the God of Thunder can divide?
Of lovers, I alone
Am guideless, comfortless.
Then weary of himself and calling her to witness of his woe,
“Why should I endure,” he cried,
“Such life as this?” and in the waters of the pond
He cast himself and died.
(GARDENER leaves the stage.)
Enter the PRINCESS.
COURTIER.
I would speak with you, madam.
The drum made no sound, and the aged Gardener in despair has flung himself into the pond by the laurel tree, and died. The soul of such a one may cling to you and do you injury. Go out and look upon him
PRINCESS (speaking wildly, already possessed by the GARDENER’S angry ghost, which speaks through her).[120]
Listen, people, listen!
In the noise of the beating waves
I hear the rolling of a drum.
Oh, joyful sound, oh joyful!
The music of a drum.
COURTIER.
Strange, strange!
This lady speaks as one
By phantasy possessed.
What is amiss, what ails her?
PRINCESS.
Truly, by phantasy I am possessed.
Can a damask drum give sound?
When I bade him beat what could not ring,
Then tottered first my wits.
COURTIER.
She spoke, and on the face of the evening pool
A wave stirred.
PRINCESS.
And out of the wave
COURTIER.
A voice spoke.
(The voice of the GARDENER is heard; as he gradually advances along the hashigakari it is seen that he wears a “demon mask,” leans on a staff and carries the “demon mallet” at his girdle.)
GARDENER’S GHOST.
I was driftwood in the pool, but the waves of bitterness
CHORUS.
Have washed me back to the shore.
GHOST.
Anger clings to my heart,
Clings even now when neither wrath nor weeping
Are aught but folly.
CHORUS.
One thought consumes me,
The anger of lust denied
Covers me like darkness.
I am become a demon dwelling
In the hell of my dark thoughts,
Storm-cloud of my desires.
GHOST.
“Though the waters parch in the fields
Though the brooks run dry,
Never shall the place be shown
Of the spring that feeds my heart.”[121]
So I had resolved. Oh, why so cruelly
Set they me to win
Voice from a voiceless drum,
Spending my heart in vain?
And I spent my heart on the glimpse of a moon that slipped
Through the boughs of an autumn tree.[122]
CHORUS.
This damask drum that hangs on the laurel-tree
GHOST.
Will it sound, will it sound?
(He seizes the PRINCESS and drags her towards the drum.)
Try! Strike it!
CHORUS.
“Strike!” he cries;
“The quick beat, the battle-charge!
Loud, loud! Strike, strike,” he rails,
And brandishing his demon-stick
Gives her no rest.
“Oh woe!” the lady weeps,
“No sound, no sound. Oh misery!” she wails.
And he, at the mallet stroke, “Repent, repent!”
Such torments in the world of night
Aborasetsu, chief of demons, wields,
Who on the Wheel of Fire
Sears sinful flesh and shatters bones to dust.
Not less her torture now!
“Oh, agony!” she cries, “What have I done,
By what dire seed this harvest sown?”
GHOST.
Clear stands the cause before you.
CHORUS.
Clear stands the cause before my eyes;
I know it now.
By the pool’s white waters, upon the laurel’s bough
The drum was hung.
He did not know his hour, but struck and struck
Till all the will had ebbed from his heart’s core;
Then leapt into the lake and died.
And while his body rocked
Like driftwood on the waves,
His soul, an angry ghost,
Possessed the lady’s wits, haunted her heart with woe.
The mallet lashed, as these waves lash the shore,
Lash on the ice of the eastern shore.
The wind passes; the rain falls
On the Red Lotus, the Lesser and the Greater.[123]
The hair stands up on my head.
“The fish that leaps the falls
To a fell snake is turned,”[124]
In the Kwanze School this play is replaced by another called The Burden of Love, also attributed to Seami, who writes (Works, p. 166): “The Burden of Love was formerly The Damask Drum.” The task set in the later play is the carrying of a burden a thousand times round the garden. The Gardener seizes the burden joyfully and begins to run with it, but it grows heavier and heavier, till he sinks crushed to death beneath it.
I have learned to know them;
Such, such are the demons of the World of Night.
“O hateful lady, hateful!” he cried, and sank again
Into the whirlpool of desire.
Note on Aoi No Uye.
At the age of twelve Prince Genji went through the ceremony of marriage with Aoi no Uye (Princess Hollyhock), the Prime Minister’s daughter. She continued to live at her father’s house and Genji at his palace. When he was about sixteen he fell in love with Princess Rokujo, the widow of the Emperor’s brother; she was about eight years older than himself. He was not long faithful to her. The lady Yugao next engaged his affections. He carried her one night to a deserted mansion on the outskirts of the City. “The night was far advanced and they had both fallen asleep. Suddenly the figure of a woman appeared at the bedside. “I have found you!” it cried. “What stranger is this that lies beside you? What treachery is this that you flaunt before my eyes?” And with these words the apparition stooped over the bed, and made as though to drag away the sleeping girl from Genji’s side.”[125]
Before dawn Yugao was dead, stricken by the “living phantom” of Rokujo, embodiment of her baleful jealousy.
Soon after this, Genji became reconciled with his wife Aoi, but continued to visit Rokujo. One day, at the Kamo Festival, Aoi’s way was blocked by another carriage. She ordered her attendants to drag it aside. A scuffle ensued between her servants and those of Rokujo (for she was the occupant of the second carriage) in which Aoi’s side prevailed. Rokujo’s carriage was broken and Aoi’s pushed into the front place. After the festival was over Aoi returned to the Prime Minister’s house in high spirits.
Soon afterwards she fell ill, and it is at this point that the play begins.
There is nothing obscure or ambiguous in the situation. Fenollosa seems to have misunderstood the play and read into it complications and confusions which do not exist. He also changes the sex of the Witch, though the Japanese word, miko, always has a feminine meaning. The “Romance of Genji” (Genji Monogatari) was written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu and was finished in the year 1004 A. D. Of its fifty-four chapters only seventeen have been translated.[126] It furnished the plots of many No plays, of which Suma Genji (Genji’s exile at Suma), No no Miya (his visit to Rokujo after she became a nun), Tamakatsura (the story of Yugao’s daughter), and Hajitomi (in which Yugao’s ghost appears) are the best known.
There is some doubt about the authorship of the play. Seami saw it acted as a Dengaku by his father’s contemporary Inuo. He describes Inuo’s entry on to the stage in the rÔle of Rokujo and quotes the first six lines of her opening speech. These lines correspond exactly with the modern text, and it is probable that the play existed in something like its present form in the middle of the fourteenth century. Kwanze Nagatoshi, the great-grandson of Seami, includes it in a list of Seami’s works; while popular tradition ascribes it to Seami’s son-in-law Zenchiku.
AOI NO UYE
(PRINCESS HOLLYHOCK)
REVISED BY ZENCHIKU UJINOBU (1414-1499?)
PERSONS
- COURTIER.
- WITCH.
- PRINCESS ROKUJO.
- THE SAINT OF YOKAWA.
- MESSENGER.
- CHORUS.
(A folded cloak laid in front of the stage symbolizes the sick-bed of Aoi.)
COURTIER.
I am a courtier in the service of the Emperor Shujaku. You must know that the Prime Minister’s daughter, Princess Aoi, has fallen sick. We have sent for abbots and high-priests of the Greater School and of the Secret School, but they could not cure her.
And now, here at my side, stands the witch of Teruhi,[127] a famous diviner with the bow-string. My lord has been told that by twanging her bow-string she can make visible an evil spirit and tell if it be the spirit of a living man or a dead. So he bade me send for her and let her pluck her string. (Turning to the WITCH, who has been waiting motionless.) Come, sorceress, we are ready!
WITCH (comes forward beating a little drum and reciting a mystic formula).
Ten shojo; chi shojo.
Naige shojo; rokon shojo.
Pure above; pure below.
Pure without; pure within.
Pure in eyes, ears, heart and tongue.
(She plucks her bow-string, reciting the spell.)
You whom I call
Hold loose the reins
On your grey colt’s neck
As you gallop to me
Over the long sands!
(The living phantasm of ROKUJO appears at the back of the stage.)
ROKUJO.
In the Three Coaches
That travel on the Road of Law
I drove out of the Burning House ...[128]
Is there no way to banish the broken coach
That stands at Yugao’s door?[129]
This world
Is like the wheels of the little ox-cart;
Round and round they go ... till vengeance comes.
The Wheel of Life turns like the wheel of a coach;
There is no escape from the Six Paths and Four Births.
We are brittle as the leaves of the basho;
As fleeting as foam upon the sea.
Yesterday’s flower, to-day’s dream.
From such a dream were it not wiser to wake?
And when to this is added another’s scorn
How can the heart have rest?
So when I heard the twanging of your bow
For a little while, I thought, I will take my pleasure;
And as an angry ghost appeared.
Oh! I am ashamed!
(She veils her face.)
This time too I have come secretly[130]
In a closed coach.
Though I sat till dawn and watched the moon,
Till dawn and watched,
How could I show myself,
That am no more than the mists that tremble over the fields?
I am come, I am come to the notch of your bow
To tell my sorrow.
Whence came the noise of the bow-string?
WITCH.
Though she should stand at the wife-door of the mother-house of the square court ...[131]
ROKUJO.
Yet would none come to me, that am not in the flesh.[132]
WITCH.
How strange! I see a fine lady whom I do not know riding in a broken coach. She clutches at the shafts of another coach from which the oxen have been unyoked. And in the second coach sits one who seems a new wife.[133] The lady of the broken coach is weeping, weeping. It is a piteous sight.
Can this be she?
COURTIER.
It would not be hard to guess who such a one might be. Come, spirit, tell us your name!
ROKUJO.
In this Saha World[134] where days fly like the lightning’s flash
None is worth hating and none worth pitying.
This I knew. Oh when did folly master me?
You would know who I am that have come drawn by the twanging of your bow? I am the angry ghost of Rokujo, Lady of the Chamber.
Long ago I lived in the world.
I sat at flower-feasts among the clouds.[135]
On spring mornings I rode out
In royal retinue and on autumn nights
Among the red leaves of the Rishis’ Cave
I sported with moonbeams,
With colours and perfumes
My senses sated.
I had splendour then;
But now I wither like the Morning Glory
Whose span endures not from dawn to midday.
I have come to clear my hate.
(She then quotes the Buddhist saying, “Our sorrows in this world are not caused by others; for even when others wrong us we are suffering the retribution of our own deeds in a previous existence.”
But while singing these words she turns towards AOI’S bed; passion again seizes her and she cries:)
I am full of hatred.
I must strike; I must strike.
(She creeps towards the bed.)
WITCH.
You, Lady Rokujo, you a Lady of the Chamber! Would you lay wait and strike as peasant women do?[136] How can this be? Think and forbear!
ROKUJO.
Say what you will, I must strike. I must strike now. (Describing her own action.) “And as she said this, she went over to the pillow and struck at it.” (She strikes at the head of the bed with her fan.)
WITCH.
She is going to strike again. (To ROKUJO.) You shall pay for this!
ROKUJO.
And this hate too is payment for past hate.
WITCH.
“The flame of anger
ROKUJO.
Consumes itself only.”[137]
WITCH.
Did you not know?
ROKUJO.
Know it then now.
CHORUS.
O Hate, Hate!
Her[138] hate so deep that on her bed
Our lady[139] moans.
Yet, should she live in the world again,[140]
He would call her to him, her Lord
The Shining One, whose light
Is brighter than fire-fly hovering
Over the slime of an inky pool.
ROKUJO.
But for me
There is no way back to what I was,
No more than to the heart of a bramble-thicket.
The dew that dries on the bramble-leaf
Comes back again;
But love (and this is worst)
That not even in dream returns,—
That is grown to be an old tale,—
Now, even now waxes,
So that standing at the bright mirror
I tremble and am ashamed.
I am come to my broken coach. (She throws down her fan and begins to slip off her embroidered robe.) I will hide you in it and carry you away!
(She stands right over the bed, then turns away and at the back of the stage throws off her robe, which is held by two attendants in such a way that she cannot be seen. She changes her “deigan” mask for a female demon’s mask and now carries a mallet in her hand.)
(Meanwhile the COURTIER, who has been standing near the bed:)
COURTIER.
Come quickly, some one! Princess Aoi is worse. Every minute she is worse. Go and fetch the Little Saint of Yokawa.[141]
MESSENGER.
I tremble and obey.
(He goes to the wing and speaks to some one off the stage.)
May I come in?
SAINT (speaking from the wing).
Who is it that seeks admittance to a room washed by the moonlight of the Three Mysteries, sprinkled with the holy water of Yoga? Who would draw near to a couch of the Ten Vehicles, a window of the Eight Perceptions?
MESSENGER.
I am come from the Court. Princess Aoi is ill. They would have you come to her.
SAINT.
It happens that at this time I am practising particular austerities and go nowhere abroad. But if you are a messenger from the Court, I will follow you.
(He comes on the stage.)
COURTIER.
We thank you for coming.
SAINT.
I wait upon you. Where is the sick person?
COURTIER.
On the bed here.
SAINT.
Then I will begin my incantations at once.
COURTIER.
Pray do so.
SAINT.
He said: “I will say my incantations.”
Following in the steps of En no Gyoja,[142]
Clad in skirts that have trailed the Peak of the Two Spheres,[143]
That have brushed the dew of the Seven Precious Trees,
Clad in the cope of endurance
That shields from the world’s defilement,
“Sarari, sarari,” with such sound
I shake the red wooden beads of my rosary
And say the first spell:
Namaku Samanda Basarada
Namaku Samanda Basarada.[144] ROKUJO (during the incantation she has cowered at the back of the stage wrapped in her Chinese robe, which she has picked up again.)
Go back, Gyoja, go back to your home; do not stay and be vanquished!
SAINT.
Be you what demon you will, do not hope to overcome the Gyoja’s subtle power. I will pray again.
(He shakes his rosary whilst the CHORUS, speaking for him, invokes the first of the Five Kings.)
CHORUS.
In the east Go Sanze, Subduer of the Three Worlds.
ROKUJO (counter-invoking).
In the south Gundari Yasha.
CHORUS.
In the west Dai-itoku.
ROKUJO.
In the north Kongo
CHORUS.
Yasha, the Diamond King.
ROKUJO.
In the centre the Great Holy
CHORUS.
Fudo Immutable.
Namaku Samanda Basarada
Senda Makaroshana
Sohataya Untaratakarman.
“They that hear my name shall get Great Enlightenment;
They that see my body shall attain to Buddhahood.”[145]
ROKUJO (suddenly dropping her mallet and pressing her hands to her ears.)
The voice of the Hannya Book! I am afraid. Never again will I come as an angry ghost.
GHOST.
When she heard the sound of Scripture
The demon’s raging heart was stilled;
Shapes of Pity and Sufferance,
The Bodhisats descend.
Her soul casts off its bonds,
She walks in Buddha’s Way.
