[1] For example in yuku kata shira-yuki ni ... shira does duty twice, meaning both “unknown” and “white.” The meaning is “whither-unknown amid the white snow.”
[2] These dates have only recently been established.
[6] The piece to be used as an introduction. Modern performances are not confined to full No. Sometimes actors in plain dress recite without the aid of instrumental music, sitting in a row. Or one actor may recite the piece, with music (this is called Hayashi); or the piece may be mimed without music (this is called Shimai).
[7] An old shiroto, i.e. person not engaged in trade.
[8] This shows that, in Seami’s hands, the device of making an apparition the hero of the play was simply a dramatic convention.
[9] This, too, is the only aspect of them that I can here discuss; no other kind of criticism being possible without quotation of the actual words used by the poet.
[10] See further my Zen Buddhism & its relation to Art. Luzac, 1922.
[35] He had died in battle and was therefore condemned to perpetual war with the demons of Hell.
[36] “The wise man is like the autumn deer crying in the mountains; the fool is like the moth which flies into the candle” (Gempei Seisuiki, chap. viii.).
[37] I.e. he is “attached” to earth and cannot get away to the Western Paradise.
[38] I.e. the time of his encounter with Ushiwaka.
[56] I.e. robbers. A band of brigands who troubled China in 184 A. D. were known the White Waves, and the phrase was later applied to robbers in general.
[57] Torches were thrown among the enemy to discover their number and defences.
[85] Hojo no Tokiyori ruled at Kamakura from 1246 till 1256. He then became a priest and travelled through the country incognito in order to acquaint himself with the needs of his subjects.
[91] Seami, writing c. 1430, says: “Komachi was once a long play. After the words ‘Who are those,’ etc., there used to be a long lyric passage” (Works, p. 240).
[92] “Heart flowers,” kokoro no hana, is a synonym for “poetry.”
[93] Vajrasattva, himself an emanation of Vairochana, the principal Buddha of the Shingon Sect.
[102] The riddle depends on a pun between sotoba and soto wa, “without” “outside.”
[103] The words which follow suggest the plight of her lover Shosho when he travelled to her house “a hundred nights all but one,” to cut his notch on the bench.
[104] The spirit of her lover Shosho has now entirely possessed her: this “possession-scene” lasts very much longer on the stage than the brief words would suggest.
[105] Fukagusa the name of his native place, means “deep grass.”
[110] Or, according to another reading, “tales of Hell.”
[111] The Fisher holds up his torch and looks down as though peering into the water.
[112] I have omitted the line “Though this be not the river of Tamashima,” a reference to the Empress Jingo, who caught an ayu at Tamashima when on her way to fight the Coreans.
[114] Good deeds were recorded in a golden book, evil deeds in an iron one.
[115] He vowed that he would come as a ship to those drowning in the Sea of Delusion.
[116] Here follow the twelve concluding lines, too full of Buddhist technicalities to interest a general reader.
[117] A twelfth-century folk-song (Ryojin Hissho, p. 126), speaks of “The Way of Love which knows no castes of ‘high’ and ‘low.’”
[118] A story from Huai-nan Tzu. What looks like disaster turns out to be good fortune and vice versa. The horse broke away and was lost. A revolution occurred during which the Government seized all horses. When the revolution was over the man of Sai’s horse was rediscovered. If he had not lost it the Government would have taken it.
[119] This simile, which passed into a proverb in China and Japan, occurs first in Chuang Tzu, chap. xxii.
[123] The names of two of the Cold Hells in the Buddhist Inferno.
[124] There is a legend that the fish who succeed in leaping a certain waterfall turn into dragons. So the Gardener’s attempt to raise himself to the level of the Princess has changed him into an evil demon.
[125]Genji Monogatari (Romance of Genji), chap, iii., Hakubunkwan Edition, p. 87.
[127] A miko or witch called Teruhi is the subject of the play Sanja Takusen.
[128] Rokujo has left the “Burning House,” i.e. her material body. The “Three Coaches” are those of the famous “Burning House” parable in the Hokkekyo. Some children were in a burning house. Intent on their play, they could not be induced to leave the building; till their father lured them out by the promise that they would find those little toy coaches awaiting them. So Buddha, by partial truth, lures men from the “burning house” of their material lives. Owing to the episode at the Kamo Festival, Rokujo is obsessed by the idea of “carriages,” “wheels” and the like.
[129] One day Rokujo saw a coach from which all badges and distinctive decorations had been purposely stripped (hence, in a sense, a “broken coach”) standing before Yugao’s door. She found out that it was Genji’s. For Yugao, see p. 142.
[130] Rokujo went secretly to the Kamo Festival in a closed carriage.
[141] The hero of the “Finding of Ukifune,” a later episode in the Genji Monogatari.
[142] Founder of the sect of the ascetics called Yamabushi Mountaineers.
[143] Mount Omine, near Yoshino, ritual ascents of which were made by Yamabushi.
[144] Known as the Lesser Spell of Fudo. The longer one which follows is the Middle Spell. They consist of corrupt Sanskrit mixed with meaningless magic syllables.
[145] From the Buddhist Sutra known in Japan as the Hannya Kyo. It was supposed to have a particular influence over female demons, who are also called “Hannyas.”
[148] So, Chinese “Ch’u,” was formerly an independent feudal State. The name means “thorn,” as does the Japanese “ibara.” Chamberlain calls it “The Country of Ibara,” but in this case the reading “So” is indicated by both Owada and Haga.
[149] Kings and princes are often called “thou above the clouds.”
[150] Palaces of the First Emperor. An attendant has removed the pillow from the “bed.” From this moment the bed becomes a magnificent palace, as described in the verses which follow.
[153] Famous Gate in the palace of the T’ang Emperors.
[154] These lines are from a poem by Yasutane, d. 997 A. D. (Chamberlain attributes them to Po ChÜ-i.)
[155] Here the Boy Dancer begins to dance the Dream-dance.
[156] On the third day of the third month people floated cups in the stream. Each person as the cup passed in front of him, had to compose a poem and drink the contents of the cup.
[157] These words also describe the dancer’s movements.
[167] Some actors, says Owada, here write in the air with their fan; but such detailed miming is vulgar.
[168] An allusion to the cherry-trees at the Kiyomizu-dera.
[169] Bamboo-strips rubbed together to produce a squeaking sound.
[170] A Chinese couplet quoted from the Shih Jen YÜ Hsieh (“Jade-dust of the Poets”), a Sung Dynasty work on poetry which was popular in Japan.
[171]Masse here means, I think, “future generations,” not “this degraded age.”
[172] When an angel is about to die, the flowers of his crown wither, his feather robe is stained with dust, sweat pours from under the arm-pits, the eyelids tremble, he is tired of his place in heaven.
[180] Sumeru is the great mountain at the centre of the universe. Its west side is of rubies, its south side of green stones, its east side of white stones, etc.
[181] Called in Sanskrit Mahasthama-prapta, third person of the Trinity sitting on Amida’s right hand. The Moon-God is an emanation of this deity.
[183] Here follows a long lyric passage describing their journey and ascent. The frequent occurrence of place-names and plays of word on such names makes it impossible to translate.
[184] I have only summarized the last chorus. When the pilgrims reach the summit, they pray to their founder, En no Gyoja, and to the God Fudo that the boy may be restored to life. In answer to their prayers a Spirit appears carrying the boy in her arms. She lays him at the Priest’s feet and vanishes again, treading the Invisible Pathway that En no Gyoja trod when he crossed from Mount Katsuragi to the Great Peak without descending into the valley.
[185] The play is given in a list of Seami’s works composed on the authority of his great-grandson, Kwanze Nagatoshi, in 1524. Owada gives it as anonymous.
[186] “Wakare no tori,” the bird which warns lovers of the approach of day.
[188] The fact that Haku is a foreigner is conventionally emphasized by his pronunciation of this word. The fishermen, when using the same word later on, called it “Nihon.”
[189] The Chinese call him Fan Li. He lived in China in the fifth century B.C. Having rendered important services to the country of YÜeh (Etsu), he went off with his mistress in a skiff, knowing that if he remained in public life his popularity was bound to decline. The Fishermen are vaguely groping towards the idea of “a Chinaman” and a “boat.” They are not yet consciously aware of the arrival of Rakuten.
[190] Haku throughout omits the honorific turns of speech which civility demands. The Fishermen speak in elaborately deferential and honorific language. The writer wishes to portray Haku as an ill-bred foreigner.
[191] “Uta,” i.e. the thirty-one syllable Japanese stanza.
[192] Quotation from the Preface to the Kokinshu (“Collection of Songs Ancient and Modern”). The fact that Haku continues the quotation shows that he is under a sort of spell and makes it clear for the first time that his interlocutor is not an ordinary mortal. From this point onwards, in fact, the Fisherman gradually becomes a God.
[193] The priest’s acolyte had died. The nightingale was the boy’s soul.
[212]“Il aperÇut un cerf et une biche qui s’accouplaient. La passion impure s’excita en lui.... La biche ... se trouva grosse.” PÉri, Les Femmes de Çakyamouni, p. 24.
[213] Sometimes called Bijin-zoroye or Bijin-zoroi.
