English
At Ise, the principal seat of the wor- ship of the Sun Goddess, there were three No Geatres, in Omi three, in Tamba three, and at Nara four, all devoted to the service of the respective Shinto gods worshipped in these places. In the early part of the Muromachi period a manager of one of the No theatres at Nara, named Kwan-ami Kiyotsugu, attracted the notice of the ruling Shogun, who, for the sake of his art, took him into his im- mediate service. It is a noteworthy circumstance, as indicating the social position of the No performers, that this Kwan-ami was a small daimio, holding a fief in the province of Yamato. He died in 1406, From this time forward the N6 were under the special patronage of the Shoguns, just as the Tanka found favour and official protection at the court of the Mikado. Kiyotsugu was succeeded by his eldest son Motokiyo, who died in 1455, in his eighty-first year. Their descendants enjoyed the favour of the Shoguns 200 JAPANESE LITERATURE for a long period. Hideyoshi, who was Shégun in all but name, was very fond of the No, and is said to have taken part in them as an actor. Several of the more recent date from his time. In the Yedo period the Shoguns gave great attention to No performances. They were made a ceremony of state, and were acted by young gentlemen of the military class educated specially for this profession. Even.at the present day there are some remains of their former popularity - with the Samurai. Representations are still given in Tokio, Kidto, and other places, by the descendants or successors of the old managers who founded the art five hundred years ago, and are attended by small but select audiences composed almost entirely of ex-Daimios or military nobles and their ex-retainers. To the vulgar the No’are completely unintelligible. Of the two hundred and thirty-five No contained in the latest and most complete collection (the Yo-kyoku Tsuge), no fewer than ninety-three are assigned to Se-ami Moto- kiyo, the second of the line of official managers; his father, Kwan-ami Kiyotsugu, being credited with fifteen. Motokiyo’s son-in-law and successor has twenty-two assigned to him, those of the remainder which are not anonymous being distributed among a dozen or so of the subsequent holders of the office. The great majority belong to the fifteenth century. The Yo-kyoku Tsige editor suggests, with great proba- bility, that although the names of Kiyotsugu, Motokiyo, and their successors are given as authors of the No, they were in reality only responsible for the music, the panto- mimic dance (the “ business,” as we might say), and the general management. He surmises that the libretto was the work of Buddhist monks, to which class almost all 4 NO 201 the hterary men of this period belonged. The question of authorship is, however, of minor importance, as the characteristics of the No are rather those of a school of writers than of individuals. Whoever their authors may have been, their primary object was the promotion of piety. In some cases a patriotic or martial enthusiasm is the inspiring motive, and a love of nature is discernible in almost all, but the staple material is the mass of legends associated with the Buddhist and Shinto religions. A monk or guardian of a Shinto shrine is most frequently the chief personage of the play, and the virtue of hospitality to the priestly order, the sin of taking away life, the praise of particular deities, the uncertainty of life, and the transitoriness of human things are favourite themes with them. In the No, next after religion comes poetry. Not that they are exactly poems. Purely lyrical passages are not wanting, but much, both from the point of view of metre and of diction, is undeniable prose. Nota little is in an intermediate style, in which the seven and five syllable phrases succeed one another with great irregularity, and the language is alloyed with a less poetic element. The admission of Chinese words, although in moderation, also tends to lower the poetic level. It will be remem- bered that these are rigorously excluded from the older classical poetry. A very striking feature of the No is the lavish use which they make of the poetic devices mentioned in a previous chapter.! Pillow-words are freely introduced, and paral- lelism is acommon ornament. But the greatest favourite of all is the “ pivot-word,” which is employed in the No to an extent and in a manner previously unknown to 1 See above, p. 32. 202 JAPANESE LITERATURE Japanese literature. This must be my excuse for dwell- ing on it at somewhat greater length here. “The Pivot” (I quote from Mr. Chamberlain’s Classical Poetry of the Japanese) “is a word of two significations, which serves as a species of hinge on which two doors turn, so that while the first part of the poetical phrase has no logical end, the latter part has no logical beginning. They run into each other, and the sentence could not possibly be construed.” Mr. Chamberlain adds that “to the English reader such a punning invention will doubtless seem the height of misapplied ingenuity. But, as a matter of fact, the impression produced by these linked verses 1s delight- ful in the extreme, passing as they do before the reader like a series of dissolving views, vague, graceful, and sug- gestive. This ornament especially characterises the old poetic dramas, and renders them a peculiarly arduous study to such as do not thoroughly appreciate its nature.” Native critics would no doubt endorse Mr. Chamber- lain’s favourable opinion of the pivot-word, and it is undeniable that the Japanese, who are an eminently nimble-witted race, delight in these acrobatic feats of language. But the English student will ask whether it is worth while to sacrifice sense and syntax for the sake of such inane, if sometimes pretty, antics. I venture to think that the “pivot” is a mistake in serious com- position, and that the partiality for such a frivolous ornament of style manifested not only by the writers of No, but by the dramatists and novelists of the Yedo period, is a characteristic sign of an age of literary deca- dence and bad taste. Such writers as Hakuseki, Kiusé, and Motoori disdain it utterly. The authors of the No do not pique themselves on originality. They are in the habit of conveying to their NO 203 own pages in the most liberal manner snatches of Tanka, texts of Buddhist scripture, or striking phrases supplied by their memory from older writers, stringing them to- gether, however, in a way which does much credit to their ingenuity. Plagiarism, it may be remarked, is hardly recognised as an offence by the Japanese. The No are not classical poems. They are too de- ficient in lucidity, method, coherence, and good taste to deserve this description. Still they are not without charm. Jcux-de-mots are not everything in them, and the reader who has the patience to unravel their intricacies of language will not go altogether unrewarded. If their vein of poetic ore is less pure than that of the Manydshiu and Kokinshiu, 1t 1s also richer. They embrace within their scope a world of legendary lore, of quaint fancies, and of religious sentiment, to which the classical poetry of Japan isa stranger. And if we miss the perfection of form which characterises the dainty little Tanka, we have instead a Juxuriance and variety which go some way to indemnify us for its absence. It is to be regretted that so promising a literary departure should have proved ultimately abortive. After the sixteenth century the No ceased to be written. The current of the higher Japanese thought had by this time turned away from Buddhism and everything that belongs to it, and was setting strongly towards Chinese philosophy. Though the No were still performed, the impulse to write new ones was apparently no longer felt. As dramas the N6 have little value. There is no action to speak of, and dramatic propriety and effect are hardly thought of. The plot is frequently something of the following description :— A priest appears on the scene, He announces his 204° | JAPANESE LITERATURE ° name, and informs the audience that he is setting out on his travels. Presently he arrives at a temple, a battle-. field, or other celebrated spot, when a ghost or deity appears, who relates to him the local legend, An ex- change of edifying sentiments follows, and the super- natural personage finally reveals his identity. The whole piece rarely occupies more than six or seven pages of print, and it usually takes less than an hour to perform. Within this narrow compass it might be ex- pected that the unities of time, place, and action would have been observed. This is far from being the case. The action, in so far as there is any, is generally more or less coherent, but the other unities are wholly disre- garded. In the: 7akasago, for example, the scene changes from Kiushiu to Harima, and again from Harima to Sumiyoshi, within seven pages, while weeks must be allowed for the journeys of the chief personage between these places. The number of the dvamatts persone varies from two or three (the latter being very frequent) up to five or six. To these must be added a few musicians and the chorus. The chorus of the No has various functions. The chief office 1s to chant a narrative which serves to supplement and explain the action of the piece, as in some of Shake- speare’s Older plays, or to recite poetical descriptions which supply the place of the absent scenery. The chorus also indulges from time to time in sententious or sympathetic observations, or even enters into conversa- tion with the personages on the stage. The following description of the No theatre will help us to realise their character more fully. It is taken from Mr.