Japanese Plays: Classic Noh, Kyogen and Kabuki Works
3/5
()
About this ebook
Nothing reflects the beauty of life as much as Japanese theater. It is here that reality is held suspended and the mind is filled with words, music, dance, and mysticism. In this groundbreaking book, Professor A.L. Sadler's translations come alive, bringing the mysteries of Noh, Kyogen, and Kabuki to modern readers worldwide. This influential classic provides a cross-section of Japanese theater that gives the reader a sampler of its beauty and power.
Sadler includes 40 plays spanning the following three genres
The end result found in Japanese Plays is a wonderful selection of classic Japanese dramatic literature sure to enlighten and delight.
Read more from A. L. Sadler
Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJapanese Tea Ceremony: Cha-no-Yu and the Zen Art of Mindfulness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChinese Martial Code: The Art of War of Sun Tzu, The Precepts of War by Sima Rangju, Wu Zi on the Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cha-No-Yu: The Japanese Tea Ceremony Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Japanese Plays
Related ebooks
Japanese Theatre in Highlight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest of Times to A.D. 697 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees: A Masterpiece of the Eighteenth Century Japanese Puppet Theater Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: The Diary of a Courtesan in Tenth Century Japan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Genji Monogatari Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tosa Diary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJapanese No Masks: With 300 Illustrations of Authentic Historical Examples Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Theatre/Theory/Theatre: The Major Critical Texts from Aristotle and Zeami to Soyinka and Havel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5History of Japan: Revised Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Views of Mt. Fuji Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Japanese Music & Musical Instruments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLearning to Kneel: Noh, Modernism, and Journeys in Teaching Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnthology of Japanese Literature: From the Earliest Era to the Mid-Nineteenth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistory of Tokyo 1867-1989: From EDO to SHOWA: The Emergence of the World's Greatest City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Folk Songs of Japanese Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJapanese Inn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Japanese Legends and Folklore: Samurai Tales, Ghost Stories, Legends, Fairy Tales, Myths and Historical Accounts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhotography in Japan 1853-1912 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Modern Japanese Short Stories: An Anthology of 25 Short Stories by Japan's Leading Writers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51000 Poems from the Manyoshu: The Complete Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Understanding Humor in Japan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJapanese Woodblock Prints: Artists, Publishers and Masterworks: 1680 - 1900 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Foot Square Hut and Tales of the Heike Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJapanese Haiku: Its Essential Nature and History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Masters Of Ukioye - A Complete Historical Description Of Japanese Paintings And Color Prints Of The Genre School Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKurosawa's Rashomon: A Vanished City, a Lost Brother, and the Voice Inside His Iconic Films Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAtsumori: The japanese Noh drama by the Master Zeami Motokiyo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Ghostly Japan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tale of Genji: A Visual Companion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
General Fiction For You
The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Ends with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The King James Version of the Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unhoneymooners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beartown: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everything's Fine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shantaram: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Japanese Plays
1 rating0 reviews
Book preview
Japanese Plays - A. L. Sadler
NOH PLAYS
TADANORI
ACT I
PRIEST: I am one who has seen the vanity of this world. Even the flowers and the moon viewed through the clouds no longer attract me. Formerly I was a retainer of the Lord Shunzei, but when my master died I forsook the world and put on this priestly garb, and since I have never visited the western provinces, I bethought me to make a pilgrimage to those parts. So now I have come to the neighborhood of the capital, and look on the ruins of palace and mansion that have passed away, impermanent as a journey where there is no abiding-place. We who must mix with the filth of this world and yet have abandoned all its ties are too sad even to listen to the sighing of the wind in the trees or the sound of the rippling of the waves. The boom of the distant bell awakes us to the vanity of this world as it arouses the traveler from his rest.
WOODMAN: A hard life it is that I lead. When I am not carrying sea water for salt I am laden with wood to boil it, and what with one and the other my garments are never dry. Like the ceaseless cry of the birds is the hoarse voice of the fisherman at his nets. This shore of Suma has a name for loneliness, as the poet Narihira wrote:
"How I spend my days,
Should my friends chance to inquire,
You may tell them this.
On the lonely Suma beach,
I am cutting wood for salt."
On the hills near Suma there is a cherry tree that recalls the memory of one long dead, and when in spring it puts forth its flowers, and I happen to go that way, I break offa branch as an offering to the departed spirit.
PRIEST: Ha, old man! And are you one of the woodmen of these hills?
WOODMAN: It may be that I am a fisherman on that beach.
PRIEST: But if you were a fisherman your dwelling would be by the sea, and I take you for a woodman because your occupation seems to be in these hills.
WOODMAN: How else should I get wood to boil my salt water?
PRIEST: True, true. And so we see the smoke go up at eve.
WOODMAN: To feed it I must tramp to fetch the fuel.
PRIEST: By various paths to hamlets far away,
WOODMAN: By Suma beach are people rarely seen.
PRIEST: But in the hills behind,
WOODMAN: That’s where the brushwood is ...
CHORUS: That’s where the brushwood is, and so he goes for fuel to boil his salt.
WOODMAN: Indeed your words are not a little simple, priest.
CHORUS: In truth the bay of Suma is not as other places, for flowers dislike the boisterous mountain breezes that sweep down from the hills and send them flying. But here ’tis otherwise, for Suma’s mountain cherry was smitten by a blast that blew from seaward.
PRIEST: See now, old man, the day is drawing to a close. I pray you give me lodging for the night.
WOODMAN: The shadow of this cherry tree is all the lodging I can offer.
PRIEST: Indeed it is a very bower of blossom. And who can be the host, I wonder.
WOODMAN:
"Now the daylight dies,
And the shadow of a tree
Serves me for an inn.
For the host to welcome me
There is but a wayside flower."
He who wrote these lines lies deep beneath the moss, but even we poor fishers often gather to say a requiem for him, so why do not you, a priest, take the opportunity of acquiring merit by repeating a prayer in passing?
PRIEST: That verse is Satsuma-no-kami Tadanori’s, is it not?
WOODMAN: Indeed it is. And when he fell in the battle that was fought hard by some friend planted this tree in his memory.
PRIEST: How strange a chance. For I am of the House of Shunzei.
WOODMAN: His master and beloved fellow poet.
PRIEST: So here I stay tonight.
CHORUS: So let him hear the blessed sound of prayer, and may he take his seat on heaven’s flowery terraces.
WOODMAN: I am most grateful for these prayers said for me, and do rejoice that thereby I grow in enlightenment.
CHORUS: How strange his words! It seems that this old man takes to himself these holy prayers and is much comforted. How can this be?
WOODMAN: ’Twas for the prayers of this priest that I came hither.
CHORUS: And now sleep soundly ’neath this cherry tree, and in a dream you shall be told the message I will have taken to the capital. (And suddenly he disappears none knoweth whither.) Yes, hurry hence back to the capital and tell these things to Teika, Shunzei’s son. Now the moon rises high, sadly the sea birds flit. The sea breeze scarcely sighs, soundly the traveler sleeps, by Suma’s ancient strand where once the guard-house