Abstract
Kyogen, a sister art to noh, largely thought of as consisting of comic plays in contrast to noh’s serious theatre, was mostly notable for its maintenance of oral (and rejection of literate) tradition until finally playscripts were written down in the seventeenth century. As a result, the historical evidence for the development of kyōgen in the medieval period is limited. In this chapter, the evidence that remains is inspected and is used to construct a historical narrative. One exceptional document (Tenshō Kyōgen Bon) provides the major clues to the state of kyōgen plays in the sixteenth century. The plays summarized in this work are described to construct a picture of kyōgen at this time.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
See Kazumi Narabe, “Artist Interview: Cross-over Kyōgen master Sennoho Shigeyama’s quest for a new form of global comedy theater,” on The Japan Foundation Performing Arts Network Japan site at www.performingarts.jp/E/art_interview/0906/1.html, accessed May 17, 2018.
- 2.
Kanai Kiyomitsu, Tenshō Kyōgen Bon Zenshaku (hereafter TKBZ) (Tokyo: Kazama Shobō, 1989), 602.
- 3.
TKBZ, 604.
- 4.
As seen in Chap. 2, under “Socially subversive comedy.”
- 5.
Entry in “Suō no Kuni Ninpeiji Hondō Kuyō no Ki” for 1352 (Kan’ō 3).3.15, cited in Satake Akihiro, Gekokujō no Bungaku (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 1967), 137; also in Suzuki, Nōgakushi Nenpyō, 16.
- 6.
Pinnington, Traces in the Way, 150–53. See also Pandey, Writing and Renunciation, 9–55.
- 7.
Parodic wordplay is the heart of the sixteenth-century play Tori Senkyō (Bird sermon), in which a series of names of birds are smuggled into the preaching of a travelling priest, and in the current play Uo Sekkyō (Fish Sermon), in which a priest who was formerly a fisherman, delivers a Buddhist sermon which is actually made up of names of fish. This kind of sustained paranomasia (known as jiguchi) cleverly combines the popular songs made up of exhaustive lists (monozukushi) in the sōka tradition, with the semi-incomprehensibility of Buddhist technical language.
- 8.
In Tango Kokubunji Kemmu Saikō Engi, 1334 (Kemmu 1).4.8, cited in Koyama et al., eds., Kyōgen no Sekai, 17.
- 9.
See the entry “tsurane” in Kokushi Daijiten (Great Dictionary of Japanese History). In Chap. 2, I mentioned the theory that noh plays may have derived from monastic ennen. These tsurane pieces would be good candidates for antecedents, but unfortunately little information about them exists from before the fifteenth century.
- 10.
Jōwa Gonen Kasugasha Rinjisai Shidai, in Yamaji Kōzō, ed., Nihon Shomin Bunkashi Shiryō Shūsei vol. 2 (Tokyo: San’ichi Shobō, 1974), 18.
- 11.
There has been no agreement among scholars whether sarugaku divided into noh and kyōgen at some point, or kyōgen joined nō from the outside. For an outline of the various scholarly positions, see Nishio Minoru, Tanaka Mitsuru, Kanai Kiyomitsu, Ikeda Hiroshi, eds. Yōkyoku Kyōgen (Kokugo Kokubungaku Kenkyūshi Taisei 8) (Tokyo: Sanseidō, 1977), 371–75.
- 12.
Sarugaku Dangi, ZZ. 239.
- 13.
Sarugaku Dangi, ZZ. 239.
- 14.
Sarugaku Dangi, ZZ 293.
- 15.
Sarugaku Dangi, ZZ, 294. Some think that monmō (illiteracy) should be understood to signify merely “lack of education.”
- 16.
Shūdōsho, ZZ, 239.
- 17.
There is a well-known reference to this in the Aoi chapter of the Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari) including the following line in Seidensticker’s translation: “Plebeian faces were wreathed with smiles which their owners might not have enjoyed seeing in mirrors” (Edward Seidensticker, trans., The Tale of Genji, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1981), 162).
- 18.
In other words, his way of situating himself in relation to the different sources of patronage. The warrior elite in the capital was keen to ape the refined manners of the imperial aristocracy.
- 19.
For the distinction between the capital and the countryside in Zeami’s writings, see Pinnington, “Crossed Paths,” 224–25.
- 20.
Sarugaku Dangi, ZZ, 299.
- 21.
Sarugaku Dangi, ZZ, 297.
- 22.
A prominent example preserved from the earlier tradition is the ai-kyōgen role in Kan’ami’s play Jinen Koji discussed earlier. But there are substantial roles for kyōgen in several other plays too, including some by Zeami himself.
- 23.
Sarugaku Dangi, ZZ, 297–8. It seems likely that this is a later Tsuchi than the one brought to the capital described earlier.
- 24.
Kanmon Nikki, entry for 1424 (Ōei 31).3.11, cited in Koyama et al., eds., Kyōgen no Sekai, 118–19.
- 25.
Among actors mentioned: in 1433, Yaroku and Yashichi, in Mansai’s diary (Eikyō 5.4.18); in 1446, Matsua, Ichia, and Tokua appear in a dengaku kanjin performance (Bun’an Dengaku Nō no Ki, as reported in Koyama et al., eds., Kyōgen no Sekai, 117); in 1464, at a show by the Hie troupe, Ebigani performed kyōgen before Yoshimasa (in the Zen priest’s diary Inryōken Nichiroku for Kanshō 5.1.18), also in 1464 at the Tadasugawara kanjin, a certain Usagi Dayū, and in 1478, Koinu Yatarō (according to the aristocratic diary, Sanetaka Kōki entry for Bunmei 10.1.20); again from 1484 (Bunmei 16).9.2 onwards, another Usagi, perhaps the second generation, is mentioned several times in Inryōken Nichiroku. These records are all cited in Suzuki, Nōgaku Nenpyō, 49, 60–61, 78, 80, 104, 120.
- 26.
For example, Lord Naganao in 1476, and Kajūji Tsuneshige in 1483, reported in Koyama et al., eds., Kyōgen no Sekai, 118.
- 27.
Kagotani, Geinōshi no Naka no Honganji, 20–21.
- 28.
Koyama et al., eds., Kyōgen no Sekai, 120–21.
- 29.
Omote Akira was the first to transcribe this work in print, in 1956. He gave it the name Tenshō Kyōgen Bon. See Omote Akira, “Tenshō Kyōgen Bon” in Furukawa Hisashi ed. Kyōgenshū vol. 3 (Nihon Koten Zensho), Tokyo, Asahi Shinbunsha: 1956, 206–339, 209. Note that digital copies of the original can be found online at the site of the Nogami Memorial Noh Theatre Research Institute of Hōsei University in Tokyo at https://nohken.ws.hosei.ac.jp/nohken_material/htmls/index/pages/cate6/NL49.html. (site accessed on January 17, 2018). Here I have also relied on the magisterial study of the work: Kanai Kiyomitsu, Tenshō Kyōgen Bon Zenshaku (hereafter TKBZ) (Tokyo: Kazama Shobō, 1989), 5–46.
- 30.
Omote Akira, Tenshō Kyōgen Bon, 210.
- 31.
TKBZ, 88.
- 32.
The sixteenth-century collection of popular songs, Kanginshū (1518), includes a number of songs found in kyōgen.
- 33.
This approach to dating is largely my own, but see also TKBZ, 109–112.
- 34.
The title daimyo in Japan was generally used to refer to a class of landowner in the provinces. By the end of the court period, most productive land had been organized into estates whose nominal high-class owners received produce in return for favour. At the local level, however, families regarded themselves as the de facto owners of land and two classes of village leaders had arisen: daimyo, who possessed land but were members of the warrior class, and hyakushō, who were the upper ranks of rural producers. The “daimyo” who appear in the TKB probably represent this warrior gentry class but the matter is problematic. The daimyo of kyōgen have little gravitas and hardly correspond to the historical image of the Muromachi daimyo: powerful figures that implemented the decisions of the central warrior administration. On the other hand, kyōgen plays are obviously not attempts to portray reality, and mockery of pretension is an important element of their palette of effects. Scholars have struggled to determine who these daimyo in the plays actually were, and at least one scholar thinks that the term daimyo in TKB, which has a nonstandard orthography, does not refer to the historical term “daimyo” at all (TKBZ, 166–7).
- 35.
In TKB, the name of the servant has a variety of orthographic renderings approximating to “Tara Kwaja,” but for simplicity I use the current spelling: “Tarō kaja.”
- 36.
It seems that servants (low-level retainers) had a right to travel on pilgrimage.
- 37.
TKBZ, 157.
- 38.
TKBZ, 599.
- 39.
Other plays about missing servants exhibit similar patterns. For example, in Nishinomiya mairi (Pilgrimage to Nishinomiya), the missing servant has been to the well-known shrine at Nishinomiya. Asked to tell of interesting things he has seen, he dances to a number of songs, and the play closes with hyōshidome, a standard type of rhythmic beating of the drum. It seems that the songs and dances were fashionable at the time, perhaps associated with the regions on the way to the shrine. Here there is no sign of comedy; rather it is the collection of dances that constitutes the entertainment. In Imo arai (Washing Potatoes), the servant has been to various religious sites in the capital. After the telling of his visits and describing (and perhaps enacting) an ecstatic religious dance (nenbutsu odori), he tells how he saw a girl washing potatoes and reproduces the mildly erotic song she sang. At the end he tells how the girl finally sprinkled water on the people listening including an ancient woman who choked. Presumably the actor would have mimed this last bit for laughs. Again, the “story” merely provides a framework for the enactment of various dances and songs, ending finally with a comic mime.
- 40.
TKBZ, 186.
- 41.
See Chap. 2.
- 42.
A similar play is Haridako (Dried Octopus), in which the servant, sent to buy a drum, is tricked into buying dried octopus. Following the daimyo’s instructions, he checks that there is thick skin on top and at the bottom, and wood in the middle (TKBZ, 526). (In the modern repertoire, the conceit is reversed, so that the servant sent to buy octopus gets blamed for bringing back a drum.) Again, in Takarakai (Buying Treasure), the daimyo explains that he is summoned to a meeting with other daimyo to compare treasures. He wants his servant to go and buy a wish-fulfilling hammer. Again the servant goes to town and meets a swindler. The swindler sells him a stick in place of the hammer and also teaches him a song. This time the ending is different. The servant returns and the master tells him to use the hammer to create a horse. Unable to do so, the servant himself pretends to be a horse, and is chased off by the master (TKBZ, 203).
- 43.
In kyōgen, they are actually referred to as o-hyakushō. For the significance of the honorific prefix “o” and various scholarly arguments about the identity of these hyakushō, see TKBZ, 110.
- 44.
This agent had the job of collecting taxes from the producers and distributing them to the nominal owners of the estates, high-class individuals, or institutions in the capital region.
- 45.
TKBZ, 102.
- 46.
Examples of other plays in this set: Sannin Hyakushō (Three Farmers) (TKBZ, 113) (men from Tanba, Echizen, and Wakasa provinces who bring persimmons, paper, and seaweed. They perform a song that plays on the words for the three products); Gan karigane (Two Words for Goose) (TKBZ, 118) (men from Echigo and Kaga, who bring geese. They use alternative words for the birds (gan and karigane) and relate traditional stories and poems linked to these words); see also Futari osamemono (Two Types of Tribute) (TKBZ, 138), Mochizake (Rice Cakes and Wine) (TKBZ, 627), and Yuzuriwa (TKBZ, 650) (Daphniphyllum).
- 47.
TKBZ, 358. Hana nusubito (Flower Thief) (TKBZ, 376) and Ume nusubito (Plum Thief) (TKBZ, 479) follow a similar pattern.
- 48.
TKBZ, 493–4.
- 49.
See Hashimoto Asao, “Tenshō Kyōgenbon no Shukke Zatō Kyōgen,” in Nihon Bungaku Kenkyū Shiryō Kankōkai ed. Yōkyoku, Kyōgen (Tokyo: Yūseidō, 1981), 222–234. For a discussion of plays featuring blind performers in the current Kyōgen repertoire, see Jacqueline Golay, “Pathos and Farce. Zato Plays of the Kyogen Repertoire,” Monumenta Nipponica, vol. 28, No. 2. (Summer, 1973), 139–149.
- 50.
Some have mistakenly projected the scorn for mountain priests onto the medieval period (see, e.g., Lafleur, William R. The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan. (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1983), 134). It is not, however, evident in TKB.
- 51.
TBKZ, 535.
- 52.
TKBZ, 151–152.
- 53.
Kemari (“court football”) was a noncompetitive sport which originated in China that was practised by courtiers at the imperial palace. During the medieval period it became popular among the warrior class. The aim was to keep a ball in the air and it was played on a small playing field marked by the placement of specific trees.
- 54.
These could have been chanted by an extra character, for example, the father-in-law’s servant in the guise of Tarō Kaja, or else musical accompanists or the chorus.
- 55.
For example: Yawata Muko (TKBZ, 147), Kaichū Muko (Pocketing Son-in-Law) (TKBZ, 486), Takafuda Muko (TKBZ, 563).
- 56.
TKBZ, 279.
- 57.
TKBZ, 488.
- 58.
TKBZ, 657. Saru Zatō is in the table of contents of TKB (TKBZ, 55) but missing from the body of the text (see discussion TKBZ, 72–73).
- 59.
TKBZ, 612.
- 60.
TKBZ, 602.
- 61.
TKBZ, 11–12.
- 62.
There is a current version, too, in which a Shinto priest chants prayers and young girls sing the songs while enacting planting rice.
- 63.
TKBZ, 274
- 64.
TKBZ, 428.
- 65.
TBKZ, 328.
- 66.
TKBZ, 247–8.
- 67.
TKBZ, 432.
- 68.
TKBZ, 502, 551.
- 69.
TKBZ, 499.
- 70.
Scholz-Cionca, Entstehung und Morphologie, 189–191.
- 71.
TKBZ, 505.
- 72.
TKBZ, 541.
- 73.
As is seen in the plays described by Morley in Transformation, Miracles, and Mischief.
- 74.
For a study of Toraaki’s theory of comedy, see Makoto Ueda, “Toraaki on the Art of Comedy: The Making of the Comic,” in Makoto Ueda, Literary and Art Theories in Japan, Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1967, 101–113.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pinnington, N.J. (2019). Medieval Kyōgen. In: A New History of Medieval Japanese Theatre. Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06140-1_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06140-1_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-06139-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-06140-1
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)