Kurama-tengu
Kurama-tengu(Kurama Tengu,The Goblin of Kurama)is aNohplay from the fifteenth century, concerned with the childhood experiences of the samurai heroMinamoto no Yoshitsune.
Plot
[edit]The play begins with acherry blossom viewingexpedition involving monks and children fromKurama temple.[1]On being joined by a roughYamabushi- an ascetic mountain priest - the party leaves in protest, with the exception of one child, who reveals himself as the young Yoshitsune, isolated at the temple both as an orphaned son and as the only child from the (eclipsed)Genji clan.[2]The stranger reveals himself in turn as the headTengu,or long-nosed goblin; and he proceeds to instruct the young hero in the martial arts, with a view to him avenging his slaughtered father's death.[3]
Characteristics
[edit]- The play is notable for the large cast of child actors, and for the range of actions - chanting; acting; swordplay - which they undertake.[4]
- Critics have seen elements ofhomoeroticismin the relationship between the (phallicized) Yamabushi and the child actors.[5]
Influence
[edit]- Gekkeipainted 'Young Bull and the Goblins', based on the play, and including an associated haiku byKikaku:
"First cherry blossoms - Let me show you a letter That the goblins wrote".[6]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^Kurama-tengu
- ^Kurama-tengu
- ^M Smethurst,Dramatic Action in Greek Drama and Noh(2013) p. 62
- ^R. Schechner,By Means of Performance(1990) p. 192
- ^S Brown,Theatricalities of Power(2001) p. 117
- ^L Zolbrod,Haiku Painting(Tokyo 1982) p. 26-7