NOTE ON AOI NO UYE.
At the age of twelve Prince Genji went through the ceremony of marriage with Aoi no Uye (Princess Hollyhock), the Prime Minister's daughter. She continued to live at her father's house and Genji at his palace. When he was about sixteen he fell in love with Princess Rokujō, the widow of the Emperor's brother; she was about eight years older than himself. He was not long faithful to her. The lady Yūgao next engaged his affections. He carried her one night to a deserted mansion on the outskirts of the City. "The night was far advanced and they had both fallen asleep. Suddenly the figure of a woman appeared at the bedside. "I have found you!" it cried. "What stranger is this that lies beside you? What treachery is this that you flaunt before my eyes?" And with these words the apparition stooped over the bed, and made as though to drag away the sleeping girl from Genji's side." [1]1
Before dawn Yūgao was dead, stricken by the "living phantom" of Rokujō, embodiment of her baleful jealousy.
Soon after this, Genji became reconciled with his wife Aoi, but continued to visit Rokujō. One day, at the Kamo Festival, Aoi's way was blocked by another carriage. She ordered her attendants to drag it aside. A scuffle ensued between her servants and those of Rokujō (for she was the occupant of the second carriage) in which Aoi's side prevailed. Rokujō's carriage was broken and Aoi's pushed into the front place. After the festival was over Aoi returned to the Prime Minister's house in high spirits.
Soon afterwards she fell ill, and it is at this point that the play begins.
There is nothing obscure or ambiguous in the situation. Fenollosa seems to have misunderstood the play and read into it complications and confusions which do not exist. He also changes the sex of the Witch, though the Japanese word, miko, always has a feminine meaning. The "Romance of Genji" (Genji Monogatari) was written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu and was finished in the year 1004 A. D. Of its fifty-four chapters only seventeen have been translated. [2]2 It furnished the plots of many Nō plays, of which Suma Genji (Genji's exile at Suma), No no Miya (his visit to Rokujō after she became a nun), Tamakatsura (the story of Yūgao's daughter), and Hajitomi (in which Yūgao's ghost appears) are the best known.
There is some doubt about the authorship of the play. Seami saw it acted as a Dengaku by his father's contemporary Inūo. He describes Inūo's entry on to the stage in the role of Rukujō and quotes the first six lines of her opening speech. These lines correspond exactly with the modern text, and it is probable that the play existed in something like its present form in the middle of the fourteenth century. Kwanze Nagatoshi, the great-grandson of Seami, includes it in a list of Seami's works; while popular tradition ascribes it to Seami's son-in-law Zenchiku.
AOI NO UYE
(PRINCESS HOLLYHOCK)
REVISED BY ZENCHIKU UJINOBU (1414-1499?)
PERSONS
Courtier. Witch. Princess Rokujō. The Saint of Yokaro. Messenger. Chorus.(A folded cloak laid in front of the stage symbolizes the sickbed of Aoi.)
Courtier
I am a courtier in the service of the Emperor Shujaku. You must know that the Prime Minister's daughter, Princess Aoi, has fallen sick. We have sent for abbots and high-priests, of the Greater School and of the Secret School, but they could not cure her.
And now, here at my side, stands the witch of Teruhi, [3]3 a famous diviner with the bow-string. My lord has been told that by twanging her bow-string she can make visible an evil spirit and tell if it be the spirit of a living man or a dead. So he bade me send for her and let her pluck her string.
Turning to the Witch, who has been waiting motionless.
Come, sorceress, we are ready!Witch
comes forward beating a little drum and reciting a mystic formula.
She plucks her bow-string, reciting the spell.
The living phantasm of Rokujō appears at the back of the stage.
Rokujō
She veils her face.
Witch
Though she should stand at the wife-door of the mother-house of the square court . . . [7]7
Rokujō
Yet would none come to me, that am not in the flesh. [8]8
Witch
How strange! I see a fine lady whom I do not know riding in a broken coach. She clutches at the shafts of another coach from which the oxen have been unyoked. And in the second coach sits one who seems a new wife. [9]9 The lady of the broken coach is weeping, weeping. It is a piteous sight.
Can this be she?
Courtier
It would not be hard to guess who such a one might be. Come, spirit, tell us your name!
Rokujō
You would know who I am that have come drawn by the twanging of your bow? I am the angry ghost of Rokujō, Lady of the Chamber.
She then quotes the Buddhist saying, "Our sorrows in this world are not caused by others; for even when others wrong us we are suffering the retribution of our own deeds in a previous existence."
But while singing these words she turns towards Aoi's bed; passion again seizes her and she cries:
She creeps towards the bed.
Witch
You, Lady Rokujō, you a Lady of the Chamber! Would you lay wait and strike as peasant women do? [12]12 How can this be? Think and forbear!
Rokujō
Say what you will, I must strike. I must strike now.
Describing her own action.
"And as she said this, she went over to the pillow and struck at it."She strikes at the head of the bed with her fan.
Witch
She is going to strike again.
To Rokujō.
You shall pay for this!Rokujō
And this hate too is payment for past hate.
Witch
"The flame of anger
Rokujō
Consumes itself only." [13]13
Witch
Did you not know?
Rokujō
Know it then now.
Chorus
Rokujō
I am come to my broken coach.
She throws down her fan and begins to slip off her embroidered robe.
I will hide you in it and carry you away!She stands right over the bed, then turns away and at the back of the stage throws of her robe, which is held by two attendants in such a way that she cannot be seen. She changes her "deigan" mask for a female demon's mask and now carries a mallet in her hand.
Meanwhile the Courtier, who has been standing near the bed:
Courtier
Come quickly, some one! Princess Aoi is worse. Every minute she is worse. Go and fetch the Little Saint of Yokawa. [17]17
Messenger
I tremble and obey.
He goes to the wing and speaks to some one off the stage.
May I come in?
Saint
speaking from the wing.
Who is it that seeks admittance to a room washed by the moonlight of the Three Mysteries, sprinkled with the holy water of Yoga? Who would draw near to a couch of the Ten Vehicles, a window of the Eight Perceptions?
Messenger
I am come from the Court. Princess Aoi is ill. They would have you come to her.
Saint
It happens that at this time I am practising particular austerities and go nowhere abroad. But if you are a messenger from the Court, I will follow you.
He comes on the stage.
Courtier
We thank you for coming.
Saint
I wait upon you. Where is the sick person?
Courtier
On the bed here.
Saint
Then I will begin my incantations at once.
Courtier
Pray do so.
Saint
Rokujō
during the incantation she has cowered at the back of the stage wrapped in her Chinese robe, which she has picked up again.
Go back, Gyōja, go back to your home; do not stay and be vanquished!
Saint
Be you what demon you will, do not hope to overcome the Gyōja's subtle power. I will pray again.
He shakes his rosary whilst the Chorus, speaking for him, invokes the first of the Five Kings.
Chorus
Rokujō
counter-invoking.
Speaker
Rokujō
Chorus
Rokujō
Chorus
Rokujō
suddenly dropping her mallet and pressing her hands to her ears.
The voice of the Hannya Book! I am afraid. Never again will I come as an angry ghost.
Ghost
