Passing Komachi - Passing Komachi

Noh piece. The fourth piece. A current piece of the five schools. Kannami reworked an old piece. The old name was "Shiinoshosho". "The Fourth Rank Shosho was written by a mountain ascetic and a chanter in Konbon, and was performed this spring at Tonomine, the governor of Konparugon no Kami, but was later rewritten," according to "Sarugaku Dangi," and it is credited to Kannami. It is a serious Noh piece that depicts the obsession of a man who was carried to the other world and a woman who tries to escape from it and attain nirvana. The woman (Tsure), who offers nuts every day to a monk (Waki) in the mountain village of Yase, Yamashiro Province (Kyoto Prefecture), and disappears after praying for his soul's salvation, is the ghost of Ono no Komachi. At the monk's funeral, the woman rejoices at her hope of attaining nirvana, but the ghost of Fukakusa no Shosho (shite) appears to thwart this, clinging to her sleeve and saying, "If I become a dog of earthly desires and am struck down, I will not let you go." Komachi gives her the test of visiting her for a hundred nights. The thrill of the last night and her sudden death are recreated, and the play ends with the two of them attaining nirvana. In the original form, the tsure plays the opening act in the guise of an old woman, then reappears in the middle in a younger costume, but it is common for the tsure to play the first and second acts in their younger guise in an abbreviated version.

[Masuda Shozo]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

能の曲目。四番目物。五流現行曲。観阿弥(かんあみ)が古作を改作したもの。古名『四位少将(しいのしょうしょう)』。「四位の少将は、根本(こんぼん)、山徒(さんと)に唱導の有しが書きて、今春権の守(こんぱるごんのかみ)多武嶺(たうのみね)にてせしを、後書き直されしと也(なり)」と『申楽(さるがく)談儀』に記し、観阿弥作としてあげてある。あの世まで持ち込まれた男の執念と、それから逃れて成仏しようとする女を描いた深刻な能。山城(やましろ)国（京都府）八瀬(やせ)の山里の僧（ワキ）に毎日木の実を捧(ささ)げ、回向(えこう)を願って消える女（ツレ）は、小野小町の亡霊であった。僧の弔いに女は成仏への道を喜ぶが、深草の少将の亡霊（シテ）はそれを妨げようと現れ、「煩悩の犬となって打たるると離れじ」とその袖(そで)にすがる。小町の与えた百夜(ももよ)通いの試練。最後の夜のときめきと、突然の死が再現され、一転して2人に成仏が訪れて終わる。ツレは姥(うば)の姿で前段を演じ、中入して若い扮装(ふんそう)で再登場するのが本来の形であるが、若い姿のまま前後を演ずる略式演出が普通となっている。

［増田正造］

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