Kusemai - Kusemai

One of the medieval performing arts that was popular from the Northern and Southern Courts period to the Muromachi period. It is also written as Kuzemai or Kyusemai, and is also called mai or maimai. The origin of kumamai is unclear, but in the "Seventy-first Artisan's Poetry Contest," Shirabyōshi and kumamai are paired, and because of the similarities in the music and clothing, it is said that its origins lie in Shirabyōshi dance. Kumamai's clothing consists of children wearing suikan, okuchi, and tateeboshi, while men wear hitatare instead of suikan, and they basically dance alone, holding a fan and dancing to the beat of a drum. The dance is also divided into two parts, and is characterized by starting the dance with a shidai section and ending with the same section. Children's kuma dances and women dressed as men were especially popular, but professional kuma dances also appeared among the chanters of Kyoto and Nara. Kuma dance gradually fell into decline as it was overshadowed by Sarugaku, which flourished in the same era, but Kan'ami (1333-84) of Yamato Sarugaku, who perfected Noh, added koutabushi to it to create kuma dances with koutabushi, and incorporated them into his own school of Noh chants to establish his own unique style of performance. This part later came to be called 'kuse', but the Noh songs "Yamanba" and "Hyakuman" are said to retain vestiges of the kuma dances of old. On the other hand, from the mid-Muromachi period onwards, Kumamai changed its form and was passed down as a branch of it called Kōwakamai, and gradually the term Kumamai came to refer to Kōwakamai.

[Shigeru Takayama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

南北朝時代から室町時代にかけて流行した中世芸能の一つ。久世舞、九世舞とも書き、舞(まい)、舞々(まいまい)ともいう。曲舞の起源は明らかではないが、『七十一番職人尽歌合(しょくにんづくしうたあわせ)』には白拍子(しらびょうし)と曲舞とが対(つい)になっており、囃子(はやし)、服装などの類似から、その母胎は白拍子舞にあるのではないかといわれている。曲舞の服装は、児(ちご)は水干(すいかん)、大口(おおくち)、立烏帽子(たてえぼし)、男は水干のかわりに直垂(ひたたれ)を着け、扇を持ち鼓にあわせて基本的には一人舞を舞った。また舞は2段に分かれ、次第(しだい)という部分を謡って舞い始め、同じ次第で終了するのが特色であった。とくに児曲舞や男装の女曲舞が喜ばれたが、京都や奈良の唱聞師(しょうもんし)のなかからも専業化した曲舞が現れた。曲舞はしだいに同時代に隆盛した猿楽(さるがく)に押されて衰微していったが、能の大成者である大和(やまと)猿楽の観阿弥(かんあみ)（1333―84）は、これに小歌節(こうたぶし)を加えて小歌節曲舞を創(つく)り、それを自流の能の謡のなかに取り入れて独自の芸風を確立した。のちにこの部分はクセとよばれるようになるが、謡曲『山姥(やまんば)』『百万(ひゃくまん)』は昔日の曲舞のおもかげを残しているといわれる。一方、室町中期以降、曲舞はその一派である幸若舞(こうわかまい)に形を変えて受け継がれていき、しだいに曲舞といえば幸若舞をさすようになった。

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