Sanemori

Noh piece. The second piece. A masterpiece of Shura Noh with a profound depiction. A five-school current piece. The source is "The Tale of the Heike." It is said to be a Noh piece that Zeami quickly adapted from the news recorded in "Manzei Jugō Nikki" that the ghost of Saito Sanemori, 200 years after his death, asked Yugyo Shonin (a monk who traveled around the pond where he was killed in battle to pray for his soul), at the side of the pond where he was washed in the neck. In the village of Shinohara in Kaga Province (Ishikawa Prefecture), where Yugyo Shonin (waki) was holding a Buddhist service, an old man (mae shite) came to listen to the service every day. When the monk asked the old man, who was not visible to anyone else, to tell him his name, he replied that he was the ghost of Sanemori, who he was obsessed with, and disappeared. The spirit of Sanemori (Go-Shite), who appears as he was in his old days at the funeral of a monk, goes out to his hometown dressed in red brocade armor to decorate his hometown, speaks of the spirit of an old warrior who dyed his white hair black, and tells of his regret at being thwarted in his attempt to kill Minamoto no Yoshinaka, and his death in battle, and how his head is washed and his hair turns white. This is a difficult Noh piece that is treated seriously and is known as one of the three Shura pieces.

[Masuda Shozo]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

能の曲目。二番目物。重厚に描かれた修羅能の名作。五流現行曲。出典は『平家物語』。斎藤実盛の亡霊が没後200年目に、戦死した首洗い池のほとりで遊行上人(ゆぎょうしょうにん)に回向(えこう)を求めたという、『満済准后(まんぜいじゅごう)日記』にも記されているニュースを、世阿弥(ぜあみ)が早速に脚色した能とされる。加賀国（石川県）篠原(しのはら)の里で遊行上人（ワキ）が法会をしているところへ、毎日聴聞にくる老翁（前シテ）があった。他の人に姿が見えぬ翁(おきな)に、上人が名を名のれというと、執心残った実盛の亡霊と告げて消える。僧の弔いに、ありし日の姿で現れた実盛の霊（後シテ）は、故郷へ錦(にしき)を飾るため赤地の錦の武装で出陣し、白髪を黒く染めた老武者の心意気を語り、源義仲(よしなか)を討とうとするが阻まれて戦死を遂げた無念、首が洗われて白髪になる話が、巧みな倒置法の手法で描かれ、成仏を願って消える。『頼政(よりまさ)』『朝長(ともなが)』とともに三修羅とよばれ、重い扱いをされる難曲の能。

［増田正造］

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