Loyalty - Just a habit

Noh piece. Second piece. Five-school current piece. Written by Zeami. Based on the Tale of the Heike. In other Shura Noh plays, ghosts appear complaining about the pain of defeat and the torture of the Shura world, but the ghost of Taira Tadataka comes from the other world because of his passion for waka poetry. A man (waki) who served Fujiwara Shunzei becomes a monk after Shunzei's death and stops at Suma Bay. An old man who collects seawater (mae shite) appears and makes an offering to the cherry blossoms commemorating Tadataka's death in battle. When the monk asks for lodging, the old man replies by quoting a waka poem by Tadataka, saying that there is no better place to stay than under these flowers, implying that he is Tadataka's ghost before disappearing. In the monk's dream, a well-armed and imposing Tadanori (later shite) appears, expressing his dissatisfaction that his poems, which were included in the Senzaishu, are treated as unknown because they were written by an enemy of the imperial court, and asks Shunzei's son Teika to pass on the author's name. He then explains how he entrusted his poems to Shunzei when he fled the capital, describes his death in battle at Ichinotani, and asks for forgiveness before disappearing. One shite is Tadanori himself, but at the same time he is also Okabe Rokuyata, his opponent in battle, and the inclusion of objective descriptions and rhymes from a third party is a distinctive feature of Noh performance.

[Masuda Shozo]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

能の曲目。二番目物。五流現行曲。世阿弥(ぜあみ)作。典拠は『平家物語』。他の修羅能では、敗戦の苦しみと修羅道の責め苦を訴えて亡霊が登場するが、平忠度の霊は、和歌の執心のためにあの世からやってくる。藤原俊成(しゅんぜい)に仕えた者（ワキ）が俊成の没後に僧となり、須磨(すま)の浦に立ち寄る。潮汲(く)みの老人（前シテ）が現れ、忠度戦死の記念の桜に手向けをする。宿を借りたいという僧に、老人は忠度の和歌を引いて、この花の下ほどの宿りはあるまいとこたえ、自分が忠度の亡霊であることをほのめかして消える。僧の夢に武装りりしい忠度（後シテ）が現れ、『千載(せんざい)集』に入集した自分の歌が朝敵ゆえに読み人知らずの扱いであることの不満を述べ、俊成の子の定家(ていか)に作者名を発表してくれるよう伝言を頼む。そして都落ちに際して作品を俊成に託したこと、一ノ谷での戦死のありさまを語り回向(えこう)を願って消える。1人のシテが忠度自身であると同時に、戦いの相手の岡部六弥太(ろくやた)ともなり、またそれに第三者の客観描写や詠嘆までも加わるのは、能の演技の特徴である。

［増田正造］

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