Teika

Noh piece. Third piece, wig piece. Five-school current piece. Also known as "Teika Kudzu" in the past. Written by Konparu Zenchiku. The setting is that there was a secret love affair between Princess Shokushi, a representative poet of the Shin Kokin Wakashu, and Fujiwara Teika. This is a serious and excellent Noh piece that depicts the obsession of repressed love. A traveling monk (waki/wakitsure) arrives in the capital and stops at a hermitage during a rainy day. A woman (mae shite) calls out to him, telling him that the place is the former site of Teika's Shigure-no-chin, and describes the desolate scene. Eventually, the woman leads the monk to Princess Shokushi's grave and asks him to perform a funeral service. The love between the two is made public, and the oppression of being unable to meet is carried over to the afterlife, with Teika's obsession turning into kudzu, which covers the tomb even after death. The woman pleads with them to be saved from their endless suffering, calling herself the ghost of the princess, and disappears into the tomb. The monk's prayer causes the ghost of the princess (later shite) to appear, and she rejoices that she has been freed from the curse of kudzu thanks to the merit of the sutra, and with a heavy step she performs a dance of gratitude, but the tomb is once again covered in Teika's kudzu, and the play ends on a dark note. It is extremely difficult to express the layers of dignity and gloom, and this is a Noh piece that is treated seriously. There are various claims for the staging, such as whether the first shite should be young or middle-aged, the second shite should be emaciated, or the main focus should be on the dignity of the princess.

[Masuda Shozo]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

能の曲目。三番目・鬘(かずら)物。五流現行曲。古くは「定家葛(ていかかずら)」とも。金春禅竹(こんぱるぜんちく)作。『新古今和歌集』を代表する歌人、式子(しょくし)内親王と、藤原定家との間に秘密の恋があったとする設定である。抑圧された恋の執心を描いて、深刻、かつもっとも優れた能の作品。旅の僧（ワキ・ワキツレ）が都に着き、おりからの時雨(しぐれ)に、一つの庵(いおり)に立ち寄る。女（前シテ）が呼びかけ、そこが定家の時雨亭(しぐれのちん)の旧跡と教え、荒れ果てた情景を描写する。やがて女は式子内親王の墓の前に僧を導き、弔いを頼む。2人の恋が世に知られ、会うことのできなくなった抑圧はあの世まで持ち越され、定家の執心は死後も葛となって墓を覆っている。女は尽きることのない互いの苦しみを救ってほしいと訴え、自分がその亡霊と名のって墓に消える。僧の祈りに、内親王の亡霊（後(のち)シテ）の姿が浮かび、経文の功徳(くどく)で葛の呪縛(じゅばく)から解かれたことを喜び、重い足を引きつつ報恩の舞をまうが、ふたたびその墓は定家葛に覆われて暗い結末で終わる。品位と陰惨さの重層の表現が至難で、重く扱われる能である。前シテも若い姿か、中年の扮装(ふんそう)にするか、後シテもやせ衰えた姿か、内親王の品格を主眼とするか、さまざまの演出の主張がある。

［増田正造］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例