Dontaro - What is it?

The title of a Kyogen piece. Also known as "Dontaro." A female Kyogen play. When Dontaro (shite), who has returned to Kyoto after a three-year absence, returns to his wife in Shimogyo, his wife, thinking it is a prank by a young man, chases him away, threatening that she has given a man a stick wielder. He then visits his concubine in Kyoto, but she also believes that it is the young man who is tormenting him, and so she makes the man a sword wielder. Dontaro, feeling the impermanence of human hearts, decides to go on a pilgrimage to shrines and temples for training, and enters the room. When his wife and concubine find out that it is the real Dontaro who has come to visit, they come together and wait for him on the Kami-no-Kai Road, when Dontaro passes by chanting a prayer. He is stopped by the two, but he decides to spend the first 15 days of the month with his concubine and the second half with his wife, as there is one more day in the lunar month, and goes home in their handcart. His blatant acting of showing affection for his concubine at every turn is sure to elicit laughs.

[Kazutoshi Hayashi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

狂言の曲名。「どんたろう」とも。女狂言。3年ぶりに帰京した鈍太郎（シテ）が下京の本妻のもとへ戻ると、若い衆のいたずらと思った妻は、棒使いを男にもったと脅して追い払う。そこで上京の妾(めかけ)を訪ねるが、やはり若者がなぶるものと思い込んで長刀(なぎなた)使いを男にしたという。鈍太郎は人の心に無常を感じて神社仏閣の参詣(さんけい)修行に出ようと決心し中入りする。訪ねてきたのが実の鈍太郎であったことを知った妻と妾が心をあわせ上下の海道で待っていると、鈍太郎が念仏を唱えながら通りかかる。2人に引き止められた鈍太郎は、小の月（陰暦）でも1日多いように月の前半15日を妾のところ、後半を妻のところへ行くことに決め、両人の手車に乗って帰って行く。ことごとに妾のほうに好意を示す露骨な演技が笑いを誘う。

［林　和利］

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