{"collection":"shi","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/shi/npj/npj37.htm","path":"shi/npj/npj37.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/shi/npj/npj37.htm","text":"By SEAMI\nINTRODUCTION\nTHE Chinese poet Po Ch\u00fc-i, whom the Japanese call Haku Rakuten, was horn in 772 A. D. and died in 847. His works enjoyed immense contemporary popularity in China, Korea and Japan. In the second half of the ninth century the composition of Chinese verse became fashionable at the Japanese Court, and native forms of poetry were for a time threatened with extinction.\nThe N\u014d play Haku Rakuten deals with this literary peril. It was written at the end of the fourteenth century, a time when Japanese art and literature were again becoming subject to Chinese influence. Painting and prose ultimately succumbed, but poetry was saved.\nHistorically, Haku Rakuten never came to Japan. But the danger of his influence was real and actual, as may be deduced from reading the works of Sugawara no Michizane, the greatest Japanese poet of the ninth century. Michizane's slavish imitations of Po Ch\u00fc-i show an unparalleled example of literary prostration. The plot of the play is as follows:\nRakuten is sent by the Emperor of China to \"subdue\" Japan with his art. On arriving at the coast of Bizen, he meets with two Japanese fishermen. One of them is in reality the god of Japanese poetry, Sumiyoshi no Kami. In the second act his identity is revealed. He summons other gods, and a great dancing-scene ensues. Finally the wind from their dancing-sleeves blows the Chinese poet's ship back to his own country.\nSeami, in his plays, frequently quotes Po Ch\u00fc-i's poems; and in his lament for the death of his son, Zemparu Motomasa, who died in 1432, he refers to the death of Po Ch\u00fc-i's son, A-ts'ui.\nPERSONS\nRAKUTEN (a Chinese poet).\n AN OLD FISHERMAN, SUMIYOSHI NO KAMI, who in Act II becomes the God of Japanese Poetry.\n ANOTHER FISHERMAN. CHORUS OF FISHERMEN.\nSCENE: The coast of Bizen in Japan.\nHAKU.\nI am Haku Rakuten, a courtier of the Prince of China. There is a land in the East called Nippon. 1 Now, at my master's bidding, I am sent to that land to make proof of the wisdom of its people. I must travel over the paths of the sea.\nI will row my boat towards the rising sun,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The rising sun;\n And seek the country that lies to the far side\n Over the wave-paths of the Eastern Sea.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Far my boat shall go,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My boat shall go,--\n With the light of the setting sun in the waves of its wake\n And a cloud like a banner shaking the void of the sky.\n Now the moon rises, and on the margin of the sea\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A mountain I discern.\n I am come to the land of Nippon,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The land of Nippon.\nSo swiftly have I passed over the ways of the ocean that I am come already to the shores of Nippon. I will cast anchor here a little while. I would know what manner of land this may be.\nTHE TWO FISHERMEN (together).\nDawn over the Sea of Tsukushi,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Place of the Unknown Fire.\n Only the moonlight--nothing else left!\nTHE OLD FISHERMAN.\nThe great waters toss and toss;\n The grey waves soak the sky.\nTHE TWO FISHERMEN.\nSo was it when Han Rei\u00a02 left the land of Etsu p. 209\n And rowed in a little boat\n Over the misty waves of the Five Lakes.\nHow pleasant the sea looks!\n From the beach of Matsura\n Westward we watch the hill -less dawn.\n A cloud, where the moon is setting,\n Floats like a boat at sea,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A boat at sea\n That would anchor near us in the dawn.\n Over the sea from the far side,\n From China the journey of a ship's travel\n Is a single night's sailing, they say.\n And lo! the moon has vanished!\nI have borne with the billows of a thousand miles of sea and come at last to the land of Nippon. Here is a little ship anchored near me. An old fisherman is in it. Can this be indeed an inhabitant of Nippon?\nOLD FISHERMAN.\nAye, so it is. I am an old fisher of Nihon. And your Honour, I think, is Haku Rakuten of China.\nHow strange! No sooner am I come to this land than they call me by my name! How can this be?\nSECOND FISHERMAN.\nAlthough your Honour is a man of China, your name and fame have come before you.\nEven though my name be known, yet that you should know my face is strange surely!\nIt was said everywhere in the Land of Sunrise that your Honour, Rakuten, would come to make trial of the wisdom of Nihon. And when, as we gazed westwards, we saw a boat coming in from the open sea, the hearts of us all thought in a twinkling, \"This is he.\"\nCHORUS.\n\"He has come, he has come.\"\n So we cried when the boat came in\n To the shore of Matsura,\n The shore of Matsura.\n Sailing in from the sea\n Openly before us--\n A Chinese ship\n And a man from China,--\n How could we fail to know you,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Haku Rakuten?\n But your halting words tire us.\n Listen as we will, we cannot understand\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Your foreign talk.\n Come, our fishing-time is precious.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let us cast our hooks,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let us cast our hooks!\nStay! Answer me one question. 1 Bring your boat closer and tell me, Fisherman, what is your pastime now in Nippon?\nFISHERMAN.\nAnd in the land of China, pray how do your Honours disport yourselves?\nIn China we play at making poetry.\nAnd in Nihon, may it please you, we venture on the sport of making \"uta.\" 2\nAnd what are \"uta\"?\nYou in China make your poems and odes out of the Scriptures of p. 211 India; and we have made our \"uta\" out of the poems and odes of China. Since then our poetry is a blend of three lands, we have named it Yamato, the great Blend, and all our songs \"Yamato Uta.\" But I think you question me only to mock an old man's simplicity.\nNo, truly; that was not my purpose. But come, I will sing a Chinese poem about the scene before us.\n\"Green moss donned like a cloak\n Lies on the shoulders of the rocks;\n White clouds drawn like a belt\n Surround the flanks of the mountains.\"\nHow does that song please you?\nIt is indeed a pleasant verse. In our tongue we should say the poem thus:\nKoke-goromo\n Kitaru iwao wa\n Samonakute,\n Kinu\u00a0kinu yama no\n Obi wo, suru kana!\nHow strange that a poor fisherman should put my verse into a sweet native measure! Who can he be?\nA poor man and unknown. But as for the making of \"uta,\" it is not only men that make them. \"For among things that live there is none that has not the gift of song.\" 1\nHAKU (taking up the other's words as if hypnotized).\n\"Among things that have life,--yes, and birds and insects--\"\nThey have sung Yamato songs.\nIn the land of Yamato ...\n... many such have been sung.\n\"The nightingale singing on the bush,\n Even the frog that dwells in the pond\n I know not if it be in your Honour's land,\n But in Nihon they sing the stanzas of the \"uta.\"\n And so it comes that an old man\n Can sing the song you have heard,\n A song of great Yamato.\nCHORUS (changing the chant).\nAnd as for the nightingale and the poem it made,-\n They say that in the royal reign\n Of the Emperor K\u014dren\n In the land of Yamato, in the temple of High Heaven\n A priest was dwelling.\u00a01\n Each year at the season of Spring\n There came a nightingale\n To the plum-tree at his window.\n And when he listened to its song\n He heard it singing a verse:\n\"Sho-y\u014d mei-ch\u014d rai\n Fu-s\u014d gem-bon sei.\"\nAnd when he wrote down the characters,\n Behold, it was an \"uta\"-song\n Of thirty letters and one.\n And the words of the song--\n| Hatsu-haru no Ashita goto ni wa Kitaredomo | Of Spring's beginning At each dawn Though I come, | \n| Awade zo kaeru Moto no sumika ni. | Unmet I return To my old nest. | \nThus first the nightingale,\n And many birds and beasts thereto,\n Sing \"uta,\" like the songs of men.\n And instances are many;\n Many as the myriad pebbles that lie\n On the shore of the sea of Ariso.\n \"For among things that live\n There is none that has not the gift of song.\"\nTruly the fisherman has the ways of Yamato in his heart. Truly, this custom is excellent.\nIf we speak of the sports of Yamato and sing its songs, we should show too what dances we use; for there are many kinds.\nYes, there are the dances; but there is no one to dance.\nThough there be no dancer, yet even I--\nFor drums-the beating of the waves.\n For flutes--the song of the sea-dragon.\n For dancer--this ancient man\n Despite his furrowed brow\n Standing on the furrowed sea\n Floating on the green waves\n Shall dance the Sea Green Dance.\nAnd the land of Reeds and Rushes . . .\nTen thousand years our land inviolate!\n[The rest of the play is a kind of \"ballet\"; the words are merely a commentary on the dances.]\nACT II.\nFISHERMAN (transformed into SUMIYOSHI NO KAMI, the God of Poetry).\nSea that is green with the shadow of the hills in the water!\n Sea Green Dance, danced to the beating of the waves.\n(He dances the Sea Green Dance.)\nOut of the wave-lands,\n Out of the fields of the Western Sea\nHe rises before us,\n The God of Sumiyoshi,\n The God of Sumiyoshi!\nTHE GOD.\nI rise before you\n The god--\nThe God of Sumiyoshi whose strength is such\n That he will not let you subdue us, O Rakuten!\n So we bid you return to your home,\n Swiftly over the waves of the shore!\n First the God of Sumiyoshi came.\n Now other gods\u00a01 have come--\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of Is\u00e9 and Iwa-shimizu,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of Kamo and Kasuga,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of Ka-shima and Mi-shima,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Of Suwa and Atsuta.\n And the goddess of the Beautiful Island,\n The daughter of Shak\u0101ra\n King of the Dragons of the Sea--\n Skimming the face of the waves\n They have danced the Sea Green Dance.\n And the King of the Eight Dragons--\n With his Symphony of Eight Musics.\n As they hovered over the void of the sea,\n Moved in the dance, the sleeves of their dancing-dress p. 215\n Stirred up a wind, a magic wind\n That blew on the Chinese boat\n And filled its sails\n And sent it back again to the land of Han.\n Truly, the God is wondrous;\n The God is wondrous, and thou, our Prince,\n Mayest thou rule for many, many years\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our Land Inviolate!\n208:1 The fact that Haku is a foreigner is conventionally emphasized by his pronunciation of this word. The fishermen, when using the same word later on, called it \"Nihon.\"\n208:2 The Chinese call him Fan Li. He lived in China in the fifth century B. C. Having rendered important services to the country of Y\u00fceh (Etsu), he went off with his mistress in a skiff, knowing that if he remained in public life his popularity was bound to decline. The Fishermen are vaguely groping towards the idea of \"a Chinaman\" and a \"boat.\" They are not yet consciously aware of the arrival of Rakuten.\n210:1 Haku throughout omits the honorific turns of speech which civility demands. The Fishermen speak in elaborately deferential and honorific language. The writer wishes to portray Haku as an ill-bred foreigner.\n210:2 \"Uta,\" i.e. the thirty-one syllable Japanese stanza.\n211:1 Quotation from the Preface to the Kokinsh\u016b (\"Collection of Songs Ancient and Modern\"). The fact that Haku continues the quotation shows that he is under a sort of spell and makes it clear for the first time that his interlocutor is not an ordinary mortal. From this point onwards, in fact, the Fisherman gradually becomes a God.\n212:1 The priest's acolyte had died. The nightingale was the boy's soul.\n214:1 They do not appear on the stage.","title":"The Noh Plays of Japan: Chapter VI: Haku Rakuten","type":"page"}