The Noh Plays of Japan: Chapter VII: Summaries: Mai-Guruma (The Dance Waggons)

This is a prose retelling or critical description of a Japanese Noh play attributed to Miyamasu (date unknown), falling within the tradition of classical Japanese theater scholarship or translation. The piece follows a man from Kamakura searching for his wife, who was expelled by his disapproving parents; his journey brings him to a village festival where he is compelled to participate in wagon-dancing. The narrative embeds two performed ballads within the play's structure: one celebrating twelve women loved by the poet Narihira, and one (the "Tsumado") depicting a supernatural encounter between a Buddhist abbot and the vengeful ghost of a dead chancellor, featuring dramatic imagery of fire, ritual gesture, and water-spells. The climax turns on coincidence and theatrical convention — both the searching husband and his lost wife independently choose to perform the same dance, "Tora Parting from Sukenari," leading to their joyful reunion onstage. The author's framing commentary situates this play within a broader survey of Noh drama, noting related plays about mothers seeking lost children and acknowledging other omitted works. The piece is distinctive for its layered structure — a play that contains performed ballads as set pieces — and for the author's editorial voice, which suggests this is part of a larger scholarly introduction or anthology of Noh plays, likely from the early twentieth century.

The Noh Plays of Japan: Chapter VII: Summaries: Mai-Guruma (The Dance Waggons)

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