Passion

Remember how excited I was to have seen 6 hours of Bunraku theatre? Well, on August 8, I'm going to have another one of those 'iminheaven' days. During our tour of a the Oe family Noh theatre, we found a program indicating that the play "Dojo-ji" (aka The Temple Bell) would be performed on August 8 at the Kanze Kaikan Theatre. Our classmate, Meyou, reserved tickets for us because we knew it was a free day from class. We had a description of the plot from the Nihonbuyo teacher ( See the post, "More Day 2") but that was nothing compared to the passion that Tamoi-sensei brought to us tonight! It was after a great class that Tamoi-sensei brought out the same program, and was pleased that we knew it was a special thing. Acting the lead role (called the shite, pronounced shitay) in Dojo-ji is like a final examination for a young actor. It might be considered comparable to being ready to play Hamlet - It's a really really really big deal. Anyway, Tamoi-sensei walked us through what we're going to experience: The waki role, a priest, comes out and tells the story of a woman who had the hots for a monk. The monk ran away from her, but she pursued him to a temple where the other monks hid him under a bell. Her obsession revealed her true form of a snake, and she wound herself around the bell. Her passion burned so much that the bell turned firey hot, and the monk was killed. In despair, she threw herself into the river and drowned. Now this same temple has replaced the bell and is going to dedicate it on this day. Kyogen actors playing the temple staff members, bring in the bell (It's huge and takes 5 men to haul it up on a pulley), and the priest tells them that no women can attend the dedication ceremony. A shirabyoshi dancer (a woman who cross dresses and dances erotically) shows up at the temple and cons the staff members into letting her in to see the bell. They say, "Okay" in a moment of bad judgement. -- (Mind you, Tamoi-san is acting out snippets of everyone's role as he tells us this story) Now the shite actor does this tortuous 30 minute dance with minute movements in small triangles (the shape of a snake's scale) as the shirabyoshi dancer makes her way up the 'temple stairs.' Then she pulls down the bell and jumps under it. The temple staff cofess to the priest that they've made a big mistake, and the priest prays around the bell. Finally, the priest is able to get the bell to raise, and the shite is revealed as the ghost of the snake woman!! (The shite changes his costume inside the bell in total darkness.) They have a big battle of wills, and the snake is finally defeated and jumps back into the river. (Insert 'whew' here) Here's the kicker, Tamoi-sensei told us that he did this performance as his rite of passage 5 years ago, and that he had a lot of support that he could not directly re-pay, but by giving this younger actor similar support and by sharing this performance with us, he could indirectly pay back the debt and pass on the gift to the next generation. Passion.
In addition to "Dojo-ji" the ticket price of about $75 includes another Noh play, a Kyogen, 4 dances and 2 songs. It's going to be quite a day. And the reason we don't have class that day? All our sensei will be attending to support this young actor, of course. They wouldn't miss it either. Passion.