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Noh play Tsunemasa and Youchi Soga (Click to select text)
In the Noh play "Tsunemasa", the story was about the happening at the night of the salvation of Tsunemasa's soul. Tsunemasa, a certain prince of the House of Taira, who had died in the Battle of the Western. While Tsunemasa was still in the world, he really enjoyed playing his lute “the Green Hill”. Therefore, the priest Gyokei was bidden by his master to dedicate the lute to Buddha and to perform a liturgy of flutes and strings for the salvation of Tsunemasa's soul. The sound of prayers brought the ghost of Tsunemasa back to the world and appeared in a visible shadow. However, no one in there could see him because Tsunemasa was ashamed of the woes that consumed him. Another Noh play "Youchi Soga" was about Soga Goro and Soga Juro decided to carry out their revenge at the night when they went hunting. They ordered their servants, Danaburo and Onio, to return to Soga to deliver their letters and mementos to their family. At first their servants refused their request because they wished to die with their masters. However, in the action of the assassination, Juro was killed by the Shogun’s soldiers and later Goro was also bound the soldiers. In these two Noh plays, both protagonists also deal with the lives and sufferings of warriors. For example, according to the story of "Tsunemasa", Tsunemasa had been killed in the battle, so he was still suffering the woes that consuming him. Therefore, the priest performed a liturgy for the salvation of his soul. In the “Youchi Soga” play, the Soga brothers were also suffering the woe of losing their father. That woe forced them to take revenge on their father’s murderer and these was just a warrior’s life. After Joro was killed, Goro was suffering another lose of brother. Although both protagonists in these two Noh plays also deal with sufferings of the woe of warriors, these two plays are quite different. Tsunemasa(the shite) was already died in the previous time and he came back to the world as a ghost, so that this play is identified as a Kiri No (Demon play-Category V) and it is performed at the end of a day’s program. The shite will wear a demon mask in this performance. The shite in here does not dominate the whole play, there are many dialog for the waki too. The chorus part becomes an important performance of this play because the songs are used to introduce a big part of this story and to describe the mood of the feeling in the play. The main performance elements that are used in this play are the lute and the torch. In the "Youchi Soga", according to it’s story, it is so clear that it would not be a Kiri No and it also would not be a Shura Mono, so that the category of these two plays is totally different. Although the shite (Soga Goro) acts as a warrior, in this story Soga Goro is still a living-person. Therefore, this play should be a Genzai mono(Miscellaneous-Category IV). On the other hand, there are no priests or courtiers in the story, so it doesn’t include a waki rule in the “Youchi Soga”. The shite is introduced by the secondary shite (Mae-tsure). Moreover, a Ai-kyogen is put in the middle of this play, so that “Youchi Soga” is a more complete play than the “Tsunemasa”. The main performance elements that are used in here are the letters and the swords. After reading these two Noh plays, I think the main idea of the “Tsunemasa” is focus on the feeling of a warrior after life. Tsunemasa cherish the memory of his past but he is suffering the woes after he dead. However, “Youchi Soga” is more focus on the passion of a warrior while suffering the woe of losing a father and it also describes the loyalty of the warrior’s retainer. Therefore, there are not much similarities between these two plays.
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