Saigyōzakura

Saigyōzakura (西行桜, Saigyō's cherry tree) is a Noh play by Zeami about the famous poet Saigyō, regarding his well-known love for cherry blossoms.

Scene from Saigyōzakura, woodblock print by Tsukioka Kōgyo, from the series Nōgaku hyakuban or One Hundred Noh Plays (National Noh Theatre)

Background

Saigyō was renowned for his love of the flowering cherry - what he himself once called "my lifelong habit of having my mind immersed in blossoms".[1]

As a recluse however, he sometimes found himself in conflict with the Japanese habit of collective blossom viewing: as he wrote in his Sankashū, "Leave me in solitude/O Cherry flowers./Draw not people,/for they come in crowds".[2]

Plot

Wishing to be alone with his cherry-blossoms,[3] Saigyō is annoyed by the arrival of a party of (potential) viewers; and, on admitting them, composes a waka blaming the cherry tree for their intrusive presence.

That night he is visited by the spirit of the cherry-tree, who rebukes him by pointing out the separateness and independence of all living creatures from human concerns.[4] The two then converse, before the play ends with an extensive dance celebrating cherry flowers, exceptional sakura sites like Kiyomizu-dera, and the transient beauty of Spring.[5]

See also

Further reading

Twelve Plays of the Noh and Kyôgen Theatres, Karen Brazell (ed.) 1988

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saigyōzakura.
  1. W LaFleur, Awesome Nightfall (Boston 2003) p. 54 and p. 142
  2. H H Honda trans, The Sanka Shu: The Mountain Hermitage (Hokuseido Press 1971) p. 16
  3. Saigyo-zakura
  4. S Leiter, Japanese Theatre and the International Stage (2021) p. 153
  5. S Leiter, Japanese Theatre and the International Stage (2021) p. 153-4


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.