NOH PLAYS 能 Illustration
⟡Kasshiki 花月⟡Hanjo班女
Kasshiki also known as Kagetsu, here is the story about him.
In the province of Tsukushi in Kyūshū, there is a man who lives at the foot of Mount Hikosan. When his seven-year-old son went missing, he renounced the world and departed on a journey of Buddhist pilgrimage. After travelling around the provinces, the man, now a monk, arrives in Kyoto in spring and visits Kiyomizu Temple for prayer.
There, the monk meets a man from the town which had grown around Kiyomizu Temple and asks whether there isn’t anything entertaining in the temple. The local man tells him that a boy named Kagetsu performs an amusing kusemai (storytelling with dance), calls Kagetsu out, and recites a song together with the boy. After the song, Kagetsu is about to shoot an arrow at a bush warbler to punish it for staying in the cherry blossoms and making them fall, but remembering that this would violate Buddhist precepts against killing, he stops. Then, at the urging of the local man, Kagetsu performs the kusemai which describes the origin of Kiyomizu Temple.
The monk who has been keenly watching Kagetsu, determines that the boy is his missing son and identifies himself as his father. Celebrating the delightful moment of the reunion of father and son, Kagetsu beats a kakko drum (a small, waist-mounted bifacial drum) and dances. After performing a dance which describes his life since he was abducted by a tengu (long-nosed goblin) at the age of seven, the father-monk and the son set out together on a journey to follow the Buddhist Way.
⟡Kasshiki花月
⟡Kasshiki-Details
⟡Kasshiki and Hanjo-Details
