is a
Noh play by
Zeami about the famous poet
Saigyō
was a famous Japanese people, Japanese Japanese poetry, poet of the late Heian period, Heian and early Kamakura period.
Biography
Born in Kyoto to a noble family, he lived during the traumatic transition of power between the old court nobles a ...
, regarding his well-known love for cherry blossoms.
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".
As a recluse however, he sometimes found himself in conflict with the Japanese habit of collective
blossom viewing: as he wrote in his
Sankashū
''Sankashū'' (山家集, , “Collection of a Mountain Home”) is a collection of poems by Saigyō, most probably made by the poet himself, and issued c.1180.
Dating
Because the collection contains no poems from the last decade of Saigyō's lif ...
, "Leave me in solitude/O Cherry flowers./Draw not people,/for they come in crowds".
Plot
Wishing to be alone with his cherry-blossoms, 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. The two then converse, before the play ends with an extensive dance celebrating cherry flowers, exceptional
sakura
A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of genus ''Prunus'' or ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especially in Japan. They generally ...
sites like
Kiyomizu-dera, and the
transient beauty of Spring.
[S Leiter, ''Japanese Theatre and the International Stage'' (2021) p. 153-4]
See also
*
''Eguchi'' (play)
*''
The Priest and the Willow''
Further reading
''Twelve Plays of the Noh and Kyôgen Theatres'', Karen Brazell (ed.) 1988
References
External links
Saigyo in three Japanese No plays
Noh
Noh plays
{{Japan-lit-stub