Sumidagawa
Sumida Gawa（1910）The Japanese Dance, Heinemann, London [EN]
- 18In Sumida Gawa, for instance, a well-known No drama, the scenery consists of a conventional pine-tree painted at the back of the stage, and three live pine-trees lining the avenue or way leading to the stage.
- 78A Translation of the Japanese Nо̄, Sumida Gawa
- 28Enfin des nō sont construits sur quelques vagues données d’un « fait divers », comme Sumida Gawa, du nom de la rivière qui baigne Tòkyô.
- 5The Sumida River formed the subject of a paper read before the Royal Society of Literature.
- 23A child part may be added to enrich or add pathos to the play (as in the Sumida River for example), and he is called the kokata.
- 25For instance, in the Sumida River (see p. 83) the use of the root word for repute by the Ferryman makes the Mother, in the following line, recall and quote a classic poem on quite another subject which has the same root word in it.
- 76THE SUMIDA RIVER (Chapter Title)
- 78THE SUMIDA RIVER (Play Title)
- 100Notes on “The Sumida River”
- 166Such are Sumida-gawa, possibly the best, where a mother, driven mad by grief at losing her child, wanders forth in search, to hear by chance that he is dead; Hanjo, where a girl deranged by parting roams the countryside until she finds her lover; Minadsuki-barai, where a wife, lost by her husband, is found by him raving before a shrine, praying that she may meet him; Hyakuman, and several others of similar construction.
- 38The plays translated are Otome-zuka, Kagekiyo, Tamura, Sumida-gawa.
- 40Following the above order, for instance, a spring programme might consist of (1) Takasago, (2) Tamura, (3) Tōboku, (4) Sumida-gawa or Ataka, (5) Huna-Benkei.
- 41For example, Sumida-gawa, being originally a play about a mad woman, should be in the fourth group, but because her part must be performed with a measure of grace, it may be regarded as a kind of the “Woman Piece” and put in the third group.
- 57Sumida-gawa (The Mad Mother on the River Sumida)
- 125I have ventured to preface these translations with the following observations on the value of the Nо̄, which I should have spared the Society, had there not recently fallen into my hands a translation of SUMIDAGAWA, in the Trans. R.S.L. xxix., where one of the translators, Dr. Marie Stopes, sets forth in some detail her estimate of these plays—an estimate which, appearing in such a place, I felt ought not to pass unchallenged.
- 15Wild bushy heads of long hair are also worn by those taking the part of demons, and sometimes by the ghosts, as is seen in the plate facing p. 76, where the little figure represents the ghost in the Sumidagawa.
- 4?[Sumidagawa]
- 24 -25Hachinoki, Hashibenkei, Hо̄kazо̄, Dо̄jо̄ji, Tо̄ru, Okina, Kayoigomachi, Kantan, Kagekiyo, Yoroboshi, Tsuchigumo, Nakamitsu, Utо̄, Kurozuka, Kuzu, Kumasaka, Yamauba, Yо̄rо̄, Matsukaze, Funa-Benkei, Fujito, Kokaji, Aoino-ue, Ataka, Ama, Midare, Shichiki-ochi, Shakkyо̄, Shunkwan, Shо̄zon, Mochizuki, Sesshо̄seki, Semimaru, Sumidagawa – 35 in all.
- 18But the lyrical ones include the romanitc plays, such as “Matsukaze,” “Yuya,” “Izutsu,” the plays depciting mother-love, like “Sumidagawa,” Sakuragawa,” “Miidera,” “Kashiwazaki,” and also such pieces as “Semimaru,” and “Kagekiyo.”
- 20The fourth class generdly deals with the subject of a mind distraught, of a mother seeking for her lost child, as in” Kashiwazaki,” “Sumidagawa,” “Miidera,” “Sakuragawa,” “Hyakuman,” or of one crazed by love, as in “Dojoji.”
- 40-41In “Sumidagawa” the Nembutsu is invoked, and in ”Seigwanji” we hear: “Only let us pray Namu Amida Butsu and nothing else.”
- 35In the “Lunatic Pieces” a madman is sometimes represented, but in most cases a mad woman, such as the mother who goes mad through losing her child, as in Sakuragawa (The Mother on the River Sakura), Mii-dera (The Mother at the Court of the Temple Mii), Hyakuman (The Mother Hyakuman at Saga) and Sumidagawa (The Mad Mother on the River Sumida);