Kayoi Komachi

通小町 The Courting of Komachi

1 Source and/or Related Material

Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems 761, commentaries of waka poems, book on the study of waka poems　

2 Author

Yamato Shōdō trad., adapted by Kannami, revised by Zeami

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, Kongō, Kita

4 Synopsis

A monk (waki) is in summer seclusion at a mountain village in Yase (Kyoto). A woman (mae-tsure) visits him every day, bringing nuts and firewood. When the monk inquires where she is from, she answers that she is an old woman living near Ichiharano. She then requests the consolation of her soul, and disappears. The monk realizes that she was the ghost of Ono no Komachi and visits Ichiharano to chant the sutra. Then, the ghosts of Ono (nochi-tsure) and her would-be lover Shii no Shōshō (nochi-shite) appear. By reenacting the scene of him visiting her and her rejecting him one hundred nights in a row, their clinging attachment is lightened, and the two eventually attain nirvana together.