Kantan

邯鄲 The Pillow of Kantan

1 Source and/or Related Material

The World Inside a Pillow, The Chronicle of Great Peace 25

2 Author

Perhaps someone around Zeami

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, Kongō, Kita

4 Synopsis

In ancient China, restless young man Lu Sheng is on his way to Mt. Yangfei to visit a famous wise man. He stops at an inn in Handan town and orders some millet dumplings, but he is so sleepy that he borrows a pillow from the master of the inn (ai) and falls asleep. Suddenly, an imperial messenger (waki) comes to say that Lu Sheng has been chosen to be Emperor, and he is carried to the palace for his accession ceremony. Fifty years later, he is at a banquet in celebration of his long and prosperous reign, and as he dances around his throne, he wakes up. Back at the inn in Handan, his millet cakes are done: it was all a dream. Lu Sheng realizes that life is ephemeral, gives up on learning the secret of it all from a wise man, and goes home.