Sanemori

実盛 Sanemori

1 Source and/or Related Material

Tale of the Heike book 5, Mansai Jugō nikki 1414/5/10, etc

2 Author

Zeami

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, Kongō, Kita

4 Synopsis

A villager (ai) from Shinohara in Kaga Province (Ishikawa) enters, wondering to himself at a wandering charismatic preacher named Ta’ami (waki) who is preaching to no one, just as if he were talking to himself. Next we see Ta’ami preaching, accompanied by his attendants (wakitsure), and an old man (maeshite) shows up again today just like every day to listen to Ta’ami’s preaching. However, it becomes clear that only the preacher can see this old man, and he is invisible to everyone else. Ta’ami asks the old man who he is, and he reveals that he is the ghost of Sanemori, a Heike ally who died at the Battle of Shinohara, and then he vanishes into thin air. The villager comes back and tells of Sanemori’s last moments in plain speech. That night, Ta’ami is chanting the Nembutsu, and Sanemori (nochishite) appears in full battle regalia and tells how he departed for the battle of Shinohara wearing a tunic of brocade and his gray hair dyed black, lest anyone hold back and deprive him of an honorable death. He reenacts the scene of his death in battle, asks the preacher to pray for him, and disappears.