Shakkyō

石橋 The Stone Bridge

1 Source and/or Related Material

“An Itinerant Performer Goes to Mt. Qingliang,” Jikkinshō

2 Author

Unknown

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, Kongō, Kita

4 Synopsis

The monk Jakushō (waki) arrives at Mt. Qingliang in China where the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī is said to reside, and he comes upon a tall, semicircular stone bridge that ramps up, up, and away into the heavens. As he tries to climb it, he is stopped by a woodcutter boy (maeshite), who explains that the bridge is only one foot wide and slippery with moss the whole way, and it goes on a thousand yards high into the sky, so that even elite ascetics adept at arduous austerities had all failed to cross, and poor Jakushō does not stand a chance. Rather, the boy says, Jakushō should just wait at the bottom of the bridge if he wishes to see something special. In time, a mythical lion (nochishite) appears and dances majestically amid a confusion of blossoming red and white peonies.