Hakurakuten

白楽天 The T’ang Poet Bai Juyi

1 Source and/or Related Material

Shōdō(the guidance leading all living things by explaining the Buddhist sutras and doctrines) Document “Kingyoku yōshū”

2 Author

attributed to Zeami

3 Repertoire

Kanze, Hōshō, Komparu, Kongō, Kita

4 Synopsis

The Chinese poet Bai Juyi (J. Hakurakuten, waki), whose works were in fact a core influence on the Japanese literary canon, including the Tale of Genji, arrives on the shores of Chikuzen (Kyushu) accompanied by attendants (wakitsure). They meet two fishermen, one young (tsure) and one old (maeshite), watching the sun rise over the ocean from their fishing boat. Bai Juyi approaches the old man, and to his surprise the fisherman recognizes him, but rather than ask him about poetry he takes no further notice and goes about his business. Bai Juyi composes a poem on the scene before him and asks the old man to interpret it, and the fisherman answers deftly with a poem composed on the spot. Astonished, Bai Juyi asks him who he is. Referring to the preface of the Kokinshū, the old man explains that in Japan not only humans but also animals, such as the bush warbler, sing in verse. Promising to show the poet a bugaku dance, he vanishes. Thereupon a God of a lesser shrine (ai) serving the God of Sumiyoshi appears. He retells the conversation between Bai Juyi and the old man in plain speech, recites a poem of his own, and dances. Eventually the Sumiyoshi God (nochishite) enters, dances, and urges the Chinese poet to leave: the play’s triumphalist claim is that the famous Chinese poet is not so big in Japan. Various Japanese Gods and the Dragon King emerge and, with the sacred wind arising from their dancing sleeves, they blow Bai Juyi’s ship back to China.