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"Between Two Worlds": TheDybbuk and the Japanese Noh and Kabuki Ghost Plays Zvika SERPER T%eDybbuk, orBetween Two WorldsbyS. Ansky (Shlomo Rapoport)' is the most renowned production by Ha'bimah (The Stage), Israel's National Theater. Itpremiered in 1922 in Moscow, staged by Ha'bimah, which was a Russian-Jewish company at that time, with the advice and support ofConstantin Stanislavski. The play was performed in Hebrew and directed by the Russian-Armenian Yevgeny Vakhtangov shortly before he died.2 Since then it has been staged more than one thousand times, reviving Vakhtangov's direction, and has become probably the most famous Jewish and Israeli play. The play's themes, structures, dramatic means, and theatrical elements show a remarkable similarity to those of many plays in the repertoire ofJapanese traditional theater, especially ofNoh, the aristocratic lyrical theatrical form that was established in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Noh draws its material from many sources and its form from ritual and folk dances. It is essentially a drama ofsoliloquy and reminiscence ofthe main character who in many plays begins as a reincarnation and then appears as a ghost. There are enormous differences in many respects between the backgrounds ofthis singular Western play, The Dybbuk, and the Eastern traditional Japanese theater and drama. Whereas the beliefin dead spirits, reincarnation, and ghosts is quite common in Japanese thought, such beliefs were and still are not part of mainstream Jewish belief. The ritual that has always played an importantroleasaconnectionbetweenbeliefsandtheirartistic/performative embodiments isverydeveloped in Japanbut notin Judaism, inwhich belief is based mostly on verbal expression. Further, theater was discouraged in 345 346Comparative Drama Judaism. The Dybbuk is therefore not a characteristic play in the Jewish or Israeli repertoire, and since few other plays deal with a dybbuk (a discontented dead spirit that takes possession of the body of a living human being) or gilgul neshamot (transmigration ofsouls), it is impossible to analyze this play as part ofany dramatic genre. In spite ofthese differences, however, a comparison between various elements in 77If Dybbuk with those in Japanese Noh and Kabuki (traditional popular theater) ghost plays can provide a better comprehension ofthe various aspects ofboth this singular Western play and the traditional Japanese ghost plays. Beliefin Dead Spirits, Reincarnation, and Dybbuks In Japan, beliefin the existence ofthe soul, in spirits ofthe dead, and in reincarnation is ancient and widespread. The Japanese believe that the soul and the body are two separate entities, and this beliefexists in both the original Shinto religion and the imported Buddhism that entered Japan in 552 CE. and created a synthesis with Shinto in various elements . This synthesis, in turn, influenced the performing arts.3 One of the expressions ofthis beliefis the erection oftwo separate graves: one for the impure body and another for the soul. After death the soul (tamashii) wanders for several years until it is purified and becomes a quasi-god (kamt) that resides in anotherworld, beyond the sea or sky. It is there that the dead spirits become the ancestral souls. At the time of death, the soul ofa person can become either an angered or a peaceful spirit, accordingto the psychological status ofthe person at the moment of death. Emotions such as jealous love or hatred will engender a very dangerous spirit. The spirit of an unmarried man or woman or ofone killed in an accident will be disturbed after death and will face difficulty in entering the other world. Such hurt spirits can return to the mortal world and attack human beings. This beliefled to the creation ofvarious rituals aimed at honoring the purified spirits and at appeasing the disturbed ones so that theywill refrain from doing harm.4 The most important such event is obon, the Festival ofthe Dead nowadays celebrated in mid-August, during which the families prepare to welcome the dead spirits of deceased relatives, who come to visit. The families go to the graveyard, clean the graves, Zvika Serper347 put flowers and offerings on them, and in the evening they return to invite the dead to their home for several days before accompanying them back to the graveyard, where the spirits return to the otherworld. The beliefthat a soul reincarnates was established in...

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