Essay: A Branch of Flowers

Essay: a Branch of Flowers William T. Vollmann Zeatni Motokiyo (1363-1443) is not only one of the greatest artists of all time, he is a brilliant and inspiring adviser to anyone who either makes art or appreciates it. Given the arcane character of Noh drama, which takes much study merely to watch with understanding, given further that his treatises were secret documents, for the benefit of his eldest male descendants only, I find Zeami's relevance to my own obsessions remarkable. But, after all, he sought to further what must be of all artistic aims the most profound: namely, the creation of beauty. Because the beauty he describes consists of epiphanies and ineffable accomplishments, it seems to me more universal than it probably was; and there is no doubt, as I continually remind myself, that because so much of Zeami lies beyond me (for instance, his musical theories, right down to their very technical melodic terminology), I am misapplying him. No matter. The jungles in Rousseau's paintings (none made from life) have been attacked as misunderstandings not only of jungles, but of basic painting technique; all the same, Rousseau's paintings are beautiful. Accordingly, I insist on appropriating Zeami for myself, and I invite you to do likewise, because he indicates, insofar as a human can, the infinite heights of beauty. The possibilities he raises within me magnify my freedom and my ambition, now and for the rest of my life. In the treatise "Fushikaden" ("Teachings on Style and the Flower"), he writes that a successful play ofthe first rank is based on an authentic source, reveals something unusual in aesthetic qualities, has an appropriate climax, and shows grace. To me the first requirement is inconsequential, and I will ignore it in what follows. As for the third requirement, appropriate climax, here it is sufficient to say that Zeami builds his plays out ofparts which escalate the movement, song, and dramatic action right up to the appropriate point. The sequence of plays performed on a given day should also conform to this scheme. In Japanese court poetry we find a similar phenomenon: tankas are organized into a great metapocm whose elements might have been written by many poets in different centuries. The important points here are that no aspect of artistic presentation should be ignored, and that each level oforganization considered has its scaled counterparts on all the other levels. The second matter, unusualness, is at the heart of what Zeami calls "the flower"—namely, the beauty ofa Noh performance. This flower may under certain conditions be "false"; for example, an actor might through his youthful voice and appearance make a handsome impression and complacently believe himself to be a master. (In my own epoch, the cinema's leading ladies usually are, and the heroines oferotic centerfolds almost always are, young, or at least young-looking. Here one Japanese expression for prostitution, selling spring, is á propos.) The false flower must fade, of course, and the performer who, as an American would say, "banks on it," will presently find his credit dwindling. Meanwhile, one of the many astonishing achievements of Noh is when a dumpy old man becomes a lovely young girl, all the while showing his swollen feet in the white tabi socks and working his Adam's apple as he sings in his old man's bass. And yet the young girl lives in him! He possesses the true flower. Zeami writes that each flower has its season, so that any flower is of itself ephemeral, like a Noh performance itself; therefore, when an actor possesses "the flower," he owns in fact the ability to flower in the appropriate way. He "possesses all the flowers." "Flower, charm and novelty: all three of these partake ofthe same essence. There is no flower that remains and whose petals do not scatter." Forjust that reason, when a new flower comes into bloom, it will seem novel. And novelty is indeed the thing. A Noh actor who sets out to portray only demon roles will not have the flower, because his demons will merely be demons; whereas an actor who can play not only demons but also women, old men, and...