Dramatic Elements in Japanese Literature

Dramatic Elements In Japanese Literature Donald Keene I In writing about the dramatic elements in Japanese literature one is confronted by a paradox: much of the literature expressly written for the theatre is conspicuously non-dramatic, at least by conventional standards, but there is a strong dramatic ele­ ment in many works never intended for the theatre. Some of the most admired Japanese plays are little more than dances with only a rudimentary plot to sustain the attention, yet they succeed because of their visual beauty or the special atmosphere they engender. On the other hand, when reading a work like the fourteenth-century Masukagami, ostensibly a history, we cannot but be struck by the poignantly dramatic nature not only of the incidents related but of the structure of the narrative itself. The No play Shakkyo, though exciting as a spectacle, lacks dramatic form; but the chapter of Masukagami describ­ ing the journey into exile of the Emperor Godaigo has a sus­ tained, dramatic intensity; not only are the details of the jour­ ney and of Godaigo’s life in Oki chosen with extraordinary sensitivity to their dramatic values, but there is an effective theatrical counterpoint between the descriptions of the loneli­ ness of Godaigo and his court in Oki and the festivities in Kyoto attending the coronation of the new sovereign. Indeed, the term dramatic, normally used in connection with the theatre, can be used in the case of Japanese literature with equal pro­ priety of historical writings, novels, and even certain nonliterary works, and drama by no means implies dramatic. Perhaps the best way to illustrate this point is to compare some works written for the stage with their original sources. The use of works of poetry and prose as a source of drama is, of course, very widespread. The Greek tragedies were derived from materials in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and works stemming 275 276 Comparative Drama from prevailingly oral traditions. The Greek dramatists bor­ rowed from the original poems those elements which lent them­ selves most readily to drama, shaping them and giving them sharper definition and character. The same was true when Shakespeare borrowed from such works as Holinshed’s Chron­ icles, folding in the mass of historical and quasi-historical ma­ terials (which bore most readers today) the stuff of dramas whose allure has in no way been diminished by time. In the case of the No theatre, however, the aim and the methods were totally different. Theatre has frequently been defined in terms of conflict, but overt conflict is extremely rare in No, even when a play is based on materials filled with con­ flict. Only in the late works composed for the No theatre does one find real antithesis between the shite (principal actor) and the waki (secondary actor). Generally, the waki merely stands at the side and asks the kind of questions of the shite which the spectators themselves might ask. The tsure (companion) is usually no more than a companion to the shite, a lesser personage quite overshadowed by the principal figure. Only rarely, as in Kayoi Komachi or Kiyotsune, is there any sug­ gestion that the tsure may have a will of her own and therefore be potentially in conflict with the shite. For this reason, any conflict in No is likely to exist solely within the shite’s head—his remembrances of an affront, of a battle in which he was defeated, of a love affair that was frustrated. The description of the conflict tends therefore to take the undramatic form of a nar­ ration, rather than a dialogue. In extreme cases, such as Ohara Goko, for at least two-thirds of the play the shite sits in the middle of the stage and merely listens as the chorus recites the tragic circumstances of her life. The play is undeniably effective, but it is not dramatic. Yet the source in the thirteenth-century Heike Monogatari (Tale of the Heike) is filled with moments of the highest dramatic intensity. When the former Emperor Goshirakawa arrives at the Jakko temple, the setting is first described—a convent situated in a site of exceptional beauty but otherwise utterly forlorn. The emperor...