Kurahashi Yumiko ( 倉橋 由美子 )
The Japanese names for the stories, and the titles of the books in which they appear
| English story title | Japanese story title | Japanese publication |
|---|---|---|
| “The Extraterrestrial” | Uchūjin ( 宇宙人 ) | |
| “We Are Lovers” | Koibito dōshi |
|
| “The House of the Black Cat” | Kuroneko no ie |
|
| “The Woman with the Flying Head” | Kubi no tobu onna |
|
| “The Trade” | Kōkan |
|
| “The Witch Mask” | Kiji no men |
|
| “Spring Night Dreams” | Haru no yo no yume |
|
| “The Passage of Dreams” | Yume no kayoiji |
|
| “The Special Place” | Erabareta basho ( 選ばれた場所 ) | |
| “Flower Abstraction” | Furawā abusutorakushon |
|
| “The Long Passage of Dreams” | Nagai yumeji |
Kurahashi Yumiko zensakuhin v.6 |
- In “An Extraterrestrial” the alien described reminds me of the Smoky Progg in the Nintendo game Pikmin. Sort of black and nebulous, and a fetus. That game rules.
- “The Woman with the flying Head”
- “a scholar of the old school called Hyakken” –
- Poem by
Oota Nanpo (his names are also written Ōta, Nampo) ( 大田南畝 ) –
a poet also known as
Shokusanjin ( 蜀山人 ) , who lived from 1749-1823 and wrote a genre
of poem calledKyoka , “crazy/illogical/irreverent poem.”
( 狂歌 )
quoted byReceiving guests is what troubles me most
But not if the guest is youYono naka ni
hito no kuru koso
urusakere
towa iu monono
omae de was nashi世の中に 人の来るこそ うるさけれ、 とはいうものの お前ではなし
Uchida Hyakkien ( 内田 百けん ) : “Nichibotsu heimon”
( 日没閉門 ) (1971)In the spoof version,
“annoys”/”troubles” = urusakere ( うるさけれ )
is replaced with“pleases” = ureshikere ( 嬉しけれ ) - technically it’s “The Woman With the Flying Neck” – this might be a commonly known phrase for this monster, which is described in…
- Classic of mountains and seas = Shan hai jing ( ), attributed
to Emperor Yu of the Xia dynastym annotated in the Jin dynasty (265-420 CE) - The Account of Seeking Spirits = Soushen ji ( ),
a Jin dynasty ghost story collection - Prince Genji –
- author
- daughter Tamakazura
- General Higeguro
- “The Trade”
- The collection this short story is from is called 倉橋由美子 の 会期小片 (I believe)… which would translate to something like “Short Stories of Kurahashi Yumiko”)
- goblin (mask) named akujou– “evil old man” ( 悪尉 )
- goblin (mask) named beshimi – ( 圧面 )… “intense mask” –
I have also seen a more archaic 2-kanji combination which may mean “eyes devil” because the “mi” is 見 … however the first kanji “beshi” seems to be a chinese character for “devil” which is not in general use - Account of Peach Blossom Spring = Taohua yuan ji ( )
written by Tao Qian [Yuanming] of the Jin dynasty
- The collection this short story is from is called 倉橋由美子 の 会期小片 (I believe)… which would translate to something like “Short Stories of Kurahashi Yumiko”)
- “The Witch Mask”
- The title – ( 雉の面 ) – I believe this is the right kanji… kiji literally means “pheasant” but I think it is the name of the Noh play that uses the witch mask in question. Could also be 雉子.
- Mask hannya – ( 般若 )
- Noh play
The Iron Ring = Kanawa ( 鉄輪 )
(possibly also spelled 金輪 – “metal ring” – although this seems unlikely)- sometimes translated as The Iron Crown, as in Eileen Kato’s translation in Twenty Plays of Nō Theater, edited in 1970 by Donald Keene
- character
Namanari – ( 生成 ) –
A
noh mask = noumen = 能面 used for the wife taking revenge on her unfaithful husband in the second half of KANAWA 鉄輪. … In conception, namanari, as the name implies, lies half way between the human and beast.in other words, not quite a hannya ( 般若 ) mask
- character
Hashihime – ( 橋姫 ) A
noh mask = noumen = 能面 representing a jealous woman who seeks revenge. Named after a lost play which literally translates as “Bridge Princess” … The version which seems to supply the basis for the mask relates how a woman, enraged by jealousy, goes to the Kibune ( 貴船 ) shrine and petitions the gods to turn her into a demon so that she can have revenge… Worn by the protagonist, shite (シテ), in the second act of KANAWA - a summary of this play from the Daily Info, Oxford:
Kanawa is a musical about an abandoned Japanese wife who asks the advice of a priestess on how to seek revenge on her husband and his new wife. Following the Priestesses advice, she turns into a demon. Meanwhile, her husband is haunted by nightmares, seeks the advice of a Magician, who fights the demon. The vengeful wife-demon loses the battle and disappears from the scene, with the clear implication that she will be back another day.
- oops, it turns out I do know what a
kanawa ( 鉄輪 )
is- it’s that iron ring with the candles stuck into it that posessed people / witches / demons wear on their heads in Heian-era ghost stories
- Noh play The Autumn Foliage Hunt = Momijigari ( 紅葉狩り )
- attributed to playwright Kanze Nobumitsu ( 観世 ) – (1435-1516) –
incidentally the first person to write Rashomon ( ), the story popularized by Akira Kurosawa-
the actual gate the play is named for is named Rajomon ( ) (this factoid from an interview with Kurosawa) - probably more accurately “Autumn Foilage Viewing”, i.e. when you invite a bunch of friends over and austerely drink tea while viewing the fall leaves
- history of that period of Noh
- attributed to playwright Kanze Nobumitsu ( 観世 ) – (1435-1516) –
- French author Maurice Mergle wrote “The Mask of a Samurai”
- film “The Collector” which was adapted from the book of the same name by John Fowles
- “Spring Night Dreams”
- somei yoshino cherry – ( 染井吉野 ) – blooms before growing any leaves
- Poet
Teika ( ていか ) aka
Fujiwara no Sada’ie ( 藤原 定家 ) aka
Gonchunagon Teika ( 京極中納言 ていか )
lived in 1162-1241 - he wrote waka
- Poem by Teika : from
Shoku go shūi waka shū Longing for the moon
covered with the fragrance
of the cherry blossoms
I cannot even see
my dreams clearly nowHana no ka no
kasumeru tsuki ni
akugarete
yume mo sadakani
mienu koro kana花 の香を flower fragrance [I think this is meant to be “wo” instead of “no”] 掠める 月に [fleetingly touches my consciousness]; the moon 憧れて I yearn for
[this is definitely a typo- it’s akogarete, not akugarete]夢も 定かに even definitely in my dreams 見えぬころかな I can’t see - Keith Jarrett wrote “Someday My Prince Will Come”
- Three Beauties of the Land
- Empress Somedono
- Councilor Fujiwara Yoshifusa
- Buddhist monk Shisai, disciple of Kuukai
- Princess Shikishi / Shokushi: why is there ambiguity about her name?
Princess Shokushi (or Shikishi) (d. 1201) was a daughter of Emperor Goshirakawa (1127-1192; r. 1155-1158) and served time as the Shrine Priestess at Ise. She was the finest love poet of her generation, producing work of intense passion, and one of the most skill users of the technique of honkadôri (allusive variation), becoming popular in waka at the time.
- poem by Princess Shikishi:
I am never at ease
in a spring sleep;
the cherry blossom, short lived,
is blown by the winds
even in my dreamsyume no uchi mo
utsurou hana ni
kaze fukeba
shizugokoro naki
haru no utatane夢の内も
移ろう 花に
風噴けば
静心無き
春の転寝 dream inside even
the fleeting flower(blossom)
the blowing wind
(a sense of calmness) eludes
spring siesta/nap
- “The Passage of Dreams”
- Poem by Fujiwara no Yoshitsune [ 藤原良経 ] (1169 – 1206 ) is called
Fūboku waka shō - poem text:
the fan by which I brought a breeze
now itself is blown by autumn’s windTe ni narasu
natsu no ōgi to
omoe domo
tada akikaze no
sumika nari keri手に鳴らす The fan in my hand blows summer 夏の扇と 思えども I thought but ただ秋風の just the autumn wind 住みか成りけり on its course through my place
- Poem by Fujiwara no Yoshitsune [ 藤原良経 ] (1169 – 1206 ) is called
- “The Special Place”
- the title is more accurately “The Chosen Place”
- “Flower Abstraction”
- “The Long Passage of Dreams”
- Noh play Kayoi Kamachi
- attributed to Kan’ami Motokiyo (1333-1384) 観阿弥
- is this person’s given name is uncertain ( Kan-ami )
- translated by Eileen Kato as “Komachi and the Hundred Nights”
- translation appears in “Twenty Plays of the Noh Theater”, edited by Donald Keene
- Noh mask koomote
- Noh mask roojo
- Noh mask komachi
- kotatsu –
- chazuke
- Noh play “Courting Komachi”
- Noh play “Stupa of Komachi” – Sotoba Komachi ( )
- attributed to Kanze Motokiyo
- translation “Komachi on the gravepost” translated by Royal Tyler
- translation appears in Granny Mountains: A cycle of Noh Plays
- haiku by Yokoi Yayuu [ 横井也有 ]
(1787-1823) appeared in his
Semi (no) in(1759) - poem text:
Locusts make one feel hot
[to] the extent I feel like cutting down the pine they are onsemi atsushi
matsu kirabaya to
omou made - The Account of Living in a One-Foot-Square-Room = Hōjōki ()
- Translated by Helen McCullohugh in Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology
- more on Kanawa ( 鉄輪 ):
- mask hashihime
- Tales of Ise = ise monogatari ( Ise 物語 ), appears in a translation by Helen McCullough
- Noh play Kagekiyo ( ) – Arthur Waley translated this in The No Plays of Japan (1976)
- phrase happi hangiri akujō idetachi
- The Account of Spirits and Miracles in Japan = Nihon Ryōiki ()
- attributed to a monk, Kyōkai
- translated by Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura in Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition:
the Nihon Ryōiki of the Monk Kyōkai
- Noh play Kayoi Kamachi
- Noh play Adachigahara ( ) aka Kurozuka ( )
- the well of “Prajna Paramita”
- Buddhist phrases:
- rupa
- selva dharma
- sunyata – the void
- Noh mask kobeshimi
- Noh play Nomori ( )
- attributed to Zeami ( ) (1363-1443)
- translated by Royal Tyler in Pining Wind: A Cycle of No Plays (1978)
- Noh play Tamakazura ( )
- translated as “The Jeweled Chaplet”
- translated by Janet Emily Goff in Noh Drama and The Tale of Genji: The Art of Allusion in Fifteen Classical Plays (1991)
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