Good nostalgia/ Bad nostalgia

There is good nostalgia, and there's bad nostalgia.


After the horrific earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I sent out several e-mails with a three word message: 'Are you okay?' Two former students from Sendai have yet to respond, and I haven't heard anything from my former colleagues at the National Noh Theatre, but thankfully most of the responses I've received have been positive. Many family and friends are inconvenienced but doing well. My shakuhachi teacher, for example, Nakamaura Akikazu, is alive and well.

Nakamura-sensei is one of the most amazing musicians on the planet. We (Nakamura-sensei and his students) performed in several amazing places around Japan, at a temple, in a museum, on a mountainside, even in a huge (and icy-cold) cavern. These are still amazing memories for me, and it was on these trips that I realized what an amazingly diverse country Japan is.

Nakamura-sensei has been working on a series of CDs entitled `The World of Zen Music', five CDs (so far) that present the shakuhachi repertoire of different parts of Japan (Kyoto, Tohoku, Hokuriku, Kyushu, and Tsugaru). Each CD in the series is a treasure, and one was even awarded the distinguished Prize for Excellence by the Japanese Government Agency for Cultural Affairs. It shouldn't have taken a natural disaster for me to touch bases with Nakamura-sensei, but it did. Good nostalgia.

Atsumori:staged reading

"Atsumori" Staged Reading

Soju Kai Seattle is presenting a staged reading of my translation of the Japanese Noh play ‘Atsumori’ by Zeami (1363-1443). I am often stunned by how meaningful the texts of Noh can be to me. I have no illusions (or delusions) of being a samurai warrior. Still, these very Buddhist writings have something in them that resonates very profoundly in me. In my translation I attempt to retain the beautiful ‘blur’ of the original while making clear the wisdom it contains.

A man comes. Once a warrior, he is now a Buddhist monk. During a battle he had struck off the head of a young nobleman. His guilt was so intense that he cut off his topknot and shaved his head. He realizes that “this world is but a dream, but awaking to renounce it, is that reality?” He journeys from the capital, returning to the site of the battle in order to pray for the soul of Atsumori, the slain warrior.

Stopping to rest, the priest hears exquisite flute music from the hills nearby. He asks a group of grasscutters, returning home after a hard day’s work, who it was that had been playing the flute, and is shocked to find out it was one of them. How could a lowly grasscutter play the flute with such refinement? “Do not envy those above you,” one of them scolds him, “nor despise those below.”

The grasscutters leave, but one returns to request invocations. The priest grants his request, but when he asks the grasscutter’s name, he replies he is ‘someone related to Atsumori,’ then disappears as if erased.

A villager happens by. The priest asks him if he knows what happened at this spot during the battle. The villager knows it well, and relates the story of the slaying of Atsumori. The priest reveals that, before becoming a priest, he was the warrior who killed Atsumori, returned to pray for the repose of his soul. He also explains the strange meeting with the grasscutter. The villager is convinced the priest must have met the spirit of Atsumori and, before leaving, recommends the priest pray for Atsumori troubled spirit.

The priest prays throughout the night. Atsumori returns. During the battle, he fled to the shore to escape on the royal ship, but realized he had left behind his precious flute. He returned to retrieve it, but by the time he returned to the shore, the ship had sailed. Recalling their fight on the shore, his spirit becomes agitated and he raises his sword to strike down the priest, his foe. The warrior spirit is about to strike when, returning good for evil, the priest prays for him with kindness. He prays that in the end they both may be reborn in paradise on the same lotus petal.

A favorite quote from the play ‘Atsumori’ is the saying “Discard evil friends, but hold close virtuous enemies.” Open dialogue with virtuous enemies clearly has implications regarding American foreign policy. At a more personal level, one of my students, a seventeen year old girl, was killed this week in a horrible car wreck. The driver of the vehicle, though not evil, had made serious errors in judgment. If she had been more selective regarding the people she surrounded herself with, maybe she would still be alive today.

‘Atsumori’ is a play that implores us to respect the inherent worth of every person and the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. It inspires us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice and compassion. It is inherent wisdom from one of the world’s major religions through one of its most sublime art forms.

Atsumori

I will be forever grateful to my in-laws, not just for allowing me to marry their daughter, but also for allowing me into their home and sharing with me what is most beautiful about Japanese culture, including Japanese food, Japanese baths, music, art, architecture, and (especially) noh, the traditional masked dance drama of Japan. Noh began to take over my life. I married into a family of licensed noh performers, wrote a monthly column about traditional performing arts for the Japan Times newspaper, edited two theatre journals, and worked at the National Noh Theatre. I took lessons in noh music, movement and chant, and began reading all the noh scripts I could lay my hands on.

Rest assured I am not under the delusion that I am Mifune Toshiro. But when reading the play scripts of I find it easy to relate to the characters. Because most of these plays were written in the 14th and 15th centuries, it is surprising I should sympathize so completely with the resentments, regrets, and frustrations of samurai warriors or their disturbed spirits. The play ‘Atsumori’, for example, features a monk who is a conscientious objector (though after the fact) to the horrors of war. The play is simultaneously reassuring and haunting in its focus on the interconnectedness of all things.

Royall Tyler’s translation of the play ‘Atsumori’, included in the Penguin Classics edition ‘Japanese No Dramas,’ is excellent. ‘Atsumori’ is also number five in the ‘Noh Performance Guide.’ Monica Bethe and Richard Emmert provide an annotated translation, with the original Japanese text, an informative essay about the play in context, descriptions of the costumes, music and choreography, etc. A compact but in-depth guide.

“The Chronicle of the Czechs”

Cosmas of Prague’s “The Chronicle of the Czechs” is a fascinating read. Like many medieval historical writings, this Czech foundational narrative, written in the twelfth century, fades seamlessly from myth to legend to history (Gregory of Tours’s “History of the Franks” is another excellent example, as is Ferdawsi’s “Shahnameh”).

Cosmas’s chronicle begins just after the flood and the fall of the Tower of Babel, when there were only seventy-two people on the planet (Noah’s sons’ descendants), each speaking a different language. There follow tales of Sibyls, the Eumenides, Amazons, and a new age of laws. Cosmas adapts and incorporates Horace, Statius, Juvenal, Ovid, Lucan’s “Pharsalia”, Terence, Livy, Sallust, and the fables of Phaedrus. He is particularly fond of Virgil’s “Aeneid” and the Bible. Translator Lisa Wolverton has done an excellent job in pointing out these references in her footnotes.
Those well-read in (or at least familiar with) the classics will especially enjoy “The Chronicles of the Czechs.” The journey from the flood to the (what was then) present day is filled with little-known legendary and historical stories from Moravia and Bohemia. Great stuff!

Arthur C. Clarke

Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke is known for writing seminal ‘hard’ science fiction books. Though considered by the majority to be one of the greats, he suffers from two consistent criticisms.
The first: Clarke tends to follow up each masterpiece (‘Rendezvous with Rama’, for example, or ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’) with one-star sequels. The first of the series is usually filled with awe-inspiring wonder and mystery, while the sequels offer explanations that are insipid and mindless. These are not at the level of the ‘Dukes of Hazard in Space with Zombies’ variety, but are bad enough to inspire doubt that Clarke had much to do, if anything, with writing them.

The second of the two recurring criticisms Clarke’s novels is his supposed inability to develop the characters in his stories. Though I agree completely with the first criticism, I don’t agree with this second one. In ‘Rendezvous with Rama,’ for example, the petty squabbles and mindless committee meetings seem particularly pathetic. Rama is a vast, cylindrical self-contained world that has been cruising through space for at least 200,000 years. Humankind’s insignificance is clear. Clarke masterfully offers realistic characters for perspective. All human achievements are dwarfed by Rama, so that even the occasional character that has ‘historical perspective’ (about being the first human in history to come into contact with an alien species, for example), comes across as clueless. The earth is, to quote Douglass Adams, ‘an invisible dot on an invisible dot.’

The Black Prince

Historian Richard Barber knows how to tell a good story: Just get out of the way and let the story tell itself. In “Life and Campaigns of the Black Prince,” Barber collects and selects the most interesting contemporary source materials about his subject, Edward of Woodstock, and only appears occasionally to point out and clarify certain aspects of the writings that otherwise may be confusing.

The Black Prince was the eldest son of Edward III. He played an important role at the Battle of Crecy and at Poiters captured the king of France. Barber begins his book by presenting the prince’s own letters home and reports from his fellow soldiers. There is also a large section from the fourteenth century chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker, one of the sources used by Froissart for his well-known chronicles. The final section is devoted to Chandos Herald’s poem ‘Life of the Black Prince.’ Through these materials you can trace Edward’s evolution from human to hero to legend.
A good companion piece is ‘Edward III’, a play sometimes attributed to William Shakespeare. More and more experts have added this to his list of works, and their arguments are convincing (one computer analysis seems to indicate that about 40% of it was written by Bill). More importantly (to me, at least): it is a good play and well worth reading. But first, clarify its historical background by reading Barber’s book.

Shakespeare’s Historical Dramas

Each of Shakespeare’s historical dramas can be read as an independent piece, of course. Many are masterpieces, and even the worst of them is excellent. Fortunately, Shakespeare never let facts get in the way of a good story. Clearly reading his plays is not the best way to study history. That said, the arc of his works does cover a large chunk of English history. Reading the plays in chronological order (see below) is ultimately a very rewarding experience.

1) King John (1199-1216)
2) Richard II (1377-99)
3) Henry IV parts 1 & 2 (1399-1413)
4) Henry V (1413-22)
5) Henry VI parts 1-3 (1422-61)
6) Richard III (1483-85)
7) Henry VIII (1509-47)

Also, check out “Holinshed’s Chronicle as used in Shakespeare’s Plays.” The 1587 reprint of Holinshed’s “Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande” was apparently a sourcebook of sorts for Shakespeare, and certain phrases from it are repeated in several of his plays almost verbatim. Editors Allardyce and Josephine Nicoll selected and reordered sections from Holinshed’s vast work, indicating the acts and scenes related to those sections. It’s a fascinating comparison.

Yoshitsune and Bonnie Prince Charlie

It’s easy to see the appeal of Yoshitsune. A master horseman and strategist, he won several major battles in his short career. His jealous and powerful brother had him pursued. Disappeared, violent death. Fill in the blank. Love interest and faithful follower Benkei. Noh drama, kabuki theatre, puppet plays, woodblock prints, paintings, manga (Japanese comics), novels, movies and tv series.

Similarly, the journey of Bonnie Prince Charlie (Prince Charles Edward Stuart), has become one of Scotland’s most treasured legends. Heir to the exiled Stuart dynasty, the Prince came to Scotland in 1745 to reclaim the throne. After a bloody defeat at Culloden, King George II’s men hunted the Prince for five months. Hiding in homes and mountain caves, the Prince’s flight led him from the mainland to the far Hebridean isles and back, and finally to France.

For more on Yoshitsune, see Helen Craig McCullough’s translations of the classic Japanese military chronicle “Heike Monogatari” (Tale of the Heike) and “Yoshitsune: a 15th Century Japanese Chronicle,“ a collection of the Yoshitsune legends. On Bonnie Prince Charlie, seek out “Jacobite Memoirs” edited by Robert Forbes and Robert Chambers, a well-selected collection of primary source materials presented in chronological order, covering the Prince’s return, the Battle of Culloden, and the now legendary manhunt.

Strindberg’s Historical Dramas

I’ve been reading lately August Strindeberg’s historical dramas, a cycle of plays concerning the history of Sweden from the twelfth to nineteenth centuries. The plays, written between 1872 and 1908, are not well known outside of Sweden. This is unfortunate, as they are very well written. Like the historical dramas of Shakespeare, each play can be appreciated (read or performed) as a self-contained unit. The translations by Walter Johnson are very readable. Reading the plays not in the order written but according to historical time gives a sense of the sweep of Swedish history from the late 1200’s through 1789, with its national, personal and religious conflicts.

1) Earl Birger of Bjalbo (late 1200’s)
2) The Saga of the Folkungs (middle 1300’s)
3) Engelbrekt (1430’s)
4) The Last of the Knights (1512-20)
5) The Regent (early 1520’s)
6) Master Olof (1520’s-40’s)
7) Gustav Vasa (1540’s)
8) Erik XIV (1560’s)
9) Gustav Adolf (1630-32)
10) Queen Christina (1654)
11) Charles XII (1715-18)
12) Gustav III (1789)

‘Neuromancer’ by William Gibson

William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer’, a science fiction classic first published in the 80s, is most famous for coining the word ‘cyberspace’. In some sections it reads for all the world like a detective novel, and the reader has to spend much of the time figuring out not whodunit, but what is real and, more importantly, what is reality. Very little of what I’ve read since high school can be considered science fiction (‘The Time Machine’, ‘War of the Worlds’, ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Dracula’ being notable exceptions), but ‘Neuromancer’ came highly recommended from a friend who has similar tastes to mine, and very high standards in what he reads. My friend and I are now locking horns about my take on this award-winning book.



I feel Gibson was clearly, at least in part, inspired by Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’. ‘Neuromancer’, like the Divine Comedy, opens in medias res, with its main character, Case, an exile wandering lost in a futuristic and awful Tokyo (with a sky described famously as “the color of television, tuned to a dead channel”). Dreary, menacing and violent, Tokyo (the Inferno) is the books most real area. Case is guided not by the poet Virgil but by (and through) Molly.


Their mysterious hacking mission becomes simultaneously more deadly and less threatening as they pass into (it seems to me) Purgatory. Life becomes more random as Case is channel-surfed from reality to reality. Characters appear then fade. Finally, he is in Paradise, completely abstracted. Distant music, ghost hieroglyphs, translucent lines of symbols…”There was a gray place, an impression of fine screens shifting… degrees of half tone…voices…a plain of black mirror, that tilted, and he was quicksilver, a bead of mercury, skittering down, striking the angles of an invisible maze, fragmenting, flowing together, sliding again….”


In Dante’s Divine Comedy, similarly, the main character is guided through a sinister hell full of monsters and demons and into a purgatory of characters, all with stories to tell. Paradise, their final destination, is an abstraction of symbols and light.


My friend does not agree. I wonder what Gibson would say.

Hell -Part8

The influence the two writers have exerted on the religious life of their　 times and in subsequent centuries is great in both cases. Illustrated copies　 of the Inferno had an enormous influence which extended to public art, and　 many Last Judgements commissioned for cathedrals reflected Dante’s　 invention. Similarly Genshin’s ‘Ojoyoshu’, in the many centuries since its　 first appearance in the latter part of the tenth century, has been published　 in countless editions, many graphically illustrated. The macabre and　 imaginative work struck a chord with the people, whose minds had been turned　 toward the Buddhist ideas of retribution and reincarnation by the wars and　 chaos of the times. Many Jigoku Zoshi (“hell scrolls”) were produced, series　 of scrolls picturing the different types of hell. Though somewhat revolting　 the scrolls are also tragically impressive in their Dantesque grandeur. In　 addition to its influence on art, Genshin’s ‘Ojoyoshu’ had a profound　 influence on Japanese Buddhism, and made Amidaism the supreme way of　 salvation in Japan. The dominance of Amida Buddhism, which makes central the　 Buddha Amitabha and salvation in his Western Paradise, or the Pure Land, is　 a result of the popularity of Genshin’s work.

Hell -Part7

　
 Many of Genshin’s sinners are served with poetic justice. Certain sections　 of Genshin’s hell even seem somewhat self-serving (the Iron-Plane-Fox-Eating　 Place, for example, is set aside for “those who have burned the bedroom　 furniture of priests”). But one never feels in reading the Ojoyoshu that　 Genshin's own personal animosities had anything to do with the place in　 which sinners were assigned. In his deeply personal narrative Dante peoples　 the otherworld with people he calls by name, both fictional and historical,　 even assigning to the lower hells men of high authority in the church. With　 the exception of well known Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Genshin does not give　 a single name. For Genshin, when human beings rise to the stages of　 existence above the human stage, or when they fall into hell, they cease to　 be human. In Paradise they are Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, in the Realm of　 Beasts they are beasts, and in hell they must be demons.　

Hell - Part6

Proportions are also distinct in the two hells. Dante’s hell is a deep pit extending from a point under Jerusalem to the center of the earth. Purgatory is a mountain on the opposite side of the earth. Genshin's hell is also an　abyss but a rather vast one. Entrance to this abyss begins a thousand　leagues beneath the base of Mount Sumeru. To arrive completely into the　eighth level, the infernal abyss called Hell of No Interval, the condemned　must fall head first for two thousand years, reminded the entire way of　what’s in store for them and why. Hugely vast when compared to the treck of　Dante’s pilgrim.　 　 Genshin's conception of time was similarly vast, often measured in ‘kalpas’,　with one kalpa described as ‘approximately how long it would take to wear　down a large granite mountain if a little bird should graze it with the tips　of its wings once every three years or so’. Those who enter into Genshin's　hell, however, do not have to abandon all hope. While those who enter　Buddhist Paradise are forever saved, time spent in tortures in the lower　realms, though excrutiatingly long, are not infinite. Like Dante, Genshin　held that a person’s lot in the next world is determined not by the　whimsical decrees of ecclesiastical authorities, but by what one is in his　inner life in this world. While this belief was somewhat unusual in the　Europe of Dante’s day, Genshin was but applying the Buddhist doctrine of　 ood and evil Karma. In his Buddhist hell, when the evil karma has been　exhausted by the measure of suffering it causes, even the lowest hell will　give up its victims.

Hell - part5

While King Emma, in charge of Buddhist hell, has more in common with Hades　than with Satan, the Hells of Dante and Genshin, not surprisingly, have similar occupants. Both writers, however, differ greatly in their　conceptions of the shape and size of the cosmos. Dante's conception was the general Ptolemaic conception, with the heavens lodged in the spheres. For　Genshin, many of the various realms of the six migratory states of existence　mentioned above are located on or near Mount Sumeru, the axis of every　Buddhist universe. The lower divisions of the Earthly Paradise are located　on top of this mythological mountain while the True Paradise lies trillions　of Buddha lands to the West, beyond the limits of the World as we know it.