with the court of the shoguns, which was deeply influenced by Zen masters. The use of Zen ideas takes various forms in the plays. In most of them the secondary character (the waki) is a priest, and sometimes he uses the language and ideas of Zen Buddhism. In the play Sotoba Komachi, one of the greatest, it is the poetess Komachi who voices the Zen doctrines, rather than the priests. She declares, confounding them:
| “Nothing is real. | |
| Between Buddha and Man | |
| Is no distinction, but a seeming of difference planned | |
| For the welfare of the humble, the ill-instructed, | |
| Whom he has vowed to save. | |
| Sin itself may be the ladder of salvation.” | |
| (Chorus) | So she spoke, eagerly; and the priests, |
| “A saint, a saint is this decrepit, outcast soul.” | |
| And bending their heads to the ground, | |
| Three times did homage before her.[1] |
The same play contains some of the most beautiful lines of the entire body of Nō plays. This is the story of the poetess Komachi, who when young was noted for her beauty and for the cruelty she showed to her lovers. In the play she is a hag, abandoned by the world, who suffers for her cruelty of former days. The chorus recites of her:
The cup she held at the feast
Like gentle moonlight dropped its glint on her sleeve.
Oh how fell she from splendour,
How came the white of winter
To crown her head?
Where are gone the lovely locks, double-twined,
- ↑ Waley, The Nō Plays of Japan, p. 155.
