William Vollmann - Kissing the Mask - Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater, with Some Thoughts on Muses (Especially Helga Testorf), Transgender Women, ... Geishas, Valkyries and Venus Figurines

336: The eighteenth-century black and white ukiyo-e print of a courtesan — Clark et al., p. 120 (Torii Kiyomasu, I, “Standing Courtesan,” 1705–7).

30: PINE TREE CONSTANCY

338: Description of the “Takasago” fan — After a reproduction in Chiba, pp. 24–25.

338: “So, awaiting this occasion…” — Zeami, “Takasago,” excerpted in Hare, p. 89.

339: “Like blossoms on an ancient tree” — Zeami, “Fushikaden,” quoted in Hare, p. 65.

339: Mr. Mikata Shizuka — Interviewed in his studio in Kyoto, April 2004.

339: Footnote: Characteristics of the fourteenth-century stage — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 35.

339: Knowledge of ancient audiences about the pine tree god and goddess — For example, the much older Tales of Ise contains an episode about the Sumiyoshi god (p. 152; Dan CXII).

339: Hokusai’s line-image of the old couple — Encyclopedia: Men and Women , p. 107, no. 9 (“Takasago: Noh play celebrating prosperity and longevity”). This is not Hokusai’s only reference to “Takasago.” In his One Hundred Poets (p. 81), he illustrates an early tenth-century poem by Fujiwara no Okikaze. The poet laments the solitude of old age; even Takasago’s pines, he complains, cannot replace his bygone companions. Hokusai’s illustration, done more than nine hundred years later, defies Okikaze’s self-pity: People sit contentedly beneath the spreading branches of an immense pine. Some faces gaze upward; others look at the schematized sea. In one endearingly and typically down-to-earth touch, a tea-seller hunches over her apparatus.

339: “And while the cup of the Shogun is poured out three times…” — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 7.

340: Footnote: “I celebrate my lord” — Zeami, “Takasago” (quoted in Hare, p. 70).

340: “The pines that grew together…” — Zeami, “Takasago” (quoted in Hare, p. 102).

340: “The pine-clad mountain / will never be inconstant.” — McCullough, p. 148 ( The Gossamer Journal ).

340: Poem of the Gossamer Lady‘s husband — Ibid., p. 108.

340: “Even if you were dwelling near the peak at Takasago” — Ibid., p. 105.

340: “On the Day of the Rat…” — McCullough, p. 214 ( A Tale of Flowering Fortunes ).

340: “The maiden’s crimson face is gone forever…” — Keene, Seeds in the Heart , p. 141.

341: “My own people! / They stood just so…” — Manyoshu , p. 255 (poem 785, Mononobe Mashima, “Those pines standing in rows…”).

341: “His name alone lives on” + “An ancient pine is rooted in the mound.” — Hare, p. 140 (excerpt from “Izutsu”).

341: Hare’s interpretation of the pine — Ibid., p. 141.

341: “Even when I’m an old woman of sixty…” — Kawabata, The Old Capital , p. 155.

342: “I couldn’t break the bonds of my insane attachment…” — Masuda, pp. 138–39.

342: The vermilion-and-pale-green undergarment used in “Takasago” — From the Kanazawa Noh Museum, seen by me in January 2008.

342: “All art is a revolt against man’s fate.” — Malraux, p. 639.

342: “Love is a madness, but therein it is pure…” — Pinguet, p. 177.

343: “There are fundamental barriers created by society,” etc. — Shirane, p. 119.

343: “Perhaps with love it is always so…” — Keene, Twenty No Plays , p. 86 (“The Brocade Tree”).

343: “The anger of lust denied covers me like darkness.” — Waley, p. 176 (“Aya no Tsuzumi”).

343: “At nineteen I first pledged love with him…” — Hare, p. 146 (trans. of rongi ).

343: Authorship of “Matsukaze” — See, for instance, Tyler, p. 183 (introduction to this play); Takeda and Bethe, p. 21.

343: Ancient precedence of “Izutsu” over “Matsukaze” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 214 (“Sarugaku dangi”).

344: The loneliness of Suma — In his One Hundred Poets , Hokusai’s illustration to a twelfth-century poem about just this becomes, in a typically cheerful inversion, a portrait of three buxom sake-makers (p. 162).

344: Genji Picture-Scroll illustration re: Suma — Murase, ch. 12. Genji’s three sad years of exile have become so emblematic that The Taiheiki ’s Emperor Go-Daigo en route to his own exile refers to it as if it were real (op. cit., p. 106).

345: Footnote: Kindred “pining” pun in “Hanjo” — Keene, Twenty No Plays , p. 139 (“Hanjo”).

345: Footnote: Effect of Narihira’s poem on the Eight Bridges of Mikawa — Keene, Seeds in the Heart , p. 230.

345: Genji’s reference to Yukihira — p. 241 (Waley trans.). For the convenience of the reader I also give the following: p. 229, beginning of Suma chapter; pp. 246–47, description of Suma; p. 339, pathos of Suma depicted in a picture competition. Pages 11, 221, 595 and 604 refer to Takasago, 609 to Sumiyoshi and 253 to a pine tree screen. See also Tales of Ise , p. 128 (Dan LXXXVII).

345: Hokusai’s Yukihira — Men and Women , p. 205, no. 5 (Ariwara no Yukihira, poet in Heian period).

345: “He changed our saltmakers’ vestments for damask robes…” — Keene, p. 28 (“Matsukaze,” “retranslated” by WTV).

345: “So young!. ” — Loc. cit. Not “retranslated.”

346: The sixteenth-century juuroku mask — Displayed at the Kanazawa Noh Museum, January 2008.

346: Description of Matsukaze-do and environs — From a visit to Suma in 2006.

347: “It makes no sense whatsoever to imagine Matsukaze’s height…” — Keene, Twenty Plays , p. 12.

347: Specification of waka-onna mask for Matsukaze — Ibid., p. 22.

347: Remarks of Ms. Nakamura on “Matsukaze” — Interview of October 2006.

347: Former specification of fukai for the same part — Tyler, p. 188 (introduction to “Matsukaze”).

349: Employment of fushikizo in “Matsukaze” — Nakanishi and Komma, p. 123.

349: “Yuki style with the nose tilted to the right…” — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV; p. 49. My visual description of this mask derives from the accompanying plate.

349: Footnote: “Kanzesoke has the beautiful tsuki …” — Ibid., p. 64. Another example of the specific meanings which can be attached to Japanese beauty: “A woman in a yukata (light kimono) after a bath, turning around while wiping her hands with a towel thrown over her shoulder. Her plump face, slightly open lips, breast barely showing, and the way her hands lay on top of one another, all depict the rich sensuality of a middle-aged woman. Her upright posture brings delicate elegance to the scene. This is what Utamaro sees as ‘the fickle type’ woman. Baimage , which is arranged by wrapping the hair around the kougai (=hairpin) and kanzashi (=hairpin), is a temporary hair arrangement after a bath or during makeup. Using kushi (=comb) and kanzashi for this hair arrangement could be signs of womanliness or fictitiousness of an Ukiyoe. ‘Fujinsougakujittai’ is the earliest series of portraits of beautiful women by Utamaro, attempting to illustrate the different characters and expressions of women.” — Utamaro book, trans. Yasuda Nobuko, slightly rev. by WTV. Picture 5: Fujinsougakujittai (Ten Types of Physiognomic Studies of Women), Uwakinosou (The Fickle Type). Around Kansei 4–5 (1792–93). Large Nishikie. New York Public Library.

350: Remarks of Mr. Mikata on “Matsukaze” — Interview of October 2006.

350: Manyoshu poem on the fisher-girls of Shika — Op. cit., p. 96 (poem 279: Ishikawa Kimiko, “The fisher-maids at Shika…”). A very similar poem in the Tales of Ise (p. 128; Dan LXXXVII) mentions the unloosed hair and also the fact that the combs were of boxwood.