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

350: Hokusai illustration: burning seaweed — One Hundred Poets , p. 198.

350: Tyler on fisher-girls as entertainers and prostitutes — Op. cit., pp. 185–86 (introduction to “Matsukaze”).

350: Lady Nijo’s nuns — Op. cit., p. 228.

353: Marie Claire , vol. 15, no. 4 (April 2008), p. 190 (Ning Chao, “Picture Perfect: The new makeup designed for high-definition television helps you look more flawless in real life”).

353: Description of the mask “Flower” — After Rath, color plates 3–4.

31: KAGEKIYO’S DAUGHTER

355: “The Way of Heaven has no love for” the fighting man… — Blomberg, pp. 69–70.

355: “The end is near…” — Waley, No Plays , p. 133 (“Kagekiyo”).

355: “Love of woman scarcely ever prevented the Japanese warrior from doing his duty as he saw it.” — After Blomberg, p. 75.

355: “Candle to my darkness…” — Waley, loc. cit.

355: Dampened sleeve poem of pine tree wind — Brower and Miner, p. 314 (Ariie, “The Wind in the Pines”).

355: Poem of the dead wife under the moss — Ibid., p. 310 (Shunzei, “Mare ni kuru…”).

355: Remarks of Mr. Mikata — Interview of October 2006.

356: Kagekiyo’s shame in front of his daughter, and compassion at her shame in being known as a beggar’s daughter — Waley, op. cit., p. 130 (“Kagekiyo”).

356: “No remembrance other,” etc. — Op. cit., p. 133.

357: “A swordsman should prepare a mind of mirrorlike emptiness” — Blomberg, p. 69.

357: The way that Noh is “in absolute harmony with the bushi ethos…” — Ibid., pp. 196–97.

357: Otsu’s two mentions in The Taiheiki — Op. cit., pp. 61, 70. On p. 38 this work refers to “Biwa’s saltless sea.”

358: Drawing of Semimaru — Hokusai, One Hundred Poets , pp. 44–45 (poem 10, untitled poem by Semimaru).

360: Description of Yasha’s masukami — Kanze, Hayashi and Matsuda, paperback commentary vol., p. 35; hardcover plates 62–63.

361: Zeami’s definition of fascination — Op. cit., p. 133 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

361: Footnote: “You become really absorbed at a play…” — Denby, pp. 146–47 (“How to Judge a Dancer,” 1943).

362: “Denied the moon…” — Tyler, p. 249 (“Semimaru,” slightly “retranslated” by WTV).

363: The demented mother as entertainment — In “Miidera” also the madwoman dance is straightforwardly presented as fun (“for entertainment, bring her into the outer garden and have her dance insanely”). Bethe and Emmert, Noh Performance Guide 3 , p. 26.

363: Description of the Edo period fukai mask — Kanazawa Noh Museum, on display in January 2008. I wish I could remember what the mask’s eyelids looked like, because in a carver’s description of one fukai believed to be by Zekan I read: “This fukai has no work on the eyelids. This is fine for the role of mothers searching for the child, as in the mother who lost her child in ‘Sumidagawa.’ ” — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, p. 69, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV. — Danyu-san, the musician who played for Konomi-san and Kofumi-san when I met those three together in Gion, told me that she had once performed in a play called “Shizu-hata.” She said: “There was a dance in which a child was kidnapped and killed. The mother went insane. And I was supposed to play the insane woman’s role. It was very difficult. To play an insane person you must not move your eyes.”

363: Description of the fan — This is a certain Hosho School fan employed for roles of such madwomen as the grief-stricken mothers in “Sumidagawa” or the much happier “Miidera.” (It is never used to play Sakagami in “Semimaru.”) This fan expresses strength through golden mist-patterns; it also offers a spray of white plum-blossoms, white chrysanthemums, irises, etcetera. Also seen at the Kanazawa Noh Museum.

363: Sumida River poem — Tales of Ise , pp. 47–48 (Dan IX). Lady Nijo (pp. 199–200) could not resist making matters even sadder when she stood on this spot, remarking: “I recalled how Narihira had put a question to a capital bird here, but I did not see any birds at all.” Meanwhile, “Sumidagawa” has given birth to many allusions of its own — e.g., Kafu, p. 177.

363: “Sumida in Autumn” by Chobunsai Eishi — Ota Ukiyo-e Museum, on display in October 2006.

363: Woodblock by Isoda Koryusai — Uhlenbeck and Winkel, p. 100.

366: Zeami’s thoughts on the child actor in the mound — Op. cit., p. 188 (“Sarugaku dangi”).

366: “What appeared to be a dear child…” — Tyler, p. 263 (“Sumida-gawa,” slightly “retranslated” by WTV).

32: BEHIND THE RAINBOW CURTAIN

367: Epigraph: “Once a man met, courted, and won a woman…” — McCullough, p. 49.

367: Excerpt from Taketori Monogatari — McCullough, p. 57.

368: Hanago’s remark on the sting of love (these words were actually chanted in her name by the Noh chorus) — Keene, Twenty Plays , p. 137 (“Hanjo”).

368: Description of Mr. Mikata Shizuka and other actors in “Michimori” — Performed in Jumenji Temple, Kyoto, October 2006.

370: Kawabata: “For me, love more than anything else…” — Quoted in Keene, Dawn to the West , p. 795.

370: “Even in the provinces…” — McCullough, p. 45.

371: Kawabata’s red weeping cherry trees — The Old Capital , p. 8.

371: One poet of the Manyoshu who pretends that sight of Kyoto would bring back his youth — Op. cit., p. 242 (poem 736: “If I could see the capital…”).

372: Genji’s fear that he will never glimpse the capital again — Tale of Genji , p. 253.

372: “Suma’s image is loneliness.” — Interview with Mr. Mikata of October 2006.

372: “Born at Akashi! What a hideous thought!” — Tale of Genji , p. 637.

372: Effects of the Kokin Shu anthology on subsequent centuries of poetic diction — Keene, Seeds in the Heart , pp. 256–57.

372: Woodblock of the courtesan-turned-letter-writer — Saikaku, p. 155 (illustration to “The Life of an Amorous Woman”).

373: Symbolism of the three pines on the stage bridge — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 36.

374: “ Clutching this transient life…” — Manyoshu , p. 23 (poem 63, by the exiled Prince Omi; “retranslated” by WTV).

374: The increasing loneliness of Semimaru’s palanquin-bearers — Tyler, p. 240 (“Semimaru”).

374: “I was not intended for a world in which women shackle themselves…” — Proust, p. 460 (“Place-Names: The Name” part of Swann’s Way ).

375: “Trend Watch: Metallics.” — InStyle , vol. 15, no. 1, p. 83 (“Style File”).

375: “The sea her world…” — Tales of Ise , p. 143 (Dan CIV; “retranslated” by WTV).

375: Departure of the tsure and others through the small stage door — Keene, p. 44 (“The Sought-for Grave”).

375: Teika’s thirteenth-century tanka — Brower and Miner, p. 308 (Teika, “Tabibito no…”).

376: “Thither I go, /…” — Manyoshu , p. 44 (poem 109: “In the days when my wife lived…”).

376: Extract from The Taiheiki — Op. cit., p. 355.

376: Protracted entrances and exits in Noh and Kabuki — Gunji, pp. 22–23.

376: “Matching the feelings to the moment.” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 82 (“Kakyo”).

377: “And Lord Suketomo they banished to the land of Sado…” — The Taiheiki , p. 27.

377: Haiku on Sado and the Milky Way — Ueda, Basho , p. 30.

377: Loud and coarse rustling of a plebeian woman’s gowns — Lady Nijo, p. 84, in reference to a fanmaker’s daughter.