Zeami Motokiyo (1363?—1443?), a famous actor, playwright, and theorist of Nō drama in medieval Japan, is universally acknowledged as one of the major figures in the history of Nō. He not only composed a large body of Nō plays, but also left twenty-one critical treatises that cover a wide range of discussions from performance to the philosophy and aesthetics of Nō.
In this thesis, I will discuss Zeami’s treatment of source materials in two of his exemplary plays from late in his career, Nue and Kinuta. Nue mainly describes the miserable predicament of a nue—a monster with the head of an ape, the tail of a serpent and the limbs of a tiger – who is killed by a famous warrior, Minamoto no Yorimasa (1104-1180). Kinuta is a story about the wife of a provincial member of the warrior class who yearns for her husband far away. Based on my analysis of honzetsu (original source materials; modern Japanese honsetsu), I will argue that beyond allusions to traditional literary works, Zeami also invokes Buddhist philosophy and ritual to make alterations in received interpretations and reception of source materials belonging to the literary tradition. Moreover, I will make the case that Zeami’s adaptations of such materials demonstrate his sympathy for humble characters, including not only figures who are marginalized such as the nue monster, but also those who are not celebrated in history or literature, such as the protagonist in Kinuta.
In Chapter One, I will give a brief introduction to the two plays Nue and Kinuta. I will argue that the transformation of the focus from famous characters to humble ones reveals Zeami’s rethinking and further development of his ideas on appropriate source materials—going beyond his earlier dramatic theories.
Then, in Chapter Two, I will analyze how Zeami invokes the target audience’s horizon of expectations by means of his adaptations of allusions in Nue and Kinuta. I will argue that Zeami’s exploitation of literary source materials has the effect of both eliciting and altering the expectations held about these stories on the part of the target audience as they view the plays in performance.
In Chapter Three I will discuss Buddhist philosophical writing as a kind of honzetsu in the two plays. I will argue that the allusions to Lotus Sutra teachings in both plays also work to alter preconceived notions that the audience might have regarding literary source materials already familiar to them. Such alteration opens the door to a broader scope of interpretation of those received materials belonging to the literary tradition.
In the last chapter, I will further argue that not only the Buddhist teachings in the Lotus Sutra are invoked in the plays, but the ritual acts involving the Lotus Sutra also form a certain sort of backdrop for the audience. I will make the case that it is through the staging of the ritual practice of chanting the Lotus Sutra that Zeami renders the eventual Buddhist enlightenment of the protagonists in Nue and Kinuta credible to audiences.