CHARACTERS
shunkan: an exiled priest
yasuyori: the exiled lord of Hei
naritsune: the exiled lord of Tamba, a member of
chidori: an island diving girl
senoo tar6 kaneyasu: a Hcike warrior serving as
tanzaemon motoyasu: an envoy from Taira Shig<
Retainers and boatmen
MUSICIANS
A gidayu chanter and a shamisen player seated on a | Music-room (geza) musicians, including noh and n
ACT 2
The Scene on Devil Island
After the wooden clackers are struck at quickening in noh flute and drums play issei music. Then a large d the clackers strike faster and faster as the striped curt light blue drop curtain covering the entire width of ti passage, the chanter begins his recitative.
chanter:
From time immemorial this island's fearful name has been Kikaigashima — Devil Island— a place where demons live. It is indeed a hell on earth.
The wave drum patterns sound loudly in the music r strikes, and the blue curtain suddenly falls, revealing exiles' island [figure 3.56].
The only things to remind one of bygone days in the capital are the sun and moon shining in the sky.
More wave drum patterns as Shunkan enters slowly movements suggesting weakness and despondency.1
s. Some actors prefer to be seated in the hut when the curta rarnpway or from stage left. A method no longer practiced was t stage center.
shunkan on devil island 1 421
he Fujiwara clan
in imperial envoy mori
ilatform at stage left igauta musicians
nervals for several minutes, the mm beats wave patterns, and nn is pulled aside to reveal a
■ e
stage. After a brief shamisen
■)0m. The wooden clacker a spot near the shore on the
ht, his
horn upstage rig
, appear from Ae small ele
figure 3.56. The kabuki setting for Shunkan at Devil Island. Shunkan's ramshackle hut has a makeshift tripodal fireplace in it. Gray and wave-patterned ground cloths mark land and water. Shunkan enters between the rocks at stage right. (Photo by Aoki Shinji.)
Shunkan, the exiled priest, having exchanged some sulfur from the mountaintop for a fisherman's meager haul, comes stumbling, tottering, staggering along
with his wretched, scraggly walking stick; he is surely a sight to be pitied.
Shunkan crosses to the right of the hut, leans his staff there, removes his sandals, enters the hut, and kneels, exhausted. He takes the seaweed from the ring, puts it in an abalone shell that he takes from the wall, and fans the embers beneath the shell with a palm leaf until a red glow appears.2 He busies himself with his cooking as Yasuyori and Naritsune move down the rampway?
The same may be said of Yasuyori, lord of Hei,
bedecked in rotting rags,
and of Naritsune, lord of Tamba,
who come walking along the sandy beach,
Naribune, played in the soft, romantic wagoto style, turns to address his friend [figure 3.57].
naritsune: Lord Yasuyori! I can see Lord Shunkan sitting in his hut.
yasuyori is less a wagoto type than Naritsune is, although Yasuyori speaks and moves with definite grace and refinement.
yasuyori; Fortunately, the weather today is fine so we can gather at our ease
A long soliloquy in which Shunkan laments his life in exile is usually omitted (as is it here), al-"10ugh the Zenshin troupe has restored it in its production.
j    ^wo rampways are sometimes used, with Naritsune entering on the permanent one and Yasuyori ^ong the temporary rampway. In this case they engage in a dialogue from the rampways, with Shunkan on e s'age, and the words coming from three separated sections of the theater create an interesting effect.