Small properties

Properties highlighting scenes

Tools often serve as a central image of a single scene. The thread winder used in Kurozuka (alternate name Adachigahara) is a good example.  As discussed also in Role of Stage Properties, in the “Thread scene”, a countrywoman tells a weary tale while winding thread onto a frame-spool. Her eyes follow the thread from skein holder to spool as she rotates the spool. This tool is a real-life object, prevalent even today in country houses where weaving is still done. 

Two scenes in Shunkan focus on small properties. Exiled to “Devil’s Island”, Shunkan serves his two companions make-believe tea from a water bucket. He “pours” it into an open fan held out horizontally as if it were a cup. The second scene focuses on reading a document. When an envoy appears with a written reprieve, Shunkan reads the letter searching for his name, but unable to find it he stands up, throwing the paper into the air in disbelief.

Tools and instruments​

Hand properties are  treated as costume items. The majority of these items serve to identify the character, even if manipulated only briefly during the performance. For instance, the old man cleaning the shrine grounds in Takasago carries a rake. His raking leaves under a pine tree forms a high point during the first act. Similarly, the two women appearing in Kamo carry pails to dip water from the river. As in Matsukaze, in Kamo a long sung passage precedes the actual action of dipping water. In other nō the shite carries a dedicatory item when visiting a shrine or temple. Typically this is sacred water  (Miwa) or a sakaki branch  (Nonomiya, Tomoe). Once presented to the shrine or temple it is no longer needed and taken away by the stage attendant.

Hand-held properties can reference the profession of a character: The reed cutter in Ashikari carries reeds on his way home. The old man in Tadanori enters the stage with a faggot of twigs he has collected in the mountains. As soon as the old man begins to talk with the priest, he puts down his burden and lets down his sleeves because he is finished working. No longer necessary, the faggots are removed by a stage assistant. Similarly, the Field Ranger guarding the gate to hell in Nomori carries a magic mirror that reflects the truth about a person’s life.

Hand-held objects that substitute for the fan also indicate aspects of character: “Crazed” women in “madwoman plays” (kyōjomono) carry a bamboo branch. Vengeful spirits in Dōjōji, Aoinoue, Kurozuka, Momijigari, Sesshōseki, and Tsuchigumo hold a cloth-wrapped stick with crossbar at the top that is seen as a potent magic weapon of evil. Shinto characters, including deities like the Thunder God (Kamo) and shrine priestesses dancing kagura (Makiginu, Tatsuta) and shrine priests who purify an area hold sticks with folded paper streamers (hei).

Bows and arrows feature in quite a number of plays in various ways. In Kagetsu, the young acolyte demonstrates shooting at birds. In Yumiyawata an old man dedicates a bagged bow to Sumiyoshi Shrine as a symbol of peace. In Kinsatsu the Deity Amatsu Futodama dances with a “demon-quelling moon bow and arrow.”  In Tadanori, the arrow the shite carries has a poem attached, which serves to identify him to his adversary. In Youchi Soga, the Soga brothers ostensibly out on a hunting expedition carry bows and arrows, but secretly they are in search of an opportunity to avenge themselves on their father’s murderer.

Garments as properties

In addition to clothing the characters, garments function as stage properties in some nō. In Hagoromo, the feather robe lends its name to the play. It is laid on a tree prop, on the first pine along the bridge, or on the railing of the bridge before the performance begins. A Moon Maiden has taken it off to enjoy the spring beach. A fisherman picks the robe up. The Moon Maiden eventually persuades him to hand it back to her. After she puts it on, the rest of the play brings the robe to life in a series of dances.

In Aoinoue, a kosode (kimono) is laid downstage center (shōsaki) to represent the ailing Aoinoue. In the first half of the play, the spirit of Lady Rokujō eyes it (her), moves closer, strikes at it, and tries to run off with it. In the second half of the Kongō school Mumyō no inori (“Lightless Prayer”) variant, Rokujō’s jealous spirit grabs the garment and begins to drag it away before being overpowered by the ardent prayers of an exorcist.

While the kosode in Hagoromo and Aoinoue function as what Yokomichi would term “necessary props”, the garments used in Jinen Koji, Tanikō and Miwa belong among the “props used for a single scene.” In Jinen Koji, a girl presents a kosode as payment for having prayers said for her deceased mother. In Tanikō after a boy is thrown down a cliff, he is covered with a cloth to represent his death. It is removed when he is miraculously revived. In Miwa a priest presents a poor woman with a garment, only to later find that it is hung up at the entrance to Miwa Shrine with a poem about selfless giving attached to it. Sometimes a costume element will be used for several purposes. In Sotoba Komachi, the hundred-year-old Komachi turns her large lacquered rain hat upside down to beg for alms. These examples add a touch of realism to the performance by referencing ways garments were used in every-day life during the middle ages.

Like other props, garments can accrue multiple imagery, hats are a case in point. In Sotoba Komachi, the broad lacquered hat Komachi wears as a wandering figure becomes a begging bowl, and then when she is possessed by the spirit of her dead lover, it shape-shifts into his hat. In Utō a broad conical lacquered hat first helps identify a dead hunter. It is then set up as a stupa. Later during his recounting of how he hunted baby birds it represents a bird’s nest. Finally it is used as a hat to protect the hunter in hell from raining tears of blood.

While the kosode in Hagoromo and Aoinoue function as what Yokomichi would term “necessary props”, the garments used in Jinen Koji, Tanikō and Miwa belong among the “props used for a single scene.” In Jinen Koji, a girl presents a kosode as payment for having prayers said for her deceased mother. In Tanikō after a boy is thrown down a cliff, he is covered with a cloth to represent his death. It is removed when he is miraculously revived. In Miwa a priest presents a poor woman with a garment, only to later find that it is hung up at the entrance to Miwa Shrine with a poem about selfless giving attached to it. Sometimes a costume element will be used for several purposes. In Sotoba Komachi, the hundred-year-old Komachi turns her large lacquered rain hat upside down to beg for alms. These examples add a touch of realism to the performance by referencing ways garments were used in every-day life during the middle ages.

Like other props, garments can accrue multiple imagery, hats are a case in point. In Sotoba Komachi, the broad lacquered hat Komachi wears as a wandering figure becomes a begging bowl, and then when she is possessed by the spirit of her dead lover, it shape-shifts into his hat. In Utō a broad conical lacquered hat first helps identify a dead hunter. It is then set up as a stupa. Later during his recounting of how he hunted baby birds it represents a bird’s nest. Finally it is used as a hat to protect the hunter in hell from raining tears of blood.

Special properties

A very special type of property is the paper strips symbolizing the spider web the monstrous spider throws in the play Tsuchigumo. Five rolls of washi (Japanese mulberry paper) cut in thin stripes, with a small leaden weight attached to each extremities are bound together in a packet, secured with a piece of wood and a larger paper stripe. The shite hides each projectile inside the costume sleeves, breaks the paper binding with the thumb and projects the long paper streamers against the shite-tsure (the warrior Raikō). Once thrown in the air each projectile breaks into a myriad of strips which envelope the actors, creating a spectacular effect (this technique was perfected by Meiji period Noh actor Kongō Kinnosuke). In the second half of the play, a group of warriors (waki actors), led by the hero Hitorimusha, reach the cave where the monstrous spider hides. This is represented by a tsukurimono first covered with a drape to suggest a cave, and then lowered to reveal the skeletal spider’s den covered with paper-made spiderwebs. Afterwards the shite breaks the web with its mallet, and exits the tsukurimono, engaging in a fight with the waki and waki-tsure. During the fight many spider webs are thrown by the shite as well as by the stage assistant sitting behind the empty tsukurimono.