The role of stage properties

Example: Nonomiya

The photograph on the right displays the tsukurimono used in Nonomiya (‘The Shrine in the Fields’). This exemplifies how tsukurimono evoke the shape of an object using a sophisticated mixture of realistic and non-realistic elements. Nonomiya is a small shrine in the Saga area of Kyoto where Rokujō Miyasudokoro temporarily retired after her affair with Hikaru Genji ended. The torii gate in Nonomiya resembles a real torii on a smaller scale and is made with bamboo instead of sturdy wood. The brushwood fence flanking it on each side represents the fence referred to in the text as a rustic demarkation of the shrine precincts. The brushwood is collected from nature, but the fence is truncated. The smaller size of the prop allows the shite to maintain physical prominence on stage. 

This stage property acts as a synecdoche, a poetic device by which a part of an object is used to evoke the whole. Here the torii and fence represent the shrine. In the first act, the waki recognizes it on a trip through Saga and stops to look. The shite’s first line describes the shrine as once filled with flowers, but desolate in autumn, a reflection of her lingering love for Genji who visited her there, remaining just outside. In the second ba (act) she recalls his visit as she brushes dewdrops (tears) from the fence and looks out at the night sky, as seen here in a Kongō school variant: Rokujō holds the torii pillar with her left arm while gazing into the distance beyond the shrine. Later, slipping one foot through the shrine and then pulling it back dramatizes her ambivalent state: between inside and outside, past and present, attachment and enlightenment.

Example: Izutsu

In the noh Izutsu (‘The Well’) a wooden frame indicating a well is placed at center downstage. The tsukurimono here is at the center of the narrative. Action and text incrementally draw attention to it. First the waki takes note of the well as a marker of the place, the Ariwara Temple, once the home of the great poet Ariwara no Narihira. Then the shite, appearing as a local woman, pays tribute to it. Next, during the kuse scene, the chorus narrates a story about the well. When a child, Ki no Aritsune’s daughter played with her future husband, Narihira, around the well that stood between their houses. They would compare their heights against the well and also peer into its waters together, side by side, sleeve on sleeve. A few years later he proposed to her composing a poem about the well. The well poem becomes a mantra recapitulated in the final scene of the play.

As with Nonomiya, in the final scene verbal reference shifts to actual physical contact with the property. The ghost of Ki no Aritsune’s daughter, dressed now in her husband’s raiment, peers into the well and sees both herself and her husband’s reflection, their identities fuse into an inseparable single image.

Example: Kurozuka

Large frameworks set in front of the drummers function as huts, mounds, caves, and graves. An actor may be concealed inside the covered framework while the stage attendants carry the property on stage before the performance begins and emerge from it later, or he may enter the property at the end of the first part (nakairi). In that case, the costume change occurs inside the tsukurimono. Later the drape around the framework is lowered and the shite revealed. The property often morphs during the performance, which is expressed in words and actions. In the play Kurozuka (Adachigahara in the Kanze school), a covered hut is brought out on stage before the entrance of the yamabushi priest Yūkei, (waki) and his companions (waki-tsure and ai kyōgen).

The hut is a frame covered with cloth and may have a thatched roof, as described in the text. While the waki describes his travels, it provides an undefined background of scenery, but when he laments having no place to stay and looks at it saying he has seen a fire, it becomes an abode where he might rest for the night.

When priests arrive at the hut, the cloth is removed and an old woman is revealed inside, talking to herself of her weary life. The priests ask her for lodging, and she describes her home as being “far from the village, with wind racing through it and the moon tracing its shadows in it”  but she finally lets them stay at their hut. At this point she rises, opens the door and steps out, symbolically letting the priests go in (actually waki and waki-tsure resettle themselves in the waki spot downstage left as the shite sits at center stage). The whole stage has now become the inside of the hut, the property an inner room. The old woman then demonstrates winding threads, in the famous itō-no-dan ‘thread scene’, described below in greater detail.

Later, as she leaves to gather firewood, the old woman tells the priests that they must not look into the inner chamber. During the interlude the priests’ servant (ai-kyōgen) cannot sleep because he worries about what might be in the inner room. Despite remonstrations from the priests to quiet down, he sneaks up to the property and peeps in, discovering a pile of human bones. He flees in fright after warning the priests.

The second act stages a battle between the priests and the old woman, now appearing as in her true form of a demon. The scene returns to the misty expanse of the Adachigahara moors, the property reverting into being the outside of a hut. The ogress, at one point, hangs onto the property and uses it as a vantage point.  

In this way, the tsukurimono has been a spark of hope for a night’s lodging, a hut, both outside and inside, an inner room, and finally a jealously protected structure. It has been a scenic background, an entry channel (for the shite), the focus of attention (during the interlude scene), and with its sparse lattices, a constant reminder of the lonely desolation of the moor.

Some properties are only placed on stage for a specific scene and then removed when no longer needed. These are temporary properties that enhance the scene with color, providing memorable visual focus. Examples include large carriages and boats. In Yuya the courtesan steps into a covered oxcart when she makes her way through the streets of the capital. In the second half of Nonomiya, in the performance variant kuruma-dashi-no-den (photo), the ghost of Rokujō appears in a cart.

Boats are square frames with rounded extensions rising to the front and back. For some plays, extra items are added. in Tori oi-bune clackers and a drum are set on the boat to chase away birds For Tōsen (Chinese Ship) a sail is hoisted on the boat. Wherever the boat is placed on the stage indicates the presence of water.  For instance, in Eguchi, Lady entertainers anchor their pleasure boat by the bank of Yodo River. The boat property on the hashigakari turns it into a river.

In Funa Benkei,  the kyōgen actor runs onto stage carrying a boat with himself inside mimes skimming over waves. He places the boat in front of the chorus thus transforming the whole performance area including the bridge and stage into water. Then, with Benkei and others aboard,  the kyōgen rows the boat out to sea. The ghost of Taira no Tomomori rises up out of the waves, kicking the froth about. Combined with movement and text, the placement of the property creates the scene in the imagination of the audience.

In Kurozuka a thread winder is brought out and placed at center stage or down stage right near the viewing pillar (metsuke bashira). The priests notice her thread winder (a “wheel for winding skeins”) and ask about it. While the chorus sings the shidai, she slowly winds the thread off the skein holder onto a smaller bobbin frame (see making costumes section for a discussion of this process). During the sashi, kuse, and ito-no-dan (‘thread scene’) sections, the shite sits at the winder and resumes her winding at the end of the passage. After this highlight scene is finished, the thread winder is removed and the scene changes.