referring to Hotoke’s dance before Kiyomori, states that the
(34)
lasted about two h&urs. The impression that the dances were in two parts, the second being the faster, is con-
_ _ _ J 3 5 )
firmed in other works. The Futsu shodoshu , written in the late thirteenth century, states: ’Shirabyoshi - at first, when
the dancer .. enters, her impressive appearance delights the eye. Later, when she moves around stamping her feet, the wonderful
sound of her voice amazes the ear. ’ Then, too, the Akizuki mono- (36)
gatari , a. story of the middle Muromachi period (c.1ij.75;» tells how the second and quicker part lasted about one hour.
Although late for Kusemai performances, this period still number* (37)
ed Shirabyoshi among its entertainers and other works dating fro in then provide further information about them. The Gikei-ki
- 108 -
and the Kowaka dance Shizuka, for example, show that the instru ments used then were drums, cymbals and flute, that all kinds of
songs were used in addition to imayo and roei. and that the first and last songs were usually ga no uta, ’auspicious songs’ . The use of cymbals as well as drums can be taken back to at least the late thirteenth century, as they were mentioned then in the
recommended by him for use in Ho was fairly complete but lacked the diversity of songs known to have been present later, He said that players representing Shirabyoshi should sing a waka, an
rhythm, after which they should tread a fast, urgent dance (seme) until leaving the stage.
wore men’s costume in the form of suikan, hakama and, at least in certain periods, eboshi. The beat being the most important element in the dances, the usual instrument was the drum, accom panied subsequently by cymbals. Only later, probably not before the middle of the fifteenth century, was the flute used to pro vide melody* The performance consisted at first of an introductory
song followed by other songs of various types accompanying a dance. This was sometimes a lengthy affair lasting an hour or more and was in tv/o parts, the second of them in a quick tempo marked by stamping. At some later date it became usual for the introductory and concluding songs to be auspicious, congratulatory
(38)
Azuma kagami . The very brief accou; ances given by Zeami in the ’Hosakusho
• The very brief account of ^hirabyoshi perform* i in the ’Hosakusho’ shows that the form
f(A0 )
issei* and then a song in the third key
- 109 -
ones. The complete performance can therefore "be said to have followed the sequence of introduction, development and climax (no-ha-kvu) in having an introductory song, a two-part dance as the development section, and then a final song.
Although they were popular entertainers, Shirabyoshi dancers often performed for the nobility and won their patronage. A number of women dancers became the consoi»ts of men of high rank, 0 4 particularly in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries . The retired emperor G-o-Toba, for example, was married to a former Shirabyoshi, and the rich estates he bestowed on another are said
causes of the j
to have been one of the/disturbances in 1221. Some members of | the Fujiwara family likewise had Shirabyoshi as wives or mis
tresses, and among the liaisons between these women and members of great warrior families, the most famous is certainly that of Shizuka G-ozen and Minamoto Yoshitsune. In brief, a woman Shira byoshi dancer was both entertainer and courtesan, the geisha of her day.
■ It is difficult to discover the exact social stand ing of Kusemai players, but the little evidence there is suggests that it was low. After the popularity of Shii*abyoshi declined from the heights it had reached in the early Kamakura period and the patronage of the nobility became rarer, the dancers themselves became just one of many different types of popular entertainer, and there is no reason to suppose that those who gave a kindred fo'rm of entertainment like Kusemai would have enjoyed any higher
- 110 -
social position. Also, in the fifteenth century, some, if not all, (43)
Kusemai performers came under the authority of shomonj1 , low- class lay priests whose traditional line was divination hut who also engaged in such quasi-religiOus ceremony as the recitation of sutra at certain popular festivals and* from the early 1^00*s,
(Mi,)
\ fcT T / _ |Ll
in the performance of Kusemai • Shomonji were no more than lowly sei»vants of temples, though the authority they derived from their connection with them seems to have enabled them to maintain some control over the other various entertainers living in the locality* But their control was probably tenuous, especially over Shirabyoshi and Kusemai performers^ who were not usually organised
(45)
into 2a dependent on a particular temple , and the patronage of persons of rank would have been sufficient to supersede it altogether. Kusemai dancers often performed before members of the nobility and sometimes won such patronage, though not so frequently as Shirabyoshi had done in their heyday. In 1^09, for example,
Higo Shigemitsu, a relative of the shogun Yoshimitsu, took with him on a visit to the Kurama-dera a number of his friends and two women Kusemai dancers of the Kaga group and gave the latter pre-
(46)
sents of clothes and money . But Kusemai and Shirabyoshi did not occupy a fixed position on & .clearly marked social scale. As professional entertainers they stood very largely outside the normal relationships, and the chances of high favour which their work brought them meant that their conditions of life varied from the very humblest to ones of ease and wealth in which they mixed with people of the highest rank on familiar, if not equal, terms.
- 111 -
Apart from shomon.i i groups, Kusemai were perpetuated by lines of players which, to judge from Shirabyoshi, Sarugaku and the like, were no doubt family lines in the main* In the
( w )
’Go-on’ Zeami states: 1Irue Kusemai consists of Kami©do,
(W)
,Shimo-do, Hishi-no-take, Tenjiku and the Kaga women • (Otozuru. My late father learned from this line.) Kaga, in Nara, is said
(k9)
the have come down from the Hyakuman1 women’s Fushi-Kusemai . Kusemai dancers have now all disappeared, leaving none but the followers of Kaga of women’s Kusemai. It is this house /which performs/'’ Kusemai on the floats at the Gion Festival.’ But if, by about 1^-30, the. five groups of traditional Kusemai players known to Zeami had dwindled to only one, Kusemai or modified
forms of them continued to be given by Barugaku players and shomon.ii. and by tx*ue Kusemai players in areas away from the
capital where the dances no doubt had less competition from other entertainments. In 1U27, for example, shomon.ii and young boys
. (50)
from the province of Settsu performed Kusemai in Kyoto , and as late as 11*66 an admirable performance is said to have been
(51)
given there by players from the province of Mino . This group, about a dozen in number, consisted of men, women and boys, and the fact that Zeami referred to oply one of the five groups he named as ’women’s Kusemai’ also indicates that, even among true Kusemai players, women were not as predominant as they were among Shirabyoshi. The Shichi.juichiban shokunin uta-awase. moreover,
(52)
represents a typical Kusemai dancer by a drawing of a man • It therefore seems that, although the existence of women players is
now somewhat better known - probably because one of them, Hyaku man, is represented in the No play of that name, and another was I£an-ami1 s teacher - the Kaga line to which these two players
belonged was unusual in consisting, solely of women. But this may have been a factor in the survival of this line, for performances by women were probably much more popular than those by men. This
certainly seems to have been the case in II4.66, for on that occas ion the women and boys carried out the main part of the programme while the men merely gave the opening piece.
One of the reasons for the lesser popularity of the men must have been that, when they wore the characteristic dress of Kusemai dancers, it did not have the appeal it did when worn by women and, to a lesser extent, by boys* That is, it was men’s dress and essentially the same for all Kusemai players,
irrespective of sex or age* The record of the performance in \ .
(53) _ (54)
II4.27 states that the boys wore suikan, oguchi and upright eboshi. and the men hitatare and oguchi. the same costume as
that worn with an eboshi in the Uta-awase illustration. The cost ume of women dancers is also known to have been suikan and
_
(
55)
oguchi * The use of eboshi by women Kusemai performers may also be assumed from their use among other Kusemai players and Shirabyoshi and in performances of Kusemai in such No plays as Hyakuman and Utaura. The Uta-awase drawings show the Kusemai
dancer carrying the same type of fan and having the same kind of drum by his side as the Shirabyoshi. The continued importance of
the drum in-Kusemai is easily understandable from what is known (56)
of the music , and the unfailing use* .of a fan by Kusemai per formers is mirrored even now in Ho plays, viiiere the dancer always carries a fan during the kuse section. /
Kusemai performances must have consisted mostly of minor public ones on the varied occasions when a worthwhile audi
ence could be found* Kusemai were i*egularly performed on floats forming part of the procession in G-ion ceremonies in Kybto and
(57)
other places , but such performances were seldom recorded,
being usually of no particular importance and an accepted part of the scene. Like Sarugaltu and Dengaku, Kusemai were also given in the private mansions of the nobility and at big subscription per-
(58)