Miidera (play)

Miidera was a Noh play centred around a mad woman, and her search for her son at the temple complex of Mii-dera near Kyoto.

Plot

Driven mad by the loss of her young son, possibly abducted as a boy prostitute,^[1] the heroine is urged in a dream to seek him at Miidera temple.^[2] There the woman is much impressed by the temple bell, and recounts a long list of episodes involving temple bells.^[3]

When she finally draws attention to herself by striking the bell, she is recognised by and reunited with her son^[4] - the aesthete Oswald Valentine Sickert considering that "The sounding of the bell is the hinge of everything, a thing of great sentiment".^[5]

Literary links

An early haiku quotes the play: "Hey there, wait a moment / before you strike the bell /at the cherry blossoms".^[6]

References

^ G Leupp, Male Colors (1997) p. 68
^ Miidera
^ K Brazell ed., Traditional Japanese Theater (1998) p. 159
^ J-P Potel, Yeats and Noh (2015) p. 193
^ Quoted in A Waley, The Noh Plays of Japan (1976) p. 250
^ Roger Scruton, The Aesthetics of Music (1999) p. 464

[1] G Leupp, Male Colors (1997) p. 68

[2] Miidera

[3] K Brazell ed., Traditional Japanese Theater (1998) p. 159

[4] J-P Potel, Yeats and Noh (2015) p. 193

[5] Quoted in A Waley, The Noh Plays of Japan (1976) p. 250

[6] Roger Scruton, The Aesthetics of Music (1999) p. 464

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

Plot

Literary links

See also

References