Scene from Saigyōzakura, woodblock print by Tsukioka Kōgyo, from the series Nōgaku hyakuban or One Hundred Noh Plays (National Noh Theatre)

Saigyōzakura (西行桜, Saigyō's cherry tree) is a Noh play by Zeami about the famous poet Saigyō, regarding his well-known love for cherry blossoms.

Background

Saigyō was renowned for his love of the flowering cherry - what he himself once called "my lifelong habit of having my mind immersed in blossoms".[1]

As a recluse however, he sometimes found himself in conflict with the Japanese habit of collective blossom viewing: as he wrote in his Sankashū, "Leave me in solitude/O Cherry flowers./Draw not people,/for they come in crowds".[2]

Plot

Wishing to be alone with his cherry-blossoms,[3] Saigyō is annoyed by the arrival of a party of (potential) viewers; and, on admitting them, composes a waka blaming the cherry tree for their intrusive presence.

That night he is visited by the spirit of the cherry-tree, who rebukes him by pointing out the separateness and independence of all living creatures from human concerns.[4] The two then converse, before the play ends with an extensive dance celebrating cherry flowers, exceptional sakura sites like Kiyomizu-dera, and the transient beauty of Spring.[5]

See also

Further reading

Twelve Plays of the Noh and Kyôgen Theatres, Karen Brazell (ed.) 1988

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saigyōzakura.
  1. ↑ W LaFleur, Awesome Nightfall (Boston 2003) p. 54 and p. 142
  2. ↑ H H Honda trans, The Sanka Shu: The Mountain Hermitage (Hokuseido Press 1971) p. 16
  3. ↑ Saigyo-zakura
  4. ↑ S Leiter, Japanese Theatre and the International Stage (2021) p. 153
  5. ↑ S Leiter, Japanese Theatre and the International Stage (2021) p. 153-4


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