Tue, Nov 19, 2024
Yukio Mishima’s modern adaptation of the kyogen classic “Busu” (Delicious Poison) was staged for the first time in Japan — in Tokyo and Kyoto — in September 2024. The famed novelist and playwright (1925-70) would not have written the script if he had not met eminent scholar and translator of Japanese literature Donald Keene (1922-2019) 70 years ago in 1954. The stage was produced by the Donald Keene Memorial Foundation (Tokyo) to mark the 70th anniversary of their meeting.
In Kyoto, Mishima’s “Busu” was staged at the Ooe Nohgakudo theater on Sept. 27. In one sequence, shop clerks exchange playful remarks as they devour “caviar” in the absence of the shopkeeper. The scene was greeted with a salvo of laughter from the audience.
In the original, the master of a home, who is anxious that his servants will eat the store of sugar while he is away, tells them that the substance is “poisonous.” In the adapted version, the story unfolds in an antique shop on Third Avenue, New York, and the shopkeeper is concerned about his store of “caviar” instead of sugar. The props used — tapestry, wine bottle and fake lemon — come as a bit of a surprise as they are unlikely to be seen on a traditional noh stage with an old pine tree on the kagami-ita back panel.
Okura-school kyogen actor Shigeyama Sennojo III, 41, who revised and produced the stage, also played the role of one of the shop clerks. “Performing for this stage was about striking a medium between the traditional gestures (kata) of kyogen and the contemporary theater, while staying faithful to Mishima’s intentions,” he said.
In 1954, Keene started learning kyogen gestures from Sennojo III’s grandfather Sennojo II (1923-2010). The apprenticeship lasted about two years. In the November of the same year, he met with Mishima at the Kabukiza Theatre in Tokyo, and they hit it off right away, their conversation ranging from Japanese literature to kabuki, noh and kyogen. Later, impressed by Mishima’s “Hanjo,” which appeared in a literary magazine before it was included in an anthology of modern noh plays, Keene took to translating this and the “Sotoba Komachi,” which was also included in the anthology. When the English translation of the anthology was published in 1957 as the “Five Modern Noh Plays,” Mishima took the occasion to visit Keene who was on the faculty of Columbia University (New York) and stayed in the U.S. for about six months.
Mishima aspired to have the noh plays in the anthology staged in Broadway. Upon a request from a stage producer, he wrote a script for the modern version of “Busu,” which was meant to be included in the New York premier of the noh plays. However, the production never materialized for want of funding.
An English translation of Mishima’s “Busu” by Laurence Kominz, Professor Emeritus of Portland State University (PSU), and his mentor Keene was published in 2007, which eventually led to its stage performance in the U.K. in 2017, and then in the U.S. in 2019.
70 years having past since Keene first met with Mishima and Sennojo II, the foundation decided to commemorate the occasion by holding a kyogen event, which included the performance of “Busu” by Sennojo III and others, and the performance of “Busu” in English and kyogen komai (short dance) by Professor Emeritus Kominz and his students at PSU. Seiki Keene, 74, who runs the foundation, said: “Keene strived to make Japan’s traditional performing arts known to the world. As an outcome of his wishes, the kyogen event proved to be truly international.”
Ryuichi Kodama, Director of Waseda University’s Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum: “We will be celebrating the centennial of Mishima’s birth next year (2025)…. Mishima wrote the script for “Busu” based on his experiences in the U.S. Dr. Keene’s legacy lives on among his students — including the next generation of students who have studied under them — who continue to study Japan’s traditional performing arts abroad and share their knowledge. The debut performance should serve as a good opportunity for the Japanese to rediscover the value of their own culture.”
Theatergoers in New York were enthused when Mishima’s “Five Modern Noh Plays” came out in the U.S. in 1957. Inevitably, a Broadway stage producer approached Mishima and asked if he was interested in having the noh plays staged by American actors.
The producer suggested they should add a newly written kyogen to their program because just running a series of noh plays could be too monotonous for the audience. Mishima, who was very knowledgeable about kyogen himself, asked Keene to do the writing instead, knowing that he was an excellent translator of Japanese literature. Keene obliged and started working on an adaptation of the classic kyogen “Hanago,” which did not go well. Eventually, Mishima took over and finished the script based on “Busu.”
In an essay on his companionship with known writers of Japanese literature, Keene reminisced that Mishima jotted his translations on a notebook, the kind used by American junior high school kids, without making a single mistake until he finished the entire piece. He added that the tremendous speed with which he wrote was typical of his genius.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun and other sources)
Donald Keene (1922-2019)
Born and raised in New York, the later prominent scholar and translator of Japanese literature first studied Japanese and Japanese history at Columbia College (the undergraduate school of Columbia University). In 1942, he entered the Navy Japanese Language School to serve as a translator and interpreter during World War II, and visited Japan for the first time in 1945. He continued his studies after the war, receiving a fellowship to study at Kyoto University for two years in 1953. While in Kyoto, he befriended prominent Japanese authors including Yukio Mishima, Junichiro Tanizaki and later Nobel Prize laureate Yasunari Kawabata. He returned to Columbia in 1955, where he gave lectures on Japanese literature and cultural history for decades until he retired and was named professor emeritus in 1992. He continued to teach graduate students until 2011. He is also known to have dedicated his career to studying classic Japanese literature including works by Edo-period playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon and haiku poet Matsuo Basho. He obtained Japanese citizenship in 2012.
(Bio based on information from Donald Keene Center at Columbia University website https://www.keenecenter.org/index.html and other sources)
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