Narrative
A Song by Lantern Light
歌行燈
Izumi Kyōka · 1910
Synopsis
Kitahachi, a young Noh actor from Tokyo, nephew and adopted son of the head of his school, publicly humiliates Sōzan, a blind man regarded as a master of chant, during a trip to Ise; Sōzan does not survive the affront, according to a study published by Brandeis University and an article from Chiba University. Disowned and forbidden to perform Noh, he becomes a street singer. One evening in November, in Kuwana, his uncle has a young geisha, Omie, Sōzan's daughter, brought to his inn, while Kitahachi, ill, waits at the house of a masseur nearby.
Context
The narrative begins in the present in an inn, then the past is revealed through the alternating accounts of the man, at the masseur's, and of the young woman, in a room of the inn, until the two scenes meet; the critic Yoshida Seiichi saw in it a cinematic composition. Chiba's article reads the whole as the programme of a day of nō, up to the play Ama. The author had spent a night at Kuwana, at the Funatsuya inn, which serves as the setting of the story, according to the Mie prefecture tourist office.
Who it is for
A short narrative steeped in nō theatre, whose action intertwines two scenes; an annotated English translation exists.
Prizes and reception
Adapted for the stage by Kubota Mantarō, one of whose haiku adorns the inn at Kuwana, and brought to the screen in 1960.
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