Eguchi, from the series: A Lineup of No Plays for the Hanazono Club

Utsukushiki Ume wo mikakete Uguisu mo Kari no yadori wo Tanomu naruran Having come across Beautiful plum blossoms Will the warbler also For a night’s lodgings Come to plead? —Suikyo ¯tei Umekage Haru no yo no Kari no yadori ni Ukareme no Sugata no yanagi Koto no ha no hana In the temporary lodgings Of a spring night The form of a courtesan Slender as a willow Leaves of words as flowers —Renkido ¯Kazumasu Utsukushi ya Hana no sugata no Fugen zo ¯ Asahi no beni no Niou kuchibiru How beautiful— The flowery figure of The Fugen image Lips with the gloss Of the dawn’s rouge —Shunyutei Umeaki In the Tokugawa Era Yo ¯kyoku (no ¯plays), were patronized only by the ruling samurai class, and not, like kabuki, supported by mass audiences. Yet, the texts of these “elite” no ¯ plays often served as the basis for kabuki plots, as well as recondite references in surimono and some ukiyo-e prints. The play represented here is Eguchi, which relates the story of the celebrated poet-priest Saigyo (1118-1190), who, while on a journey, begged a night’s lodging from a local courtesan. The Lady of Eguchi refuses to let him stay, however, for his own good, and they exchange poems. In the climax of the play, the Lady of Eguchi is revealed to have been the Bodhisattva of Universal Virtue, Fugen (Samantabhadra), in disguise, and rides off into the clouds on a white elephant. The character for “image” in the third poem is homophonous with elephant, thus giving the secondary reading “the Fugen elephant.” The poems also employ Buddhist phrases, kari no yadori (“the temporary lodging [of this life]”) and sugata, the Buddhist term for “form,” but also meaning figure, thereby stressing the beauty of the lady, who appears in the image as an early Tokugawa Era style courtesan. The overlay is not only of a religious figure with a sexual one, but also of a classical paragon with a modern day type. Plum blossom motifs combine references to spring and female beauty, while the coloring of the print is light and ethereal.