Maple Viewing

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Maple Viewing

October 1887, Tokyo

A gorgeous dance piece based on the Noh play Momijigari and using a combination of tokiwazu, takemoto and nagauta musical styles. It was chosen by Danjuro IX as one of his family’s Eighteen New Select Plays. It is a dramatization of an ancient maple-viewing legend in present-day Nagano. The costumes, such as Koremochi’s overcoat and eboshi hat, are based on clothing true to the Heian Period rather than the usual updating to Edo Period styles, reflecting efforts by Danjuro IX to bring plays in line with historical fact.
A book published the year before this drama spoke of a demon woman in Mt. Togakushi in the 10th century. It depicted her as a beautiful woman named Maple who had a child with one of the founders of the Genji clan, an enemy of the Tairas. She supposedly became a demon and built a military force, but was killed by Taira Koremochi, who appears in this show, in 969.

●main graphic
［from left］demon woman in Mt. Togakushi（Ichikawa Ebizo）、Taira no Koremochi（Onoe Shoroku）　December 2006　 Kabukiza Theatre

●publication date March 2015