is a Noh play of the 16th century by .
The play falls into the category of genzai-mono, or present time plays, where the action takes place consecutively, without the (more usual) retrospective flashback.A Waley, The Noh Plays of Japan (1976) p. 27 and p. xxvii
Historical setting The play takes place during the youth of the samurai leader Minamoto no Yoshitsune, then known as Ushiwaka or Young Bull, at a time when (following the Hōgen rebellion), the Taira clan were in power in Japan. Ushiwaka was in seclusion at Kurama temple, where he was learning martial arts, supposedly at the hands of a goblin-like Tengu.R Knutsen, Tengu (2011) p. 114
Plot Ushiwaka absconds from the temple to join a merchant caravan, and to disguise himself orders an eboshi, or warrior hat, "folded to the left [as] in the time of the Minamoto clan".A Waley, The Noh Plays of Japan (1976) p. 41 Though warned against this on the grounds that "after the years of Hōgen, the house of Hei [Taira] prevailed, and the whole land was theirs",A Waley, The Noh Plays of Japan (1976) p. 43 he persists in his request, and on obtaining the eboshi, he offers his sword in payment. The hatmaker and his wife, Minamoto sympathisers, refuse to accept it, and Young Bull retrieves his sword, promising that "if ever I come into the World [power] again, I will not forget".A Waley, The Noh Plays of Japan (1976) p. 46
A bandit attack on the merchants sees the sword immediately brought into use, as Young Bull calls upon the secret arts of the Kurama tengu to defeat the robbers and slay their leader, Kumasaka, in single combat.H C McCullogh, Yoshitsune (1976) p. 40
Later developments The twenty-first century has seen Simon Starling build on the play as a study in personal reinvention so as to create an exhibition of masks.Simon Starling
See also
Benkei on the Bridge Hachiman Pointed hat Sōjōbō
References
External links Eboshi-ori