More Onmyouji geekery

[flemmings]

So I think about translating Kanawa, the iron ring, which Whatserface in the movies wore on her head. But it's full of poetry in medieval Japanese. Odd poetry, not in tanka form, with repeated lines. I google the first line, find two mentions in Japanese, relating either to Izumi Shikibu (but it's *not* in tanka form...) or noh plays. Google Kanawa itself and get much info on Dame Kiri until I add 'noh', and bingo. Noh play, hence the repetition, about a jealous woman, based on a story in Konjaku Monogatari. (Very clearly I need a copy of that thing, preferably translated into modern Japanese.) Seimei appears in the play and, we may assume, in the Konjaku story. I'd bet money Hiromasa does not, even if he plays a major role in Yumemakura's rendition.

There are no online copies of the play that I can find, but there's a line by line translation and commentary of the plays in the Kanawa grouping, Troubled Souls from Japanese Noh, by one Chifumi Shimazaki. Another useful link lets me search libraries for copies, and of course UofT has one. I can't get it, natch, but I bet my bunnies' father can, thus saving me much spiritual wear and tear. Konjaku I'll wade through in the original but Zeami is bloody poetry.

Yet another link reveals that my old ukiyo-e dealer has a webpage and a modern illo of an actor in the Kanawa role. I am so happy to live in an age that has google.

Comments

[mbwun.livejournal.com]

For some reason it sprang into my head this overly weird silly thought of if Hiromasa lived in an age with google he might understnd more of Seimei's rants.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Google 'ju' 呪 and find out what other people have said about it in their deadjournals. Preferably people who aren't trying to twist your head around.

Come to that, maybe there's an explanation of onmyou principles somewhere easier to understand than the Onmyouji mangaka's clear as mud explications. (There is, actually, in a manga series from Racish whose name I've forgotten.)

[franzeska]

I got rather fed up the other day (well, and I had time due to being stood up by my exchange partner), so I went to Bookoff and actually had a look through the history section. I found some sort of manga-ish guide to the Heian period that appears to explain things a bit better than that blasted Okano. It's more focussed on listing different types of divination though. No luck finding modern Japanese versions of anything classical though--bother.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose people who buy that kind of book then sell it again. Was the other book one of those manga histories of the Heian period, or was the guide happening with a plot or something?

[franzeska]

I think it's just a dumbed down history book with manga-style illustrations, though there is a section at the end with little characters running through modern day Kyoto, pointing out all the historically significant sites.