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Funabenkei

船弁慶

[Genre]Noh

Funabenkei appears on the following albums

Album Artist
Play ButtonTraditional Music of Japan, The - 01
Band 7 presents a part of the first act (Maejite) of a Noh play entitled, Funabenkei, meaning "Benkei on the boat," and Band 8 presents the entire scene of the second act (Nochi-jite) of the drama. The drama of Funabenkei is concerned with a famous historical story of the Genji (or Minamoto) family which established the first Shogunate (feudal lord) in 1192. Yoshitsune, the younger brother of the lord, was forced by the lord to escape from Kyoto. He planned to go west of Japan by boat. His sweetheart, Shizuka, accompanied him to the harbor where Yoshitsune had to leave her because of the hard journey by boat. At the farewell party she danced for him with sad grief and sympathy because of his unhappiness in the struggle with his brother. The present record begins with music of the dance, Chu-no-mai, which is performed in an abbreviated style, that is, the second and third sections of the four sections which construct the whole dance piece, are omitted. The dance is accompanied by the ensemble (hayashi) consisting of three instruments without the Taiko (the flat drum played with two sticks). The Taiko is used only for the second act of this drama. The dance is followed by the melancholy singing of Shizuka and the chorus, telling that Yoshitsune and his party are getting on board and Shizuka stares at Yoshitsune and cries.

Another important feature of Noh music which seems strange and unfamiliar to the uninitiated is a kind of shout or call, (Kakegoe in Japanese). Shouts such as ho, yo, iya, etc., are given by the drummers. The purpose and effect of these shouts are to some extent the same as musical shouts of other nations. However, in the case of Noh music, the necessity and importance of the shout is much greater, and the style and performance of shouts are highly refined. The shout itself is an integral part of the music.
Play ButtonTraditional Music of Japan, The - 01
At the end of Act I the Shite (principal actor) as Shizuka went to the back stage to change costume and mask. The new mask is that of the ghost of Taira no Tomomori who was .a general of the Heike or Taira family, the enemy of the Minamoto family, and was destroyed by that family. Before the appearance of the Shite in the second act, there is the voyage scene of Yoshitsune and Benkei, his .first attendant, and others together with a boatman performed by the Kyogen. While upon the sea they are engulfed by a savage storm. The second act begins with the chorus describing the imaginative scene of the huge navy of the fallen Heike family. This is immediately followed by the appearance of the ghost of Tomomori at the curtain of the passage stage (Hashigakari). When Tomomori announce’s his name, the curtain is closed, and to the accompaniment of a fast instrumental ensemble piece, Haya-fue (fast-flute), the ghost runs on to the stage. The chorus sings at the beginning of the struggle between Tomomori and Yoshitsune which is continued in the intense dance-fight accompanied by the Hayashi in a piece called Maibataraki (dancing movement). After the dance the party begins praying by rubbing rosaries and finally the ghost is driven away by prayer. During the chorus illustrating these last scenes, the shout of the boatman is heard.