Seiōbo

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Scene from Seiōbo

Seiōbo ( Japanese 西 王母 ), Queen Mother of the West , is the title of a Nō drama written by Zeami . The piece is a first play in the Nō category.

Preliminary remark

Season: spring, 3rd month according to the lunar calendar. Location: Palace of King Mu (穆王) of the Zhou Dynasty .

  • Kyōgen: Official of the Tang Dynasty
  • Waki: King Mu
  • Wakizure: Minister of the King
  • Shite I: Young woman
  • Tsure I: companion with a peach blossom branch
  • Shite II: goddess with ornamental sword
  • Tsure II: companion with peach

action

  1. act
    1. Prelude: (A box made of poles is set up: the king's throne.) An official of the ruler Mu praises the happy dynasty and the good times. (The official resigns, King Mu appears with his company). Minister: “Oh luck, worthy of praise! From time immemorial, from the three original rulers (三皇) and the five great emperors to the government of today, where would there have been such happy dynasties. ”The choir sings about the palace and the capital.
    2. The leading figure, the Queen Mother of the West, appears as an unrecognizable woman with an accompanist to the sound of an orchestra. Both have peach branches in their hands and both come from the bridge onto the stage: “All the people flock to see the splendor of the flowers”.
    3. Question and answer between the woman and the king regarding the peach that blossoms happily and produces fruit only once in 3000 years. Eternal life in the garden of the Queen Mother of the West. Singing, dispute with escalation to the point where it becomes clear who this woman is. The woman leaves with her companion.
    4. Interlude
  2. act
    1. Waiting singing. With the sound of the orchestra, the Queen Mother appears in her true form and in grand appearance. She hands over the peach of eternal life to the ruler and dances a final dance while the choir praises the flowers as the Queen Mother ascends into heaven.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Woodcut by Tsukioka Kōgyo (月 岡 耕 漁; 1869–1924).
  2. ↑ Kyōgen (狂言) actually refers to the rather comical interlude in the Nō.

literature

  • Donald Keene (Ed.): The Queen Mother of the West . In: Twenty Plays of the Nō Theater. Columbia University Press, 1970. ISBN 0-231-03455-5 . Pp. 254 to 264.
  • Roppeita day care center: Seiōbo . Daycare school, Tōkyō, 1962.
  • Hermann Bohner: Sei-ô-bo In: Nō. The individual Nō. German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia, Tōkyō 1956. Commission publisher Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. Pp. 603 to 605.