Ukai (Nō)

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Scene from "Kormoranfischer"

Ukai ( Japanese 鵜 飼 ), The Cormorant Fisherman , is the title of a Nō drama, edited by Zeami . The piece is a fifth game within the Nō category.

Preliminary remark

Fishing with cormorants on rivers has been handed down in Japan since ancient times. Fishing is done by torchlight on moonless nights, with the fisherman standing in the bow of the boat and holding up to twelve cormorants on a line. They wear neck rings to prevent them from swallowing the fish they catch. These are then taken from them by the fisherman. Today, fishing with cormorants still takes place at Nagara in Gifu Prefecture and at Fuefuki River in Isawa .

In Buddhism, the killing of living beings is strictly prohibited.

It occurs:

  • Waki: A wandering monk
  • Wakizure: Another monk
  • Shite I: The cormorant fisherman
  • Shite II: The Hell King

action

  1. act
    1. Prelude: The wandering monk appears with an accompanying monk with the name given. They come from Awa Province and are on their way to Kai Province . Arrival in Isawa , shelter at the temple there. - (In Bohner: Intermezzo: Conversation between the monk and a man from Isawa.)
    2. Enter a fisherman. First song: "When the fisherman's torch ..." "Truly in the world ..." "When the boat's torch light goes out ..."
    3. Conversation between priest and fisherman: "We are the pilgrim monks ..." The fisherman's story about the crime committed and the unfortunate downfall. "You must know …"
    4. Exchange speech (representation of the cormorant fisherman.) Choir: "See the two, see them in the bright light of the torch ..." The fisherman leaves.
    5. Interlude
  2. act
    1. Waiting song of the priest. When the flute is fast, the Hell King appears. "... That man fished in the rivers and streams from his youth and thus piled sin upon sin ... but since he gave shelter to a monk for one night, I now have to bring him quickly to the realm of bliss ..." Exchange speech with the choir. The final chorus ends: "... Truly, the Buddha's teaching is the hope of all beings, it is the hope of all beings."

literature

  • Peter Weber-Schäfer: The cormorant fisherman . In: Twenty-four Nō games. Insel Verlag, 1961. ISBN 3-458-15298-X . Pp. 183 to 189.
  • Hermann Bohner: U-kai In: Nō. The individual Nō. German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia, Tōkyō 1956. Commission publisher Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. Pp. 634 to 635.