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Comic Interludes (kyōgen 狂言),

dated 1921

Mizuno Uemon (Monsui), 1859–1932
Japanese
Taishō era, 1912–1926
2003-303 a-b

Information

Title
Comic Interludes (kyōgen 狂言)
Dates

dated 1921

Medium
Pair of six-fold screens; ink and color on paper
Dimensions
sheet (each): 127.7 × 45 cm (50 1/4 × 17 11/16 in.) screen (each): 174 × 367 cm (68 1/2 × 144 1/2 in.) (exterior panels 174 × 62.5 cm., interior panels 174 × 60.5 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Earl and Virginia Miner
Object Number
2003-303 a-b
Place Made

Asia, Japan

Description

Monsui was a Nagoya merchant. His proper name was Mizuno Uemon水野宇右衛門, and his mercantile designation was Iseya. Twelve scenes of kyōgen, the comic interludes played between nō dramas. Each scene is inscribed with calligraphy that identifies each scene. A colophon listing the comic interludes and dating the screen is found on the back of Screen a.

Kyōgen scenes on Screen a:

1. Suehirogari 末広末廣 (“The Fan of Felicity”, or “The Sread-End Fan”) (すえひろがり)

http://kyogen-in-english.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/The-Spread-End-Fan.pdf

Suehirogari is one of twenty-three Auspicious Plays (waki kyōgen) in the current kyōgen repertory. This play uses the relationship of a servant to his master, contrast of country simplicity and city trickery, misunderstandings of language, and dance for humor.

Ref: uehirogari. Dorothy T. Shibano, “The Fan of Felicity,” Monumenta Nipponica

vol. 35, no. 1 (Spring, 1980), pp. 77-88.

2. Hanako (Hanago) 花子 (はなご)

French in Peri, "Farces japonaises," 1924. ("Mademoiselle Hana") ["Hanako"]

3. Funawatashi muko 船渡聟 (ふなわたしむこ)

4. Narihira mochi 業平餅 (なりひらもち)

French in Sieffert, Nō et Kyōgen, 1979, vol. 1 ("Les galettes de Narihira")

5. Hana no [][][]

6. Kusabira (“Mushrooms”) (くさびら)

The “mountain hermit” (yamabushi 山伏) flees in terror of mushrooms, and the more he prays for them to stop, the more they multiply.

Kyōgen scenes on Screen b:

7. Sanbon no hashira

Kenny, Kyogen Book, 1989 ("Three Poles")

8. Chidori 千鳥 (ちどり)

Morley, Carolyn A. "Plovers: A Tarō Kaja Play," in Heinrich, Currents, 1997, 323-335.

9. Futaribakama 二人袴 (ふたりばかま)

Kenny, Kyogen Book, 1989 ("Two in One Hakama").

10. Ishigami 石神 (いしがみ)

A.L.Sadler, Japanese Plays, 1934. ("The Stone God")

11. Taue田植 (たうえ)

(Rice-Planting Ceremony)

12. Utsubozaru 靱猿 (うつぼざる)

Kenny, Kyogen Book, 1989 ("The Money-Skin Quiver")

Ref:

http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~pmjs/biblio/kyogen.html

http://kyogen-in-english.com/plays/

Culture
Period
Type

–1960-61 Nakagawa Saihei (Nagoya, Japan), sold to Earl and Virginia Miner (Princeton, NJ)
–2003 Earl and Virginia Miner (Princeton, NJ), by gift to the Princeton University Art Museum, 2003.