Atsumori (play)

Atsumori, roughly 16 years old at the time of the battle of Ichi-no-Tani (1184), was killed by the Minamoto warrior Kumagai Naozane.

Kumagai also notes that none of his fellow Genji (Minamoto) warriors were cultivated to a point where they would ride into battle with a flute.

Royall Tyler's analysis, preceding his translation of the play, focuses on the contrasts between Atsumori, the young, peaceful courtier and flute player, and Kumagai, the older seasoned warrior.

The ghost of Atsumori, disguised as a grass cutter, is the shite role, and Kumagai, having become a monk and changed his name to Renshō (or Rensei), is played by the waki.

A kyōgen performer, playing an anonymous villager, speaks with Renshō and relates to the audience the background of the story of Atsumori, Kumagai and the battle of Ichi-no-tani.

思へばこの世は常の住み家にあらず 草葉に置く白露、水に宿る月よりなほあやし 金谷に花を詠じ、榮花は先立つて無常の風に誘はるる 南楼の月を弄ぶ輩も　月に先立つて有為の雲にかくれり 人間五十年、化天のうちを比ぶれば、夢幻の如くなり 一度生を享け、滅せぬもののあるべきか これを菩提の種と思ひ定めざらんは、口惜しかりき次第ぞ If you think about it, this world is not for us to inhabit forever: It is more transient than dewdrops on blades of grass, or the moon reflected in the water.