ABSTRACT
THE SHUNI-E at Kōfuku-ji temple (formerly held in mid-March, now on 11 and 12 May) is an eclectic festival still retaining aspects of the sarugaku tradition. The Takigi (Open-Air) noh is not old, judging from the details of the plays, but it has a long history. According to one source, it goes back to the year 869, when, during a shuni-e, an open-air Daitō-mai (Great China Dance) was performed by exorcist priests called Shushi. The Shushi-hashiri of Kasuga shrine may be a vestige of such performances. Nowadays, the open-air noh takes place near the Nandaimon (South Great Gate) of the temple. The earliest reference to this location may be found in a document of 1367, when priests of Seikondō (West Golden Hall) and Tōkondō (East Golden Hall) competed in noh performances. These performances became a popular attraction in the Muromachi and early Edo periods, when a total of forty-nine plays were performed in eight days. On the eleventh of May, the grand masters (iemoto) of the four great schools of noh – Kanze, Konparu, Hōshō and Kongō – performed. On the twelfth, the students of the Konparu and Kongō schools (both with strong roots in the area of Kyōto and Nara) competed with each other. The repertoire consisted of the following plays: Kongō School noh: Wakabune, kyōgen: Kanigassen Hōshō School noh: Fuji, kyōgen: Mizukakemuko Kanze School noh: Kagetsu Kongō School noh: Tetsurin Kongō School noh: Ama, kyōgen: Utsubozaru Hōshō School noh: Hagoromo, kyōgen: Ochanomizu Kongō School noh: Kantan Kanze School noh: Funabenkei Before these plays, the performers purify the stage by spreading white paper and then stamping on it.
