Kissing the Mask: Beauty, Understatement and Femininity in Japanese Noh Theater, with Some Thoughts on Muses (Especially Helga Testorf), Transgender Women, ... Geishas, Valkyries and Venus Figurines

Notes

All sources are cited in short form (e.g.; “Ze-ami” and “Zeami”). The bibliography immediately follows. When quoting from Rimer and Yamazaki, I have not capitalized “Flower,” “Grace,” etc., since the other Zeami translation I cite did not.

Epigraph: “What am I to do with you…” — Manyoshu, p. 86 (poem 248: “Addressed to a Young Woman”), slightly “retranslated” by WTV. In his modern version of the Noh play “The Damask Drum,” Mishima has an old janitor rhapsodize about his cruel young beloved: “She’s the princess of the laurel, the tree that grows in the garden of the moon” (Five Modern No Plays, p. 40). And why not? In the original, the old gardener says: “They talk of the moon-tree, the laurel that grows in the Garden of the Moon…” (Waley, The Noh Plays of Japan, p. 172; “Aya no Tsuzumi”).

Epigraph: “Dresses make the lady…” — Von Mahlsdorf, p. 109.

Epigraph: A woman never imitates herself.” — Zeami, p. 142 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

0: UNDERSTATEMENTS ABOUT THIS STRING-BALL OF IDLE THOUGHTS

Epigraph, p. 1: “His colleagues gave their leisure to various pastimes…” — Mishima, Runaway Horses, pp. 5–6. Kafu (p. 108) refers to the same phenomenon less contemptuously in his lovely description of an aesthete’s observations of nature during “an idle life in a kind of watery world whose loneliness he relished.”

2: Footnote: The poem about the book of Noh lessons — Ueda, Light Verse, p. 172 (senryu “retranslated” by WTV).

2: “Can’t a man praise the woman he loves?” — In a trope which Mishima must have liked, Zeami compares the actor who is not also a playwright to “a brave warrior who is on the battlefield without arms” (op. cit., p. 41 [“Fushikaden”]). I similarly compare to this unarmed warrior the observer of feminine beauty who has not loved women much.

2: “Can’t he describe her?” — In the ancient Welsh Mabinogion a raven lands on a duck’s corpse. “Peredur stood and likened the exceeding blackness of the raven, and the whiteness of the snow, and the redness of the blood, to the hair of the woman he loved best, which was as black as jet, and her flesh to the whiteness of snow, and the redness of the blood in the white snow to the two red spots in the cheeks of the woman he loved best” (p. 178, “Peredur Son of Efrawg”).

1: “THE MASK IS MOST IMPORTANT ALWAYS”

10: Footnote: Comments of Noh expert in Umewaka lineage — Clark corrections, unnumbered p. 2.

10: Mr. Umewaka Rokuro as a candidate for best living Noh actor in Japan — For instance: “Unanimously called a genius, Umewaka Rokuro is arguably the best dancer/actor alive.” — Yokoyama Taro ms., p. 2 of 3.

10: Footnote about kimonos — Brazell (pp. 120–21) gives the nomenclature, and all of the following derives from her. She notes that “the basic garment” is “similar to the modern kimono.” She provides the names for the materials used to fabricate kimonos for male and female roles; these I omit. The outer brocade robe is called a kara-ori. Such garments as hunting cloaks have their own names. The stiffened pleated skirts are made of okuchi if plain and hangiri if satin with gold or silver weft. Brazell goes on to detail wigs and other aspects of Noh and kyogen costuming.

11: Remarks of Mr. Umewaka Rokuro — Interviews in Tokyo and Osaka, April 2002. The Noh actress Yamamura Yoko was interviewed in Tokyo at the same time, on the premises of Mr. Umewaka’s school.

11: The stink of Noh kimonos — Jeff Clark objects (correction to ms. p. 3) that “they’re freshened with sachets, incense and an occasional venting. So it’s misleading to say that they stink. The undergarments that get the most sweat etc. are washed.” All the same, the kimonos brought to me by Mr. Umewaka’s apprentices did stink.

17: Zeami: “All the exercises must be severely and strictly done…” — Ze-ami, p. 16. His name is sometimes also transliterated “Seami.”

18: One observer: “A religious and sober atmosphere of almost suffocating intensity” — Ze-ami, p. 4 (foreword).

19: Dr. Yokoyama Taro: “Unlike most other music/dance performances…” — Tokoyama Taro, trans. by Sato Yoshiaki, p. 1 of 3.

20: Footnote on shura — Jeff Clark corrections, note to ms p. 9.

20: Excerpt from Taiheiki — De Bary et al., p. 291 (“The Loyalist Heroes”).

20: Footnote: Sins washed away by the Great Exorcism — Ibid., pp. 34–35. Another peculiar sin listed is “woes from creeping insects.”

Same footnote: “The Mahayana Precepts” — Ibid., p. 143.

20: “The sin of human beings” — When I remarked on the sadness of a similar Noh drama, Mr. Umewaka said, “After all, he got involved in war, so that’s the tragedy of the human being. Tsunemasa is talented; he loves the lute so much, and because of his love of the instrument he returns as a ghost. He was involved in the war without his intention. But it is a sin nonetheless.” Here it may be worth remarking on the Shinto notion of sin as defilement. In the records for The Great Exorcism of the Last Day of the Sixth Month (recorded in 927 AD), we find enumerated among the heavenly and earthly sins to be washed away by the Great Exorcism of the Last Day of the Sixth Month such evil choices as violating one’s child or violating a mother and her child, then such ambiguous acts as killing animals, covering up ditches and double planting, which survival itself might necessitate, and finally unavoidable consequences of biology itself — for instance, defecation. What is guilt in this context? Indeed, some Buddhists might say, what is guilt in any context? Evil and delusion burdens us as does biological necessity. Only sacred mercy can save us. But save us it can. “The Mahayana Precepts in ‘Admonitions of the Fanwang Sutra’ ” go so far as to guarantee that all of us defecators from kings to prostitutes to supernatural beings can be named “most pure ones” if we accept the Buddha’s Admonitions of the Law.

21: Kagekiyo: “The end is near…” — Waley, p. 133.

21: “Late dewdrops are our lives…” — Loc. cit.

21: One scholar: “In the time of Tokugawa (A.D. 1602 to 1868)…” — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 7 (Fenollosa writing; my italics). I would have quoted from my other copy, which contains the original introduction by Fenollosa, but since Umewaka Minoru is mentioned in it so extensively I gave it to Mr. Umewaka.

22: Zeami: “The impersonation of old men is the most important thing in Noh…” — Ze-ami, p. 27.

23: Zeami: “He must not bend too much at the waist or at the knees…” — Ibid., pp. 26–27 (“Fushikaden”).

23: Information on the meaning of “Tosaka” — Tochigi Reiko to WTV, 2009.

26: Footnote: “Until the Edo period, Noh was a popular art form…” — Clark corrections, unnumbered p. 5.

27: Footnote: “As for the portrayal of high ranking officers and noblemen, or of natural things…” — Loc. cit.

30: Noh performances by women in Muromachi period — Rath, p. 9.

30: The three greatest masks of Tatsuemon — Re: “Snow” the following may be of interest: “I have been requested to repair and copy the Honmen of ‘Yuki’ from its owner, and I have also seen the Hako-iri-musume ko-omote… which is a detailed copy of the Honmen ‘Yuki’ kept by Kanzesoke [and evidently itself a copy of Tatsuemon’s ‘Yuki,’ mentioned on p. 36; plate 4]. With these in mind, I focused on creating an accurate copy. The bone structure, such as the nose tilted to the right and the chin towards the left, which are characteristics of ‘Yuki,’ could be done perfectly from my long years of experience. However, the colors from Muromachi-period… were difficult. ‘Yuki’ is a prime example of the subtleness and profoundness of Noh, and has a slight blue color. In modern stages, the ‘Tsuki’ whose nose is tilted left delivers more emotion to the viewers, but with ‘Yuki,’ the nose is tilted to the right. It is a difficult mask requiring a higher level of performance” (Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko, p. 35); English slightly rev. by WTV.

30: Zeami: It is “really easy” for the Noh actor to “play the part of an ordinary woman…” — Loc. cit.

33: Remarks of Otsuka Ryoji — From an interview in his studio in Shimada City, Shizuoka Prefecture, 2004.

34: Atsumori — In the source version in The Tale of the Heike (vol. 2, p. 562), he was 17, not 15.

34: Footnote: Zoology of high female eyebrows — Morris, p. 32.

36: “Izutsu”: “A frail dream breaks awake; the dream breaks to dawn.” — Brazell, p. 157 (“Izutsu,” trans. by Karen Brazell; for clarity I have slightly altered the wording).

37: Footnote: “ ‘How tall you have grown since last I saw you!’…” — Lady Murasaki, The Tale of Genji, pp. 178–79. Kawabata once said: “It is almost inconceivable that I should ever feel deep love for a woman who is completely adult” (quoted in Keene, Dawn to the West, p. 805). The Japanese interest in extreme youth, which sometimes makes Occidentals uncomfortable, may be seen in the following movies from the twenty-four-hour Rainbow Channel (2 Hour Adult Channel schedule, inner sheet): “The Memorial Love of School Girl 2,” “Conquest Amateur School Girs [sic] 1”, “The Nude of Anonymouse [sic] School Girl.” — “On the Sister’s Body” and “An Exhibitionist Sister Special Version” may deal with incestuous couples who are still young enough to live together. My favorite title, alas, has nothing to do with the themes of this book: “Honey Wife in an Apron on the Naked Body.”

38: Footnote: “Their hos and yas indicate where they are in the score…” — Jeff Clark corrections, ms. p. 28.

39: Footnote: Mr. Umewaka’s acquaintance with Mishima — Jeff Clark corrections, unnumbered p. 6.

41: “It’s like praying to the god, wishing for good harvest.” — Mr. Kanze Hideo, same interview.

41: Sexual continence of the Okina actor — “When I was a child, you had to purify yourself,” said Mr. Kanze Hideo (interviewed in the lobby of his hotel in Kyoto, May 2005). “You couldn’t eat together with others. You had to eat specially prepared rice for a week. You have to use different water from others just to make tea. We were so strict when I was a child! Nowadays it’s not that strict. But still when we perform “Okina” we make a kind of thing in the waiting room and display Okina’s mask and dedicate it to the god. Before the shite starts, all the performers have sake. Even if you can’t drink, you just pretend that you drink.”

41: Sexual continence of the Okina actor (cont’d). — In this connection it is amusing to see a woodblock from Isoda Koryusai, circa 1770, depicting a courtesan being penetrated by an Okina actor whose mask she has partially pushed aside. The editor’s caption (Uhlenbeck and Winkel, p. 101) mistakenly calls “Okina” a New Year’s kyogen play.

41: Footnote: Experience of the Kongo School’s head when performing “Okina” — Ibid., p. 18.

2: SCHEMATICS

43: “In making a Noh, he must use elegant… phrases” — Zeami, p. 69 (“Shikado”).

43: “Sarugaku is the occupation of beggars…” — Diary of Go-oshikoji Kintada; quoted in Hare, p. 16. It must have been wildly popular in those days. The Taiheiki, written not long after Zeami’s career, relates (p. 131) that “around that time in the capital, men made much of the dance called field music,” namely dengaku, “and high and low there was none that did not seek after it eagerly.” The fancy garments that the lords heaped upon the actors they patronized resembled mountains; they gave them gold and silver and jewels.

44: Increasing lengths of Noh performances — Tyler, p. 13.

44: Evolving spoken parts into songs — See Hare, pp. 56–57.

44: Footnote: “Originally it was considerably more natural…” — Bowers, p. 23.

Same footnote: Rath’s claims about Noh’s ritualization — Op. cit., pp. 222–27

44: Noh’s combination of verisimilitude and elegant movements — Zeami, p. 51 (“Fushikaden”).

45: A “feeling one has the words right…” — Brower and Miner, p. 213.

45: “When one gazes upon the autumn hills…” — Brower and Miner, p. 269.

45: Auerbach on the Scriptures — Op. cit., p. 110.

46: “To call her to the curved bow’s tip…” — Tyler, p. 167 (“Kinuta”).

47: “A waki fulfills his function…” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 165 (“Shudosho”).

47: The waki’s determined immutability — After Pinguet, p. 113.

47: A scholar’s discussion of Basho’s Narrow Road — Ueda, Basho, p. 42. It has been remarked by Donald Keene (Twenty Plays of the No Theatre, p. 792) that Kawabata’s narrator in “The Izu Dancer” resembles the waki of a Noh play. Keene pushes this insight farther, claiming (Dawn to the West, p. 805) that “this is true of the men in other works by Kawabata, who serve mainly to set off the women… they are… hardly more than the waki who induces the shite to appear before us.”

47: “These generally have little to say.” — Tyler, p. 8.

47: Ghost story from The Taiheiki — Op. cit., pp. 332–33.

48: Brief explanations of the masks mentioned for “Kinuta” — Takaoka et al., unnumbered p. in ch. “A way into another world…”

49: “From the fact that earthly life has ceased…” — Auerbach, p. 192.

49: “The only wine a valley stream…” + “Wait a while…” — Brazell, pp. 186, 192 (“Shunkan,” trans. Eileen Kato).

49: Footnote: Alternate end of Shunkan — The Tale of the Heike, vol. 1, pp. 190–91.

49: Same footnote: Hokusai’s Shunkan — Men and Women, p. 231. p. 7 (Shunkan, Buddhist priest… exiled to Kikaiga-shima).

49: “The dull thud of the fulling block, in the chill of night.” — Keene, Twenty No Plays, p. 309 (“Torioi-bune”). This sound exerted a similar effect upon Lady Nijo, who (p. 29) found herself weeping at “the bleak sound of wooden mallets beating silk” not long after her father’s cremation.

49: The shite of “Izutsu,” and her alteration into her lover — Hare, pp. 150–52.

50: “We who dwell in dark delusions…” — Keene, Twenty No Plays, p. 93 (“The Brocade Tree”).

50: Zeami’s five parts of a Noh play — Hare, pp. 49–51.

52: Attainment by the demonic shite of “Aoi-no-Ue” of Buddahood “free of delusion” — Bethe and Emmert, Noh Guide 7, p. 55 (words of chorus).

53: Facts about the Noh stage — Pound and Fenollosa, pp. 34–35. The original Kabuki stage was similar (Gunji, pp. 20–22).

54: Separation of stage by white sand suggests Shinto origins — Hoover, p. 150.

54: “The music and dance of noh have always been the central concern…” — Hare, p. 55.

54: Props “always” supplied based on the music (lit. “have been always equipped based on all different music”) — Tokugawa Art Museum, p. 121; trans. for WTV by Keiko Golden.

54: Information on flute and drums — After Bethe and Emmert, Noh Guide 3, pp. 65, 67 (notes 4–5); also after Tokugawa Art Museum, p. 131; trans. for WTV by Keiko Golden (English grammar slightly corrected by WTV).

54: “A sharp, urgent click” + “a muffled, funereal boom” — Hoover, pp. 151, 150.

54: Use of the flute to begin “Atsumori” — After Bethe, Emmert and Brazell, Noh Guide 5, p. 6.

54: Information on jo, ha, kyu — After Keene, Twenty Plays of the No Theatre, p. 13.

55: “Rhythmically unobtrusive.” — Hare, p. 53.

55: “Improvisation in Noh is probably closer to that of Sviatoslav Richter…” — Clark corrections, unnumbered pp. 3–4, 6.

56: Kotoba and other modes of singing — After Brazell, p. 122.

56: “Pitch in noh is relative…” — Bethe and Emmert, Noh Guide 7, p. 60.

56: “The importance of the music is in its intervals…” — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 32.

56: “Contrary to the principles of our art.” — Zeami, quoted in Waley, The No Plays of Japan, p. 30.

56: Footnote: “Noh music probably entered its present incarnation around the beginning of the sixteenth century.” — Information from Takeda and Bethe, pp. 29, 32.

56: Skill in Noh singing was widespread among the samurai class — After Guide to Edo-Tokyo Museum, p. 14.

56: “A truly fine play involves gesture based on chanting.” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 44 (“Fushikaden”).

56: “Intelligent dancing — which might as well be called correct dancing…” — Denby, pp. 146–47 (“How to Judge a Dancer,” 1943).

56: “All the exercises must be severely and strictly done..” — Zeami, p. 16.

57: “Noh is for the warrior…” — Mr. Ichikawa Shunen, interviewed in Tokyo, January 2008; translated by Kawai Takako.

57: Admonition for performing “Matsukaze” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 184 (“Sarugaku dangi”).

57: Umewaka Minoru’s “roll” for dancers — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 30.

57: “All I am able to do is teach you the form…” — Iwasaki and Brown, p. 297.

57: “There is no room here for my own thinking.” — Zeami, p. 69.

57: Mr. Mikata Shizuka — Interviewed in his studio in Jumenji Temple, Kyoto, 2004.

57: Footnote: “It is… possible for an actor to deliver a line perfectly…” — Keene, Twenty Plays of the No Theatre, p. 2.

59: Description of mai style — Cavaye, Griffith and Senda, p. 52.

59: Mr. Kanze Hideo — Interviewed in the lobby of his hotel in Kyoto, May 2005.

61: “Their movements become dreamlike glosses…” — Bowers, p. 17.

61: “She was instantly recognized as a geisha of the very first class…” — Kafu, p. 52.

61: Meanings of red brocade robe, under-kimono’s colored neckband and diamond-fish-scale design (this I have extrapolated to the “sword and mountain” design) — Brazell, p. 121.

61: Colors associated with middle-aged women — Interview with Hagashi Sumiko, curator, Kanazawa Noh Museum, January 2008.

61: Madwomen shites let their right sleeves slip— Information from Takeda and Bethe, p. 246 (checklist of the exhibition).

61: Descriptions of Noh costumes — Mitsui family, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko, pp. 19, 56, 46, 1–15 (summary, from which I take information on fabric-dyeing and the air raids), 25, 21. Interpretations (except for that of the Chinese monster, which is spelled out in the text) are mine.

62: “Merely since the middle of the Edo period.” — Information from Takeda and Bethe, pp. 118–19 (Kawakami Shigeki, “The Development of the Karaori as a Noh Costume”).

63: Precedence in age of the Komparu School’s mask — Rath, p. 11.

63: Relative newness of Kita School — From same interview with Mr. Kanze Hideo.

63: “Kanze has the reputation of being on the flashy side…” — Clark corrections, unnumbered p. 5.

64: Kanze’s preference for ko-omotes to play shite roles — Just to remind you of the infallibility of my understanding, I report from Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko: “Ko-omote is often used for tsure in Kanze-ryu” (p. 32).

64: Footnote: Remarks of Mr. Umewaka, Jeff Clark and Dr. Yokoyama Taro — From first Umewaka interview, from Clark corrections (unnumbered p. 6), and from Dr. Yokoyama Taro’s communication to WTV, p. 3 of 3.

64: Brighter Noh pieces should be performed at night — Ibid., p. 39.

64: “The more intense the emotion, the more regular the metre.” — Tyler, p. 9.

3: MALIGNANCE AND CHARM

65: “Noh was supposedly born out of sacred Shinto chants…” — Information from Pound and Fenollosa, p. 30.

65: “Masked court dances also seem to have been already on the scene…” — Information from Rath, p. 12.

65: Footnote: Evolution of masks — After Nakanishi and Komma, pp. 102–3.

65: Miraculous origins of masks; ability to bring in a good rice crop — Ibid., pp. 18–21.

66: Motoyoshi on masks — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), (pp. 230–31, 236–38).

66: Definitions of “Sarugaku dangi” + “Noh was considered the property of the government…” — Prof. Nishino Haruo, Director, the Nogami Memorial Institute for Noh Studies, Hosei University, Tokyo, October 2006, Tochigi Reiko interpreting. Prof. Nishino showed me a two-volume work in German, copiously illustrated, by Friedrich Perzynski, which he thought to be the best treatment of this subject in any language. Unfortunately, he said, the original was extremely rare, and the English translation was poor. He was in the process of translating it into Japanese.

66: “But by the late sixteeth century…” — All information in this sentence from Rath, p. 29.

66: “There are now sixty main types…” — Information from Rath, p. 14. My translator Yasuda Nobuko summarizes Hori, Masuda and Miyano thus (pp. 17–24): “The number of Noh masks differs largely depending on where the line between basic masks and variant masks is drawn. Considering various theories, most of the current programs can be performed with 60 masks. The author divides the masks into groups A to U, with male masks and female masks as the major categories (Okina masks are treated separately). The latter half of this section explain the use and effect of masks, with examples from various programs. In many of them, different masks are used for the first part (Maeshite) and the latter part (Nochijite). In modern days, unique combinations of masks and costumes are used, bringing in fresh ideas to Noh theater.” I remain far too ignorant to attempt to categorize the variation in masks and other Noh accoutrements over time. One Tokugawa collection of these items, so the catalogue informs me, “shows a splendid Edo period Noh spirit that is far different from that of Meiji period Noh collections” (Tokugawa Art Museum, p. 51; trans. for WTV by Keiko Golden. English grammar slightly corrected by WTV). I saw the exhibition and admired it, but certainly could not distinguish Edo from Meiji.

66: Types of masks — Takaoka et al., unnumbered p. in ch. “A way into another world…”; also, Kodama, pp. 151–53.

66: Footnote: Utamaro’s three best types of vulva — Uhlenbeck and Winkel, p. 119.

66: Ochie of Koiseya — Utamaro (Sato Takanobu), trans. Yasuda Nobuko. Picture 6: Edokoumeibijin; Kobikichoushinyashiki; Koiseya Ochie, around Kansei 4–5 (1792–93). Large Nishikie. Chiba City Museum of Art.

67: The way that old women in their late twenties arrange their hair in the oomarumage style — Ibid. Picture 11: Kasenkoinobu Fukakushinobukoi. Around Kansei 5–6 (1793–94). Large Nishikie. National Museum of Asian Art-Guimet.

67: The shaved eyebrows and shimadakuzushi hairstyle of a certain Utamaro beauty — Ibid. Picture 10: Kasenkoinobu Monoomoukoi. Around Kansei 5–6 (1793–94). Large Nishikie. National Museum of Asian Art-Guimet.

67: Description of the kohime — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV; p. 28. My visual description comes from the accompanying plate.

67: Kanze Motoakira and the Noh canon — Rath, pp. 199–203.

68: Other remarks of Mr. Mikata (excepting the fn. remark on the maidservant’s mask in “Kinuta,” which took place in 2006) — From the 2004 Kyoto interview.

68: Mr. Mikata Shizuka’s choice of masks for “Michimori” — Interview in Jumenji Temple, Kyoto the day after the performance (October 2006).

68: Ms. Nakamura Mitsue’s remarks about masks in this section — From an interview in her studio in Kyoto, October 2006.

69: The plump-cheeked, snow-skinned girl in the Genji Picture-Scroll — Genji Monogatari Emaki, Tokugawa Museum version, p. 182

69: The “hard” ko-omote — Kanze, Hayashi and Matsuda, pbk. commentary vol., p. 24.

69: Otsuka Ryoji — Interviewed in his studio in Shimada, 2004.

69: “In what I do, beauty is about millimeters.” — New Beauty, winter-spring 2008, p. 200 (advertisement for Dr. Daniel Shapiro).

69: Mr. Kanze Hideo — Interviewed in the lobby of his hotel in Kyoto, May 2005.

70: Waka-onna in “Izutsu” and “Eguchi” — Kanze, Hayashi and Matsuda, pbk. commentary vol., p. 23.

70: Miscellaneous other characteristics of same mask — Dictionary of Japanese Art Terms, p. 594.

70: Use of the magojiro to play Yuya — Nakanishi and Kiyonori, p. 123.

70: “Both his acting and his singing should probably be classed at the rank of the tranquil flower.” — Hare, p. 30.

70: “The delicate red on the cheeks of this mask…” — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV; p. 58 (words of Katayama Kurouemon).

71: Maeshite of “Kinuta” ’s representation by a fukai — Mr. Mikata Shizuka remarked that the mask representing her “has to be an old lady, and we have only have three here. Among them, we have to choose.” In another interview he spoke of the maidservant, saying that her role would be well served by a ko-omote mask in order to delicately express the possibility that the absent husband had transferred his affections to her.

71: Choice of masks for “Miidera” — Bethe and Emmert, Noh Guide 3, p. 5.

72: “Eyebrows convey different emotions” — Aucoin, p. 115.

72: Description of the masukami mask — After Nakanishi and Kiyomori, p. 76 (plate 81; attributed to Tatsuemon). Hori, Masuda and Miyano speculatively derive the name from Masuho, meaning the hair is like grass waving in the wind (p. 72).

72: Description of the manbi mask — Ibid., p. 78 (plate 83, by Shimotsuna Shoshin).

72: “How can charm be expressed?…” — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV; p. 40.

73: “Uba” as used by Hokusai — Hokusai, One Hundred Poets, pp. 7, 9 (introduction).

73: Use of uba or rojo to portray Komachi — Rath, p. 15.

73: “Inner elegance” of rojo — Takeda and Bethe, p. 253 (checklist of the exhibition).

74: Employment of a deigan in “Kinuta” — Kanze, Hayashi and Matsuda, pbk. commentary vol., p. 34.

74: Description of the seventeenth-century deigan by Genkyu Mitsunaga — After Tokugawa Art Museum, Noh Masks and Costumes, p. 39 (plate 74).

74: “Particularly famous as a mask embodying a woman’s hatred and sorrow.” — Kodama, p. 153.

74: “The hannia in Awoi no Uye is lofty in feeling…” — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 32.

75: Footnote: Ja, hannya or omi-onna mask for “Dojoji” — Nakanashi and Komma, pp. 122–23.

75: Use of ryo-no-onna to represent Unai-otome — Kanze, Hayashi and Matsuda, pbk commentary vol., p. 25.

75: “Calm, almost rectangular pupil openings” of yase-onna — Takeda and Bethe, p. 253 (checklist of the exhibition).

75: Cited use of yase-onna — Dictionary of Japanese Art Terms, pp. 629–30.

75: Yase-onna: Anecdotes of Himi, Kanze Hisao — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko; p. 74.

75: Footnote: “A young male role that has both secular and religious aspects.” — Kodama, p. 151.

76: Use of the higaki-no-onna — Kanze, Hayashi and Matsuda, pbk. commentary vol., p. 35.

4: A BRANCH OF FLOWERS

85: Characteristics of a successful play of the first rank — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 44 (“Fushikaden”). Such terms as “Flower” and “Grace” are capitalized in these translations. I have elected not to follow that usage, since other translations I cite do not.

85: Seasons of the flower; flower, charm and novelty; “a flower blooming in the rocks” — Ibid., pp. 52–54 (“Fushikaden”).

86: Deliberate reintroduction of impurity — Ibid., p. 67 (“Shikado”).

86: “The flower does not exist as a separate entity.” — Ibid., p. 62 (“Fushikaden”).

86: “A flower blooms by maintaining secrecy.” — Ibid., p. 59 (“Fushikaden”).

86: “Stage characters such as Ladies-in-Waiting…” — Ibid., p. 47 (“Fushikaden”).

86: “Dignified and mild appearance…” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 93 (“Kakyo”).

87: “Roles requiring great taste and elegance…” — Ibid., p. 65 (“Shikado”).

87: The five skills of dancing — Ibid., p. 80 (“Kakyo”).

87: Rules for performing a woman’s role — Ibid., p. 76 (“Kakyo”); p. 227 (“Sarugaku dangi”).

87: “It should seem as though each were holding a branch of flowers in his hand.” — Ibid., p. 94 (“Kakyo”). In 2005 I asked Mr. Mikata how he carried his branch of flowers, and he replied: “For example, in ‘Fushikaden’ it tells how to play a demon. To express your demon, you must be not only just strong but even a rock,” he said, spreading his hands, “as if a flower comes out of rock. An old person, it’s as if a flower is coming out of an old tree.” — “So if you were portraying a very ferocious demon,” I asked, “would you make the demon less harsh?” — “No,” he replied. “Well, of course you play to your utmost, but your core strength and your real strength are different. Although you subdue your movements, the real strength can still be expressed. Strongly performing those actions is not the best.”

87: Footnote: Renoir: “For a battle piece to be good…” — Malraux, p. 353.

88: Footnote on the demonic grace of Lady Rokujo — Bethe and Emmert, Noh Guide 7, p. 64.

89: “He must not fail to retain a tender heart.” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 58 (“Fushikaden”).

89: “If the motion is more restrained than the emotion behind it…” — Ibid., p. 74 (“Kakyo”).

89: Surface brilliance and heart — Ibid., pp. 100–101 (“Kakyo”).

89: Appearance of doing nothing — Ibid., p. 94 (“Kakyo”).

90: Forget the details, etc. — Ibid., p. 102 (“Kakyo”).

90: “The art of the flower of tranquility…” — Ibid., p. 121 (“Kyui”).

5: THE DRAGONS OF KASUGA

91: Description of “Kiyotsune” — from a Takigi-Noh performance on the grounds of Kofuku-ji Temple, Nara, May 2005.

92: The Venerable Myoe’s visions and their revision — Based on Tyler, pp. 142–45 (introduction to “Kasuga ryujin”).

92: “The face is long…” — Dictionary of Japanese Art Terms, p. 177 (entry on Kurohige).

93: Kofuku-ji as “older and more prestigious than Kasuga” — See Aoyama, pp. 16, 24.

93: The Venerable Gedatsu of Kasagi and the Seven Great Temples: Ibid., pp. 148, 151.

93: Footnote: Gedatsu’s supernatural vision — The Taiheiki, pp. 368ff.

93: Affiliation of Zeami’s troupe with both Kasuga and Kofuku-ji — Rath, p. 37, who notes that they were also affiliated with Tonomine Temple in Nara.

93: Zeami: “One must not permit this art to stray…” — Op. cit., p. 15.

94: Footnote: Fenollosa on Kasuga as the origin-site of Japanese drama — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 59.

94: Kanami’s promise of Takigi performances at Nara in perpetuity — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 245 (“Sarugaku dangi”).

94: Remarks of Mr. Kanze Hideo — Interview in Kyoto, May 2005.

95: First definition of yugen — Indebted to a beautiful passage in De Bary et al., pp. 365–66.

95: Yugen as the highest principle of Noh — Ibid., p. 369 (Zeami, “Entering the Realm of Yugen”).

95: Immediately following three sentences (some prerequisites of yugen): Ibid., pp. 369–71; paraphrased and abbreviated by me.

95: Noh’s nine stages of excellence — Ibid., 372–76 (Zeami, “The Nine Stages of the No in Order”).

95: Footnote: The silver bowl must be oxidized — De Bary et al., p. 367.

96: Tanizaki on Noh, Japanese flesh and darkness — Lopate, pp. 349–51.

96: Bowing of the vegetation before Myoe of Mikasa Grove — Tyler, p. 149 (chorus of “Kasuga ryujin”).

97: The man who went hawking in Kasuga — Tales of Ise, pp. 35–36 (Dan I).

97: “Matsukaze” ’s links to The Tale of Genji and The Tales of Ise — Tyler, op. cit., pp. 184, 186–87.

97: Muromachi illustrations to The Tale of Genji — Murase, chaps. 11, 45.

97: Footnote on Muromachi Period — Zeami, p. 8 (intro.).

98: The Hokusai woodblock drawing of Kofuku-ji — One Hundred Poets, p. 157 (ill. to # 57, Fujiwara no Mototoshi).

98: Lady Han’s poem about Kasuga moor — Keene, Twenty Plays, p. 135 (“Hanago”).

98: Yukigeshiki Uji no Ukifune — Miyako Odori program, 2005; trans. for WTV by Sumino Junko.

99: Some other miscellaneous textual allusions to Kasuga — Brower and Miner (p. 208) cite an ancient poem about “the green fields of ancient Kasuga,” with erotic overtones of girls waving their white hempen sleeves. Zeami’s father Kanami was said to have been taken to Kasuga as a boy and dedicated to the god Kasuga Myokin, who is sometimes equated with the Dragon God (Hare, p. 13). It was only at Kasuga and the Shogun’s court that the enigmatic “Yumi-Ya” canto of Noh could be sung (Pound and Fenollosa, p. 8). Kasuga is mentioned in a poem in the classic Tosa Journal (McCullough, p. 91), and Abe no Nakamaro made a poem to the Chinese when departing (ibid., p. 87): “I see the same moon / that appeared above the hills / of Mikasa at Kasuga.” In the Noh play “Motomezuka,” the chorus chants an invocation to the watchfire guardian of Kasuga (Keene, Twenty Plays, p. 42). In the play “Taniko,” pilgrims remark on Mount Mikasa in Kasuga as they pass it (ibid., p. 322).

99: Proposal that Lady Nijo become the Emperor’s concubine — Lady Nijo, p. 265, n. 3.

99: Kasuga’s tree carried to the capital — Ibid., p. 146.

99: The lover’s dream of Kasuga — Ibid., p. 105. For a brief description of the place in her day, see p. 202.

99: The concubine’s flawless recitations from the Kokin Shu poems — Shonagon, pp. 37–39.

99: Arthur Waley on the relative meagerness of Noh’s allusions — The No Plays of Japan, p. 41.

100: “A nerve, a wire, a roadway…” + “The chief work of literary men…” — Fenollosa, pp. 22–23.

100: Utagawa Kunimori I’s erotic parodies of Genji — Uhlenbeck and Winkel, p. 209 (“A Critical Study of the Charms of Women,” figs. 82a — b). The attribution is not completely certain; the artist may be Utagawa Yoshikazu.

100: “The shite’s parts are more reliable than the waki’s…” — Hare, p. 58.

100: “About the instrumentation and the dance choreography less can be said.” — Again, see Hare, pp. 58–61.

100: “… more visually explanatory and possibly centered on yugen…” — Bethe and Emmert, Noh Guide 7, p. 76.

100: Revised coloration of Rokujo’s robe — Ibid., p. 70.

100: “Then you should take lines from well-known poems…” — Zeami, Sando, quoted in Hare, p. 54. Many Noh plots are derived from folktales (see for instance Ikeda, pp. 175, 236–37). However, Donald Keene opines (Twenty Plays of the No Theatre, p. 2) that “the allusions that are so troublesome to the translator could not have been entirely clear even to the first audiences.”

101: Ivan Morris on “false exoticism” — Shonagon, p. 17.

101: “All that remains of Aeschylus is his genius.” — Malraux, p. 46.

101: Footnote on hon’i: “Express impatience in waiting…” — Brower and Miner, p. 254. Not mere books, but leviathan-encyclopedias ought to be devoted to cherry blossom symbolism in Japan. In his youth, Zeami himself was compared with ”a profusion of cherry or pear blossoms in the haze of a spring dawn; this is how he captivates, with this blossoming of his appearance.” — Nijo Yoshitomi, quoted in Hare, p. 17. Sometimes I sympathize with Princess Shikishi (died 1201), who wrote in a tanka about cherry blossoms: “Coldly they fall; coldly I watch” (Sato and Watson, p. 182).

6: SUNSHINE AT MIDNIGHT

102: Interview with Mr. Mikata — In the temple chamber where he had performed “Michimori” the previous night, Kyoto, October 2006.

103: Proust on Madame Berma — Vol. 1, p. 485 (“Madame Swann at Home” section of Within a Budding Grove).

103: Footnote: Thirteenth Case on snow in a silver bowl — Hsien and Ch’in, pp. 88–91. In the verse appended to this koan we read the following typically cryptic lines: “He knows how to say, ‘Piling up snow in a silver bowl.’ The frog can’t leap out of the basket. A double case. Quite a few people will lose their bodies and lives.” And here is the pointer to the Thirty-Seventh Case (p. 226): “Some people lower their heads and linger in thought, trying to figure it out with their intellect. They hardly realize that they are seeing ghosts without number in front of their skulls.”

7: PERFECT FACES

106: Epigraph: “Someone once said that black hair is a ‘shunga’…” — Miyata Masayuki, p. 5 (excerpt from the art book Rafu [naked woman]); trans. for WTV by Sumino Junko; English substantially revised by WTV.

107: Footnote: Chao Luan-Luan’s encomia, and remarks on the same — Weinberger, pp. 118–19, 233.

107: Frequent image in the bijin-ga of Kaigetsu — Moronobu to Shoki Ukiyoe, trans. for WTV by Sumino Junko. Figure 12: Kaigetsudo, Ando. “Tachi-bijin zu” (A standing beauty). Idemitsu Museum.

107: “As their ‘ruby’ lips parted…” — Hawks, p. 395. This took place in Yokohama. Here is a British reaction to geishas in the same period: “… some gorgeously dressed singing and dancing girls, their face painted ghastly white, their lips green, and their teeth black…” (Peabody Museum, p. 58 [Allen Hockey, “First Encounters — Emerging Stereotypes, ” quoting the Illustrated London News, 1874]). That this disgust was less ideological than aesthetic is suggested by the following kinder observation, noted in Simoda (p. 397): Among the Japanese, in distinction to other Asian nationalities such as the Turks, “woman is recognised as a companion, and not merely treated as a slave.”

108: “Her eyebrows look like furry caterpillars…” — McCullough, p. 258 (“The Lady Who Admired Vermin”, ca. 1300).

108: Court ladies blackening their teeth for the New Year’s banquet of 1025 — McCullough, p. 228 (A Tale of Flowering Fortunes).

108: Further piquant examples of black teeth: In The Taiheiki (p. 60) we encounter “the painted eyebrows and blackened teeth of a boy of fifteen years.” The Tale of Genji (p. 207) details the charm of a boy’s decayed teeth. Interestingly (p. 127), those of the heroine, Murasaki, are not blackened.

108: Black teeth of some geishas in last month of maikodom — Gallagher, p. 159.

108: Tanizaki on black teeth — Lopate, pp. 352–53 (much condensed).

108: “Like a jeweled hairpin…” — The Tales of Ise, p. 61 (Dan XXI).

109: The woman with boils on her body — The Tales of Ise, p. 137 (Dan XCVI).

109: “The moon was so bright that I was embarrassed to be seen…” — Lady Murasaki, Diary, p. 36.

109: “Her hair falls just about three inches past her heels…” — Ibid., p. 47.

109: “The contrast between her pale skin…” — Ibid., p. 48.

109: Ichirakutei Eisui’s print of “The Courtesan Karakoto of the Chojiyu House” — Seen at the Ota Ukiyo-e Museum in Tokyo, 2006. Tochigi Reiko suggests that “Chojiya” would be a better transliteration.

110: “Her tresses black as a mud-snail’s bowels…”— Manyoshu, p. 310, poem 986. See also p. 201 (poem 615).

110: The black hair is so common a stock epithet that it is mocked by Mishima in his twentieth-century version of “The Damask Drum” (Five Modern No Plays, p. 41).

110: The lovely woman is often compared to a mirror — For instance, Manyoshu, p. 168 (poem 513: “An Elegy”).

110: Osaka Port (Mitsu) compared to the mirror on a girl’s comb-case — Ibid., p. 93 (poem 273: Tajihi Kasamaro, “On His Journey to Tsukushi”).

110: “When I visited the abyss of Tamashima…” — Ibid., p. 258 (poem 793, one of the “Poems Composed on a Trip to the River of Matsura”).

110: “On the Death of an Uneme…” — Ibid., p. 45 (poem 112).

110: “Of the Maiden Tamana…” — Ibid., p. 216 (poem 614).

110: “Lovely eyebrows / Curving like the far-off waves” — Ibid., p. 128 (poem 402: Lady Otomo of Sakanoe, “Sent to Her Elder Daughter from the Capital”).

110: “The young moon afar” — Ibid., p. 135 (poem 430: Otomo Yakamochi, “On the New Moon”).

111: Direct and indirect quotations in the subsequent paragraph — Lady Murasaki, Diary, pp. 6, 7, 20, 19, 25. Other passages bearing on this subject may be found on pp. 15, 17, 47, 65.

111: “As long as the character is mysteriously beautiful…” — Hare, p. 132, excerpt from Sando.

111: Women depicted in the Tokugawa Museum’s Genji Picture-Scroll — Genji Monogatari Emaki, Tokugawa Museum version, p. 142.

111: Footnote: Description of the hikime kagibana technique — Ibid., pp. 157–61, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko; revised by me for grammar and style, and slightly abridged.

112: Genji has relations with women he cannot see — For instance, Genji, p. 149.

112: Screened reclusiveness of The Taiheiki’s heroines — Op. cit.; e.g., pp. 53, 330.

112: Definition of miekakure — De Mente, pp. 78–79.

112: “Make your sensibility the basis of your acting…” — Ibid., p. 133.

112: Himi Munetada’s mask and its model — Kanze et al., Omote, commentary volume; remarks on plates 20–21.

113: Description of a seventeenth-century courtesan — Saikaku, pp. 137–38 (“The Life of an Amorous Woman”).

113: Kamo no Chomei: “A beautiful woman…” — Quoted in Brower and Miner, p. 268.

113: Interview with Kanze Hideo — In the lobby of his hotel in Kyoto, 2005.

113: Extract from Dr. Zhivago — P. 247.

114: Footnote: “The transsexual’s position consists of wanting to be All…” — Millot, p. 42.

115: Public appearance of the Japanese Empress with unblackened teeth (1873) — Blomberg, p. 202.

115: “The ideal feminine face must be long and narrow” — Bacon, pp. 58–59 (fn).

115: “That reminds me of The Tale of Genji…” — Ms. Kawai Takako, interviewed by telephone, January 2006.

115: Footnote: “Chinese girl beauty is large eye…” — My interpreter “Michelle” (Wei Xiao Min), interviewed in Nan Ning, summer 2002. She appears at greater length in my book Poor People.

115: “I totally disagree! That is so weird!..” — Mrs. Keiko Golden, interviewed by telephone, January 2006.

8: AYA KUDO AND THE ZO-ONNA

117: Photographs of Aya Kudo — Saiki Hiroyoshi, unnumbered pp.

118: “A slender, oval face of the classic melon-seed type…” — Tanizaki, p. 144 (“The Bridge of Dreams”).

118: “A face well-rounded in the modern style” — Saikaku, p. 132 (“The Life of an Amorous Woman”).

118: The zo-onna and waka-onna masks — Nakamura Mitsue postcards.

120: Footnote: “The crease lines between the eyebrows on statues of male Shinto gods…” — Takeda and Bethe, p. 65 (Tanabe Saburosuke, “The Birth and Evolution of Noh Masks”).

121: “On the last night of the year…” — Lady Murasaki, pp. 44–45.

121: Preference for young, symmetrical and composite faces — Nehamas, pp. 64–65.

121: Various masculine and feminine facial lengths, widths and distances — Heath, pp. 44–45.

121: “Extend the whites.” — Aucoin, p. 37.

121: Footnote: Alteration by angle of perceived expression of magojiro mask — Lyons et al.

122: “Female masks, whether ko-omote…” — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV; p. 39. Hori continues: “When ‘Tsuki’ or ‘Yuki’ is worn for the shite role, ‘Hana’ can be used for the tsure. The nose is not tilted, but carved straight.”

123: Mr. Mikata Shizuka on the subject of Ms. Nakamura’s masks — Interviewed in his studio in Jumenji Temple, Kyoto, 2004.

123: Interview with Nakamura Mitsue — In her studio in Kyoto, 2004. “Why did you decide to make masks?” I asked her. She replied: “In the beginning, I just liked Noh masks. I started learning. As I trained, the more I worked on them, the more I loved them. I studied in art school at university. I was doing oil painting. And I liked to paint human faces. I was very good at sketching. I was very good at grasping shape. So, from hindsight, it was a very good decision.” I inquired (tactlessly, I suspect) whether she could support herself easily, and she modestly replied: “Generally speaking, I’m not known.”

9: HER GOLDEN LIPS SLIGHTLY PARTED

126: The parted lips of Kate Bosworth — Marie Claire, vol. 15, no. 4 (April 2008), pp. 108–13 (cover story, “Pieces of Kate,” photographed by Mark Abrahams).

127: Place of Kannon in Esoteric Buddhism — De Bary et al., p. 176.

10: CROSSING THE ABYSS

128: Footnote: List of things that are near though distant — Shonagon, p. 181.

130: Hilary Nichols — Interviewed in Sacramento, July 2005.

131: Footnote: The young boy in Berlin who likes dusting — Von Mahlsdorf, p. 22.

133: How the harlot’s embrace changed the wild man — Gilgamesh, pp. 63, 65.

136: “Sachiko” — Interviewed by phone (she was in Tokyo), August 2005.

136: The Japanese-American lady — Mrs. Keiko Golden, interviewed by phone (she was in San Francisco), July 2007.

138: Marina Vulicévic — Interviewed in Beograd, October 2007.

11: WHAT IS GRACE?

141: “Some Japanese women have fair skin glowing with femininity…” — Kawabata, Beauty and Sadness, p. 142.

141: Descriptions of Komako — Kawabata, Snow Country, pp. 18, 32, 73, 101, 168. Typically, Kawabata mentions Noh only in passing (p. 149). By the way, it is not as if the grace of Kawabata’s heroines is necessarily fulfilling or even wholesome. In Beauty and Sadness, the woman’s allure is mere bait for a pathological revenge. In The Izu Dancer, the heroine is discovered in her nudity to be still a child, and no consummation occurs. In Snow Country, the anti-hero, Shimamura, is certainly incapable of loving the geisha Komako except with his eyes and penis. Nor is it clear, in spite of the attachment to him that she most certainly demonstrates, that she, prisoner of drunken anguish and reticent participant in another murky love triangle, could love anybody wholeheartedly.

142: “From the hollow / Of her throat…” — Chrétien de Troyes, p. 28 (lines 839–42), “retranslated” by WTV.

143: Footnote: Sordamour’s hair and thread — Ibid., p. 38 (lines 1158–62), “retranslated” by WTV.

143: Yeats’s poem to Anne Gregory — Op. cit., p. 263 (“For Anne Gregory”).

143: Collarbone as “arguably one of the most feminine parts of the body” — InStyle magazine, vol. 15, no. 1, January 2008, p. 89 (“Style File: Figure Flattery”).

143: Desirability of high cheekbones — New Beauty magazine, winter-spring 2008, p. 135 (“Face” section).

143: “Talons dyed with the blood of lovers…” — Saadi, p. 184 (VII.19).

143: Pontano’s enumeration of feminine charms — Op. cit., pp. 13, 69 (I.4, I.23); pp. 21, 103, 109, 121, 125, 129, 131 (I.8, II.4, II.7, II.12, II.14, II.16, II.17); pp. 105, 179 (II.5, II.34); pp. 115, 119, 135, 177 (II.10, II.11, II.19, II.33).

144: Body proportions in female vs. male — Morris, p. 177 (belly), 224 (back), 225 (buttocks), 248 (feet). Waist and hip information from Morris is cited separately below.

144: Replacement of onnagata’s acomplishment by actress’s anatomy in Meiji era and after — Kano, esp. pp. 7–8.

144: Feminine character of the mirror in ancient Greece — Geoffrey-Schneiter, p. 22.

144: Female impersonation in Niger — Hanna, p. 54.

145: “She is sumptuously arrayed in ornaments…” — Jayadeva, p. 99 (VII, stanza 13, “retranslated” by WTV).

145: Footnote: Jennifer Finney Boylan.

145: Recollections of Sharon Morgan — Transgender Tapestry magazine, issue no. 112, summer 2007, p. 21 (Sharon Morgan, “The Confession of a Crossdresser”).

145: The boy who put on his sister’s clothes — Kane, pp. 4–7.

145: Krafft-Ebing case study — Ames, p. 12 (name of patient withheld). In 2008, the neurologist V. S. Ramachandran reported that when the penis was lost, either to surgery or accident, fewer male-to-female transsexuals than straight men reported the sensation of a phantom phallus. Far more straight women than female-to-male transsexuals reported phantom breast sensations after mastectomy (The San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, April 13, 2008, “Insight” section, p. 9; Sandra Blakeslee, “Human Sexuality: Gender Identity and Phantom Genitalia”).

146: “All transsexuals rape women’s bodies…” — Janice Raymond, The Transsexual Empire (1979), quoted in Rudacille, p. 169.

146: “Gender varies over time and place.” — After Stryker, p. 11.

146: Gender- and demon-specific shapes of Noh mask eyeholes — Takeda and Bethe, p. 255 (checklist of the exhibition).

146: “They are not mystical processes…” — Simon Baron-Cohen, The Essential Differences: The Truth about the Male and Female Brain (2003), quoted in Rudacille, p. 273.

146: “A pretty face and dresses of brocade…” — Saadi, p. 162 (VI.2).

146: The transsexual who wondered what made a face female — Kane, p. 95.

147: “The transsexual does not exist without the surgeon and the endocrinologist.” — Millot, p. 142.

147: Footnote on the four gender identity categories — Simplified (and hopefully not distorted) from Serano, pp. 77–93, 105–13, 164–65, 190–92. This otherwise thoughtful author demands, by the way, that people who are not transsexuals “put their pens down, open up their minds and simply listen to what we have to say about our lives.” Artists and academics are not to “appropriate intersex and transsexual identities and experiences” (p. 212). But I have never seen why anyone else on earth can tell me what not to write. For another interesting conceptualization of gender identity, see Millot, pp. 55–60, summarizing Stoller’s tripartite model.

147: Use of embellished collar to hide an imperfect figure — InStyle, same issue, p. 88.

147: Femininity coach’s advice to hide mannish hands — Danae Doyle Productions, vol. 1.

147: “With a man, preferably one whom you do not tower over…” — Rose, p. 35.

148: “Anything around the eye that can make it look brighter…” + “You have to treat your hair like it’s a baby” (“your hair” in brackets in original) — Sophisticate’s Black Hair magazine, May 2008, p. 48 (“Telisha Shaw, Hot Hollywood Actress You Need to Know, Now!”).

148: Failure if a woman “connives” to beautify herself — Zeami, pp. 143, 142 (Shugyoku tokka”).

148: “Beautiful nails are a constant reminder of the feminine you.” — Veronica Vera, p. 21.

148: Footnote: “Even the gentlest, most modest and best of girls…” — Lichtenberg, p. 219 (notebook L, no. 41).

148: Kanze Hisao: “It is highly detrimental to a mask…” — Nakanishi and Komma, p. 99.

149: “The interchangeable instruments of a pleasure that is always the same” — Proust, vol. 1, p. 172 (“Combray” section of Swann’s Way). Only the reader can decide whether the following offering of grace for sale does or does not bear Proust out: “Sophisticated neat wives’ secret time. The serious play of the amateur wives starting from kisses. D-kisses. Fellatio. Second round… We promise for beautiful figure and deep service that you will never get disappointed” (small porn pamphlet, pp. 17–18. Trans. for WTV by Keiko Golden).

149: Love-tropes of the ancient Egyptian poet — Simpson, p. 309 (“The Love Songs of Papyrus Harris 500,” no. 3).

149: “Just as the golden hairpicks of bygone Japanese courtesans occasionally resemble the haloes of Byzantine saints” — In, for instance, the following: Ota Memorial Museum of Art, 1988, plates 26–27 (Utagawa Toyoharu, “A courtesan and her attendants parading under cherry blossoms,” “A courtesan and her maid under cherry blossoms”).

149: A cherry blossom seems “appropriate to a highly cultivated audience.” — Zeami, p. 131 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

151: “Expressed his joy at being able to openly take up female verses…” — Munakata, p. 75 (no. 49, “Nyonin Kanzeon Hangakan”); trans. for WTV by Sumino Junko, English slightly rev. by WTV.

152: “The possession of either a vagina that nature made…” — Stryker and Whittle, p. 64 (Harold Garfinkel, “Passing and the Managed Achievement of Sex Status in an ‘Intersexed’ Person”).

152: “Let the glow of Radha’s breasts endure!” — Jayadeva, p. 35 (Miller’s intro., citing the Siddhahemasabdanusana of Hemacandra (A.D. 1088–1172).

152: Haiku on the old-lady cherry — Quoted in Ueda, Basho, p. 38.

152: “Is this Komachi that once was a bright flower?” — Waley, The No Plays of Japan, p. 156 (“Sotoba Komachi”), excerpt slightly abridged.

152: Footnote: “I suppose a fool like you thinks every beautiful woman gets ugly as soon as she grows old…” — Mishima, Five Modern No Plays, p. 13 (“Sotoba Komachi”).

153: “Never again will I come as an angry ghost.” — Waley, The No Plays of Japan, p. 189 (“Aoi no Uye”).

153: “Blossoming sleeves…” + “Pine winds tear plantain-leaf-frail dream…” — Brazell, pp. 155, 157 (“Izutsu,” trans. Karen Brazell).

154: Basho’s haiku on cloth-pounding — Quoted in Ueda, op. cit., p. 53.

154: The wise Sanskrit poet’s advice to his heroine — Jayadeva, p. 92 (V, stanza 8).

154: “A flower shows its beauty as it blooms…” — Zeami, p. 130 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

154: Masami and Fukutaro — Interviewed in Kanazawa, January 2008.

155: “… not actually people… “ — Tyler, pp. 190–91 (introduction to “Matsukaze”).

155: Malraux: Artists are “conditioned” by works of art — Op. cit., p. 281.

155: “The art of female impersonation has refined feminine beauty…” — Toita and Yasuda, p. 110.

155: Zeami’s prohibition of strength in female impersonation — Hare, p. 33.

155: “Abandon any detailed stress on his physical movements…” — Zeami, p. 141 (“Shugyoko tokka”).

155: Remarks of Tamura Toshiko — From Kano, p. 19.

156: Conversation with the Kyoto geisha — Interview with Kofumi-san, at Imamura-san’s teahouse in Gion, Kyoto, October 2006.

156: Yamamura Yoko — Original interview of 2002.

156: Prohibition on actresses for “Okina” — Rath, p. 230.

157: The transsexual’s insecurity which once led him to “hyperfeminise” himself — Kane, pp. 128–29.

157: “She’s calling attention to a shapely ankle…” — Hanna, p. 153 (quoting Marcia Siegel).

157: Effect of bulkier female pelvis on hip swing — Ibid., p. 158.

157: Simulation of the human female’s greater elbow angle — Morris, p. 118.

158: Shared octave of male and female voice, and strategy for making the former approximate the latter — Deep Stealth Productions, disk 1, about minute 37. The male-to-female transsexual is recommended to pitch his voice an octave higher.

158: Footnote: “After you’ve hit puberty… that’s when your vocal chords thicken, and it’s irreversible.” Ibid., approx. minute 18.

158: Footnote: Source of “Izutsu” — Tales of Ise, p. 64 (Dan XXIII).

158: “Fundamentally elusive fantasies of the imagination.” — Feldman and Gordon (introduction, by Gordon and Feldman). A biologist who spent more than nine hundred hours in singles bars and other venues of courtship classified the following “distinct steps in male-female attraction: approach, look, turn, touch and synchronized movement” (Hanna, p. 157). I believe this simply because it is prosaic; it might even be what some insects do. Can grace be dissected into these components?

159: “The life and spirit of Noh…” — Zeami, p. 64.

159: Footnote on “Venus rings” — Information from Getty Museum, p. 30.

159: Remarks of Mr. Mikata on neutrality in playing female roles — From Kyoto interview of October 2006.

159: “The true heart is not masculine…” — Shirane, p. 31 (Motoori Norinaga, Shibun yoryo, 1763).

160: “I love refinement” + “And beauty and light are for me the same…” — Barnstone, p. 91 (Sappho, “Age and Light”).

160: Description of the voluminous S-shape of a standing courtesan in a narrow vertical ukiyo-e print — After the Ota Memorial Museum of Art (2006), p. 38 (34: Utagawa Toyokiyo, “Standing Courtesan”).

160: Description of Stiff White Ladies — After Gimbutas, plate 14; p. 187 (“the symbol closest to death…”), p. 198 (“supernatural vulva”), pp. 199–207, p. 316 (“nothing to do with sexuality”).

160: Footnote: “ ‘Superfeminine’… supersoft…” — Feldman and Gordon, p. 35 (James Davidson, “The Greek Courtesan and the Art of the Present”).

161: Description of Tyche — From Getty Museum, pp. 28–29.

161: Description of seventeenth-century ko-omote mask — From a specimen seen in the Kanazawa Noh Museum, January 2008.

161: Footnote: “But she was without question a beautiful woman…” — Lady Nijo, pp. 84–85.

161: Kanze Hisao: Noh woman-masks pass “beyond all specific human expression…” — Nakanishi and Komma, p. 99.

162: “The beauty of the Noh lies in the concentration.” — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 69.

162: Remarks of Bando Tamasaburo — Peabody Museum, p. 139 (Peter M. Grilli, “Geisha on Stage and Screen”).

162: “Savage cacao…” — Marie Claire, vol. 15, no. 4 (April 2008), p. 47 (Sephora ad for Ojon Tawaka Ancient Tribal Rejuvenating Cream, $65).

162: “First you have to be that role yourself…” — Mr. Kanze Hideo, same interview of May 2005.

162: Recapitulation of mai dance, and Noh posture, especially for female roles — After Cavaye, Griffith and Senda, pp. 53, 179.

163: Footnote: Walking-steps of seventeenth-century courtesans — Saikaku, pp. 80 (“The Almanac Maker’s Tale”), 138 (“The Life of an Amorous Woman”), 306 and 339 (notes 105 and 377).

163: Bando Tamasaburo on the erotic quality of feminine discomfort — Hanna, p. 80.

163: “Mincingly and decoratively…” — Ibid., p. 162.

163: Similar requirements for geisha dance — Feldman and Gordon, p. 233 (Lesley Downer, “The City Geisha and Their Role in Modern Japan: Anomaly and Artiste?”).

164: Remarks in text and accompanying footnote on Style A and B Cycladic figurines — Getz-Gentle, p. 38.

164: The drawing instructor — Michael Markowitz, interviewed in San Francisco, July 2007.

164: “Movement metaphors distinguish male from female.” — Hanna, p. 77.

165: Table of “stereotypical nonverbal gender behavior” — Ibid., pp. 160–61. When I asked the Japanese-American woman quoted in “Crossing the Abyss” for her definition of grace, she replied: “It may come from spirit or soul. When you look at somebody’s face, you can figure out the personality, kind of. A soul is something very fundamental. Personality is something acquired later. Personality changes from time to time, based on age and environment. But soul may not be affected.”

165: “Completed only when beauty has nothing more to offer.” — Nehamas, p. 105.

12: RAINBOW SKIRTS

166: “Tresses like a cloud, face like a flower” — Owen, p. 442 (Bo Ju-yi, “Song of Lasting Pain”).

166: “As lovely as jade…” — Feldman and Gordon, p. 80 (Judith T. Zeitlin, “ ‘Notes of Flesh’ and the Courtesan’s Song in Seventeenth-Century China”).

166: “His Majesty knew that it could not be avoided…” — Owen, p. 450 (Chen Hong, “An Account to Go with the ‘Song of Lasting Pain’ ”).

168: Lady Yang’s “helplessness so charming” — Loc. cit.

168: Bo Ju-yi’s descriptions of Lady Yang’s charms and accoutrements — Ibid., p. 444 (“Song of Lasting Pain”). But near the beginning of the twelfth century, the Chinese poet Li Ch’ing-chao compares the loveliness of white chrysanthemums to “Yang Kuei-fei flushed with wine,” Lady Yang being the loser. — Owen, p. 15 (“The Beauty of White Chrysanthemums”).

168: Du Fu’s lament — Loc. cit. (Du Fu,”Lament by the River”).

168: Citations from Pu Songling — Op. cit., pp. 51 and 508 n; 281 and 542 n.

168: Stateliness of “Rainbow Skirts” — Ibid., p. 443.

169: Footnote on the Whirl — Ibid., p. 458 (Bo Ju-yi, “The Girl Who Danced the Whirl”).

169: There was already a renowned melody “Coats of Feathers, Rainbow Skirts” — Ibid., p. 448 (Chen Hong).

169: “A young girl’s fluttering sleeves well express her heart.” — Keene, Twenty Plays, p. 217 (“Yokihi,” “retranslated” by WTV).

169: “The sky-robe flutters…” — Waley, The No Plays of Japan, p. 223 (“Hagoromo”).

169: Remarks of Yamamura Yoko — Same interview of April 2002.

169: Aware and its darkening, + “The court lady who in the past…” — De Bary et al., pp. 197–99, 365.

170: References to Lady Yang in The Tale of Genji — Op. cit., pp. 7, 13, 14. She is also mentioned much later on in the novel, when Genji is longing for his dead Murasaki.

170: The tenth-century tanka about the Emperor and Lady Yang — Brower and Miner, p. 198 (poem from the Daini Takato Shu). Meanwhile, Sei Shonagon likens Lady Yang’s face to a pear-blossom (op. cit., p. 63).

170: “My own nostalgic memories” — Lady Nijo, p. 229.

170: “While the emperor listened to the song of ‘Rainbow Skirts’…” — The Taiheiki, p. 286.

170: Allusion to Lady Yang in The Tale of the Heike — Vol. 2, p. 624.

170: Tanizaki’s allusion to Lady Yang — Op. cit., pp. 279–80.

170: “I seek a way to a world unknown.” — Keene, op. cit., p. 211 (same play; “retranslated” by WTV).

171: Footnote: “Those of the Heike who cherished honor…” The Taiheiki, p. 312.

171: “The fundamental aspect of ‘Tsuki’…” — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV, p. 39. My visual description is based on the accompanying plate. Regarding the use of the zo-onna to play Yokihi, the same source remarks in regard to one specimen by Zoami himself (p. 58): “As with Tatsuemon’s ko-omote, it is incredible how such a perfect piece can be created… Even a master of the Edo period could not carve the bone structure in the way Zoami did. The zo-onna is that difficult. The high rank must show in the mask.. the way the upper and lower parts of the nose is carved is superb with extreme sex appeal. This mask can be used in various scenes including ‘Hagoromo,’ ‘Yokihi,’ and ‘Eguchi.’ The red on the cheeks complements the white skin. It is not only beautiful, but also shows a strong core, clear bone structure, and is large-scaled, making it the original zo-onna” (words of Kanze Kiyokazu).

172: “Your visit only multiplies the pain.” — Keene, op. cit., p. 213 (same play).

172: Footnote: Mr. Umewaka plays Yokihi — Osaka Festival Noh brochure, 2002, unnumbered p. (Mariko Hikawa, “Two Flowers Reflecting One Another”).

172: Chen Hong on the golden hairpin — Owen, p. 448 (Chen Hong).

173: Yokihi’s golden kimono and phoenix headdress — Takeda and Bethe, p. 119 (Kawakami Shigeki, “The Development of the Karaori as a Noh Costume”).

173: “Human feelings are rooted in the genitals…” — Makuzu, p. 25.

173: Possible echo of the “Song of Lasting Pain” in the Noh play “Miidera” — Bethe and Emmert, Noh Performance Guide 3, pp. 63 (text) and 79 (note 35).

173: “Oh, this futile parting!..” — Keene, p. 217 (same play, “retranslated” by WTV).

173: “Heaven endures, and the Earth…” — Owen, p. 447 (same poem; “retranslated” by WTV).

13: JEWELS IN THE DARKNESS

174: Kawabata’s mention of the Shoren-in’s camphor trees — The Old Capital, pp. 113–15.

174: Footnote: Information on Shoren-in — Sho-Ren-In.

174: “While this garden is not considered one of the major examples of landscape art…” — Treib and Herman, p. 164.

176: Zeami’s definition of fascination — Op. cit., p. 133 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

177: “A young girl’s fluttering sleeves well express what is in her heart.” — Keene, Twenty Plays, pp. 216–17 (“Yohiki”).

177: Gion Shrine in The Tale of the Heike — I have been repeatedly told that the Gion referred to is in Kyoto. However, the English translation in my possession claims (vol. 1, p. 6, n. 1) that the Tale’s Gion was the Jetavana monastery in Sravasti, Indonesia.

177: Descriptions of works by Utamaro, Chobunsai Eishi — As seen at the Ota Ukiyo-e Museum in Tokyo, 2004, 2006.

177: Geishas performing alongside prostitutes in the Yoshiwara — Utamaro (Sato Takanobu), trans. Yasuda Nobuko. Picture 1: Seirouniwaka Onnageishabu; Oomando Ogie Oiyo Takeji; Tenmei 3 (1783). Large Nishikie. Tokyo National Museum.

177: “Even highly reputed maiko…” — Saikaku, p. 128 (“The Life of an Amorous Woman”).

177: Scene from the “Sleeve Scroll” — Uhlenbeck and Winkel, p. 119.

177: Scene from Keisai Eisen’s woodblock album — Ibid., p. 165 (Fig. 58b).

177: Scene by Utagawa Kunisada — Ibid., pp. 186–87 (Fig. 70, “Games Inside a Bathhouse, Year of the Boar”).

178: “A world where love is bought and sold like merchandise.” — Goossen, p. 85 (Okamoto Kanoko, “Portrait of an Old Geisha”). Struggling to interpret the old geisha’s kindness for him, the hero of this story wonders if she might be seeking to expiate her heartlessness to bygone lovers.

178: Peabody Museum’s generalized description of geishas — Op. cit., p. 44 (Andrew L. Maske, “Identifying Geisha in Art and Life: Is She Really a Geisha?”).

178: The mid-twentieth-century photograph of a geisha in a straw hat — Bristol, p. 115 (“Geisha with straw hat,” 1947).

178: Miyako Odori program, April 2005 — Trans. for WTV by Sumino Junko.

178: Excerpt from Snow Country: Geishas as call girls — op. cit., pp. 20, 26, 28.

178: Footnote: The strident person on Kawabata — Feldman and Gordon, p. 249 (Miho Matsugu, “In the Service of the Nation: Geisha and Kawabata’s Snow Country”).

179: Saikaku on speech of Kyoto ladies — Saikaku, p. 312 (“The Life of an Amorous Woman”).

179: Geisha-related citations from Kawabata’s final novel — Beauty and Sadness, pp. 104–6.

179: “… the dress of the geisha now far exceeds that of noble ladies…” — Monumenta Nipponica (Pastereich), p. 215.

180: The “superficial purity” of geishas — Kuwano Toka, quoted in Kano, p. 26.

180: Geishas as “interchangeable, rather commonplace companions whose association with carnality is the rule” — See, for instance, Goossen, pp. 50 (Nagai Kafu, “The Peony Garden”), 74–75 (Satomi Ton, “Blowfish”), or Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters, pp. 268–69.

180: Positioning of geishas between artists, prostitutes and mistresses — Kuwano (but Kano herself this time), p. 44.

180: Footnote: Geishas require new kimonos all the time — Iwasaki and Brown, p. 264.

180: Same footnote: Cost of kimono at two million yen ($20,000) — Cobb, p. 17 (Mayumi, Tokyo geisha).

180: Same footnote: Cost of obis and wigs — Gallagher, p. 8.

180: Interviews with Kofumi-san, Konomi-san, Danyu-san, Mr. Mikata — All in Kyoto, October 2006. All except the one with Mr. Mikata, which occurred in the temple where he had performed “Michimori” on the previous night, took place at Imamura-san’s teahouse in Gion.

180: Print of Shakkyo dance — Utamaro (Sato Takanobu), trans. Yasuda Nobuko. Picture 9: Touseiodorikozoroi. Shakkyo. Around Kansei 5–6 (1793–94). Large Nishikie. Henri Vever Collection.

181: Description of the Getty cult statue — After Getty Museum, pp. 104–5 (“Cult Statue of a Goddess, Perhaps Aphrodite”).

181: “The Inoue style is noted for its ability…” — Iwasaki and Brown, p. 281.

181: Mr. Kanze on the origin of Inoue dance — Interview of 2005.

182: Inoue School as “most prestigious” style of geisha dance — Gallagher, p. 64.

182: Footnote — Mr. Mikata on the lack of meaning in comparing Noh and Inoue dance — Interview of October 2006.

183: Ogasawara style as precursor to geisha gestures — Gallagher, p. 100.

183: Footnote: Remarks of Masami-san on opening a door — Interview in Kanazawa, January 2008. Kawai Takako was the interpreter. (N.B.: Iwasaki and Brown [p. 93] give a detailed description of how to enter a room properly.) Percival Lowell, who believed in that equally beautiful, plausible illusion, the Martian canals, wrote in his Soul of the Far East (Strauss, p. 126) that a certain Japanese maiden’s “voice was only too human for heaven. Unconsciously it made the better part of a caress.” The way she poured tea resembled “some beautiful rite.”

183: Definition of transgender “passing” — Bornstein, p. 20.

183: Role of bush warbler droppings in whitening a geisha’s face — Peabody Museum, p. 113 (Andrew L. Maske, “Performance and Play: The Art and Accomplishments of Geisha”).

183: “Radiant as enamel” — Goossen, p. 87 (Okamoto Kanoko, “Portrait of an Old Geisha”).

184: Kawabata’s description of a prospective maiko: — The Old Capital, pp. 95–96. Another geisha of twenty is “sloping-shouldered, seemingly gentle.” Her “teeth were like white beads in her beautiful mouth.” In Beauty and Sadness he mentions the “rich color” of nipples never suckled by any baby (p. 118).

184: Meaning of one undecorated shoulder: senior maiko status — Gallagher, p. 214.

185: Kyoto geisha: Red symbolizes female pubescence — Cobb, p. 74.

186: Mr. Kanze on dissimilarity of geisha face to Noh masks — Interview of May 2005.

186: Ms. Nakamura on the same topic — Interview of 2004.

186: “A maiko in full costume approximates the Japanese ideal of feminine beauty…” — Iwasaki and Brown, p. 157.

186: “A Fan for You” (or “Fan to You”) — The syntax and calligraphy of this song (and also “Black Hair”) as written out by the ochaya-san Ms. Imamura, were both so archaic that my interpreter-translator Takako, a highly educated woman in late middle age, needed to enlist her mother’s help to modernize the words in Japanese she could understand and translate. One must admire Kyoto’s hold on the past. About this song Takako remarks: “A fan is considered a happy item, because its widening shape implies an ever more prosperous future.” The lyrics (slightly revised by WTV) run something like this:

You and I resemble the pivot-point of a fan whose leaves are bound together.

In the era of Han [ancient China], a lover of the Emperor placed a flower-patterned fan by their pillow.

Holding that fan, I feel leaves falling on my sleeve.

But the patterns drawn on the fan will not fall, which makes me happy.

Forever gracefully turn, pinwheel made with three fans!

Forever until the eighth generation.

You are mine, my dear you.

187: “Only fifty or sixty maiko remain in all Kyoto.” — Based on Gallagher, p. 158 (“as of the early 2000’s”). In Kanazawa, when the geisha Masami-san made her debut, there were more than eighty geishas in the Higashi pleasure district. When the musician Fukutaro-san made hers, there were more than seventy. In 2008, when I met them, there were fewer than fifty.

187: “Black Hair” — The meaning of the song is approximately (as written out by the ochaya-san, modernized by Takako’s mother, then translated by Takako, and slightly revised by me):

My black hair is linked to various memories of you.

When I comb my hair in my bed alone, I feel so desolate.

Although I am a wife with tight sleeves, I feel like complaining,

but I’m just a weak woman.

Beneath the quiet night sky comes the temple bell’s low sound.

Waking from a dream of last night, I fondly remember the happy memories,

But at the same time feel disconsolate.

Snow lies thick, not knowing my sadness.

Takako notes: “Black hair implies something that can easily come loose, suggesting that the happy memories may perhaps loosen and disperse. Accumulated snow here implies that the woman has much feeling for the man.”

187: Mention of “Dark Hair” in Snow Country — Op. cit., p. 74.

187: Mention of same in Tanizaki’s Makioka Sisters — Op. cit., pp. 164, 384. Once it is a dance performed by an unmentioned pupil, probably a geisha; once it is a piece of koto-music practiced by a housemaid.

188: Izumi Shikibu’s black hair poem — Keene, Seeds in the Heart, p. 296.

188: Footnote: “I hacked off at the roots the waist-length hair…” — Masuda, p. 121.

189: “Lovers, if you flee not from hot desire…” — Barnstone, p. 211 (“An Ageless Lover”). See Appendix C, No. 8 for a list of her charms.

190: Footnote: Purpose of red outlining of eyes (she seems to assert that the eye is red all around, with no black) — Buisson, p. 96.

190: Mr. Mikata on Inoue the Fourth’s “practice, practice and still practice” — Interview of October 2006.

191: “If the shite dances and acts with elegant speeches…” — Zeami, p. 65.

191: “Secrecy is the essential art of geisha.” — Cobb, p. 17 (Mayumi, Tokyo geisha).

191: “I don’t want to know their tricks.” — Ibid., p. 96 (Kyoto client).

191: Use of the fan to represent joy — Cavaye, Griffith and Senda, p. 180.

192: “He did not reduce his characters to a mechanism…” — The Nibelungenlied, translator’s afterword, p. 314.

192: Erotic allure of black high heels’ red soles — InStyle, January 2008, p. 109 (“Your Most Stylish Year Ever: 365 Star Style Secrets,” no. 8: Lindsay Lohan).

193: Meaning of makeup on the back of a geisha’s neck: genitals — Cobb, p. 60 (unnamed geisha); photo of this makeup being applied is on p. 61. Gallagher simply remarks (p. 146) that there is “much to say” about this decoration of “the sexiest of all parts of the decently clothed body.”

193: Geisha makeup as “electrifying” — Gallagher, p. 144.

193: Mr. Mikata on Noh training — Interview of October 2006.

193: Mr. Umewaka’s grandfather and the loveliness of imaginary cherry blossoms — Umewaka Rokuro, “On the 45th Anniversary of My Stage Career.”

199: “Genuine Perfect Fluency in fact has no connection with the actor’s conscious artistic intentions…” — Zeami, p. 135 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

199: Chobunsai Eishi, Chokosai Eisho — Seen at the Ota Ukiyo-e Museum in Tokyo, 2006.

200: Reason for white makeup in Heian times — Iwasaki and Brown, p. 159.

201: Lady Nijo at the Shoren-in and Gion Shrine — Op. cit., pp. 17, 160.

14: “SHE CANNOT DO ANYTHING ELSE”

202: Remarks of Kofumi-san and Danyu-san — Same session of October 2006.

202: “A gentleman would place a handkerchief…” — Hanna, p. 180.

204: “As early as eleven.” — Cobb, p. 17 (Mayumi, Tokyo geisha).

204: “The romanticization of geisha life…” — Masuda, pp. 6–7.

204: The tale of Takabayashi Ginji — Rath, pp. 1–4.

205: Footnote: “Women exist for the sake of men…” — Makuzu, p. 25.

206: “The actor will be able to discern clearly…” — Zeami, pp. 139–40 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

206: Mishima’s resolution to cultivate his body — Sun and Steel, pp. 7–8.

206: Procedures of Molly Sims — InStyle, January 2008, pp. 109 (“Your Most Stylish Year Ever: 365 Star Style Secrets,” no. 23), 119 (no. 233).

206: Mr. Shozo Sato’s abstention from water before performing — Information by him, given at a Kabuki costuming and makeup demonstration at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 23 February 2008. This form of preparation is also common among Noh actors. Regarding a ko-omote carved by Yamato, the actor Katayama Kurouemon reports: “I once performed Kenreimonin in “Oharagoko” with this mask. Since the colors are very delicate and I wore a flower hat on my head, I didn’t drink any water from the day before so that I would not sweat” (Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV; p. 36).

206: The Goodbye Cellulite, Hello Bikini Challenge — Marie Claire, vol. 15, no. 4 (April 2008), p. 59 (Nivea advertisement: “Ready for the Challenge?”).

206: “We’ve all been there…” — Allure, January 2008, p. 32 (advertisement for CoverGirl TruBlend).

206: Vaginal rejuvenation + balancing ethnic features — New Beauty, winter-spring 2008, p. 172 (“Vaginal Rejuvenation & Aesthetic Surgery”); p. 149 (“Balancing Your Ethnic Features”) + p. 141 (“The Details About Rhinoplasty”).

207: Reoperation rates for breast augmentation and reconstruction — Allure, January 2008, p. 54 (safety addendum to ad for the Natrelle Breast Enhancement Collection).

207: Description of the buttocks lift — New Beauty, winter-spring 2008, p. 111 (“Remove Excess Skin”).

207: Danger of Brazilian hair-straightening treatments — Allure, January 2008, p. 44 (“Letters from the Editor: January ’08: Vanity Cases”).

208: Details of vaginal graft and dilator — Ames, p. 239 (Aleshia Brevard).

208: “Literally melts away fat…” — New Beauty, winter-spring 2008, p. 87 (advertisement for “Smartlipo Laser Body Sculpting”).

208: “It’s no fun being a geisha…” — Goossen, p. 48 (Nagai Kafu, “The Peony Garden”).

208: “Ultimately, ours is a journey of anguish.” — Ames, p. 236 (Aleshia Brevard).

208: Noh lessons of Mr. Mikata Shizuka — Observed in his studio in Kyoto, 2004.

209: Dilation of neovagina with plastic stents — Rose, pp. 150–51.

209: Definition of muga — De Mente, pp. 47–49.

209: Remarks on Agnes — Stryker and Whittle, pp. 83, 82 (Harold Garfinkel, “Passing and the Managed Achievement of Sex Status in an ‘Intersexed’ Person”).

211: Iwasaki Mineko’s punishment and self-discipline — Op. cit., pp. 224, 231.

211: “More of a painted doll than a woman…” — Peabody Museum, p. 25 (Lesley Downs, “A World Behind Closed Doors”).

211: “The truth and what looks like it are two different things.” — Zeami, p. 146 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

211: The tale of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf — Op. cit., pp. 46, 44, 92, 102.

15: SUZUKA’S DRESSING ROOM

212: Remarks of Suzuka — From an interview in Kanazawa, January 2008; translated by Kawai Takako.

215: Morris on ideal waist-to-hip ratio — Op. cit., pp. 160–61.

215: Footnote on average female hip width — Morris, p. 169.

215: “The tightly laced young woman…” — Ibid., p. 164.

215: “Compactness and stability…” — Clark, pp. 85–86.

216: Maikos and the wooden pillow — Information from Masami-san, same ochaya, same month and year.

16: “THEY JUST WANT TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR”

222: Makeover — Interview with Yukiko, January 2008.

225: Desmond Morris on long hair and puffed-out lips — Op. cit., pp. 18, 79.

226: Sei Shonagon’s list of things that have lost their power — Op. cit., p. 145.

228: Footnote: Morris on blonde hair — Op. cit., p. 18.

228: The Vimalakirti Sutra — De Bary et al., pp. 60–61.

17: “I SIT WITH MY LEGS CLOSED”

230: Breasts created with padded apron; paragraph on elongated kimono sleeves & c; immediately following paragraph on types of feminine movement — Information by Mr. Sato Shozo, Kabuki costuming and makeup demonstration at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 23 February 2008.

231: Remarks of Mr. Ichikawa Shunen — From an interview in Tokyo, January 2008; translated by Kawai Takako.

231: Footnote: Mishima on onnagatas — Five Modern No Plays, pp. 298, 297, 293.

234: “Grasp the logic of the fact that the eyes cannot see themselves…” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 80 (“Kakyo”).

236: Visible and interior effects of waist constriction — Kunzle, pp. 15, 30–31.

18: “THERE’S NO UGLY LADY FACE”

239: “A double of the super ego” — Bellmer, p. 66. In the same work (pp. 28–29), he decribes a paralytic in love with a young girl: “Gradually her physical reality superimposed itself over his own… internally at prenatal depths he became the woman he was preparing to possess… he transformed into his opposite,” namely a woman.

239: “Never created or annihilated by themselves…” — De Bary et al., p. 138 (Huisi, “The Method of Calming and Contemplation in the Mahayana” [sixth cent.]).

19: THE PHALLUS OF TIRESIAS

244: “Entertainment enacted by a loosely defined occupation…” — Rath, p. 10.

244: The ancient Hungarian figurine — Depicted in Gimbutas, p. 231.

245: “By this unnatural differentiation…” — Zweig, p. 73. See also pp. 71–72.

246: Tomimoto Toyohina and her two colleagues — Utamaro book, trans. Yasuda Nobuko. Picture 7: Toji-sanbijin; Tomimoto Toyohina, Naniwaya Kita and Takashima Hisa; around Kansei 5 (1793). Large Nishikie. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

247: “… with a view to maintaining women in the conventional, subordinate role…” — Millot, p. 14.

247: Tips on feminine-style self-touching, on walking and on sitting — Danae Doyle Productions, “Feminine Movement Basics Vol. 1,” DDP & Feminage, 2007.

247: “A woman’s nature is such…” — De Bary et al., p. 404.

248: Description of Amelia — Maxwell, p. 60 (Bright Center of Heaven, 1934).

248: Reshaping procedure for lip line — Aucoin, p. 45.

248: As depressing as an out-of-season red plum-blossom dress — Shonagon, p. 40.

249: “Now all at once he realized what the repulsive aura was…” — Böll, p. 199 (Der Zug war pünktlich, 1951).

249: Tale of the transvestite at Caesar’s house — Cicero, vol. II (vol. XXII in the works), p. 35 (I.13, Cicero to Atticus, Rome, Jan. 25, B.C. 61).

249: Poem of love separation from the year 1232 — Brower and Miner, p. 271 (“Next Morning Love,” by Teika, slightly “retranslated” by WTV).

250: Description of Vanesa Lorena Ledesma — Amnesty International, p. 58. This case occurred in Argentina in 2000.

250: “If we eliminate the pressure to pass…” — Mattilda, p. 19 (“Reaching Too Far: An Introduction”).

250: The collection of mid-twentieth-century snapshots — In Hurst and Swope.

250: “One might say that the grace of them is not derived from avoiding strain…” — Denby.

250: Bone, flesh and skin — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), pp. 69–70 (“Shikado”).

250: “Let there be brought to me twenty women…” — Simpson, p. 17 (“Third Tale: The Marvel Which Happened in the Reign of King Snefru”).

250: “All I am able to do is teach you the form…” — Iwasaki and Brown, p. 297.

250: “A fan must be carried…” — Ito and Inoue, p. 99.

250: “This is a higher-level mask with strength…” — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV; p. 54.

251: “Many, if not most women are the wrong shape…” — Anders.

252: “Sexual difference, which owes much to symbolic dualisms…” — Millot, p. 15.

252: “A smoldering smoky eye.” — Harper’s Bazaar, January 2008.

20: A CURTAIN OF MIST

255: A waka-onna, fushikizo and manbi seen all together — Tokugawa Art Museum, Noh Masks and Costumes, p. 24 (plates 36–38).

256: “Empowering interpreters with expertise…” — Rath, p. 81.

256: “Okina is not a pine tree spirit…” — Jeff Clark corrections, to my ms. p. 30.

256: “Poetry is finer than prose…” + “Poetic thought works by suggestion…” — Fenollosa, pp. 23, 28.

257: Representation of Genji’s dying wife by means of a folded robe — In the Noh play “Aoi-no-Ue.”

257: The tale of Sen no Rikyu’s ocean-view garden — Treib and Herman, p. 23.

257: Utamaro’s yuujo from 1794 — Utamaro book, trans. Yasuda Nobuko. Picture 31: Nouryoubijinzu. Around Kansei 6–7 (1794–95). Colored silk book. Hitono (=unit for counting fabric size) 39.5 x 65.6 cm. Chiba City Museum of Art.

257: Remarks of Mr. Mikata — Interview of October 2006.

257: Description of Utamaro’s round-cheeked white geisha faces — After Utamaro (Tadashi Kobayashi), pp. 25–29 (geisha series from “A Collection of Portraits of Reigning Beauties”).

258: Matisse drawings — Op. cit., various pages.

259: “The waste of a woman is in not knowing her carnally.” — Simpson, p. 521 (“The Instruction of ‘Onchsheshonqy [P. British Museum 10508],” 20/20).

259: “The ‘fetish-object’ in the history of courtly love is a surrogate…” — Kunzle, p. 7.

259: Description of the Queen of the Night — After Collon, pp. 6 (as she looks now) and 8 (digital reconstruction).

260: Understated clothing and breast forms sometimes protects the male bodies of transgender women from being recognized. — Information from Rose, pp. 34–35.

260: Footnote: “The extruding animal breast…” — Clark, p. 130.

260: “The one thing that women share…” — Serano, p. 52.

260: Description of “Venus” figurines — After illustrations in Gimbutas, pp. 163–65. One example sports what the author calls “double-egg-shaped buttocks.”

261: “In punchy shades of purple, green and blue…” — Allure, August 2008, p. 181 (Cara Litke, “Crossing the Line”).

261: Footnote: “It is usually said that a woman should keep everything in her heart…” — Makuzu, p. 22.

262: “Although they are peasants, they embody the refinement of a centuries-old courtly aesthetic…” — Takeda and Bethe, p. 21 (Tom Hare, “Rituals, Dreams, and Tales of Adventure: A Material History of Noh Drama”).

22: SUN-BRIGHT LIKE SWORDS

264: “They saw a large band of shield-maidens…” — The Saga of the Volsungs, p. 50.

265: The three “fair southron maids” — “Volundarkvitha,” in Hollander, p. 160.

265: “For the white-armed woman he waited long” + “her white arms” — Ibid., pp. 161, 160.

265: The lovely Norsewoman — What about domestic beauty? Concerning the brooch-breasted, blue-shirted highborn wife of “Rígsthula,” “was her brow brighter, her breast lighter, / her neck whiter, than whitest snow.” Her son married a girl who was “dainty-fingered, fairhaired and wise.”

265: Footnote: Description of the thrall wife — “Rígsthula,” in Hollander, p. 122.

265: Sun-bright like a sword — For instance, Odin extolls Billing’s daughter, “the sun-bright maid” (“Hávamál,” in Hollander, p. 28); in “Voluspa” (p. 10) we read that “the war god’s sword like a sun doth shine.” We might also mention that Svipdag’s “sun-bright maiden” Mengloth shares her appellation with a man; Sun-Bright was also the name of Svipdag’s father (Hollander, p. 152).

265: Shunga’s whiter bodies of women than of men — For instance, Clark et al., p. 102 (Torii Kyonobu I’s early eighteenth-centuty ukiyo-e shunga “Erotic Contest of Flowers” [detail].)

266: Denigration of arms in the “zoologist’s portrait, celebrating women as they appear in the real world” — Morris, pp. ix., 117.

266: Gerth’s “arms did gleam…” — “Skírnismál,” in Hollander.

266: “When she lifted her arms and opened the door…” — Sturluson, p. 31.

266: “In a witch’s arms beware of sleeping…” — “Hávamál,” in Hollander, p. 31.

266: Dangerous as the ghost of a Christian woman — “Svipdagsmal,” in Hollander, p. 143.

266: “The crafty woman / in her arms who folded my father” — Ibid., p. 142.

266: “For thy shining arms on the shoulders lay…” — “Lokasenna,” in Hollander, p. 94.

267: “Though fair women, / and brow-white…” — Sigrdrífumál,” in Hollander, p. 239.

267: “Methought in the darkness came dead women…” — Greenlandish Lay of Atli, in Hollander, p. 298 st. 25.

267: Norsewomen as doom — These examples could be multiplied at tedious length. When Bjorn Brynjolfsson meets Thora Lacecuff, he takes a great fancy to her, says the saga, but does not say why; he abducts her (Egil’s Saga, p. 81). When Egil Skallagrimssson falls in love with his brother’s widow Asgerd, his love poem mentions nothing about her characteristics (ibid., p. 132). In The Saga of Bjorn, Champion of the Hitardal People we meet Oddny Thorkelsdaughter, “an exceptionally beautiful” woman whose exceptional beauty is not described, but on account of it she is called Oddny Isle-Candle (Sagas of Warrior Poets, p. 154).

267: Sinfjotli “saw a lovely woman…” — The Saga of the Volsungs, p. 50.

267: Femme fatale of Eyrbyggja Saga — P. 78.

269: “Ivar’s story” — In Hrafnkel’s Saga, pp. 129–31.

269: Encomia of Helga the Fair — Sagas of Warrior Poets, p. 141 (The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue).

269: Footnote on Helga — Ibid., p. 117.

269: Same footnote: Description of the bound captive — Two Viking Romances, p. 21 (“Bosi and Herraud”).

269: Description of figurines of Valkyries or disir — After illustrations in Lindow, p. 96.

270: Citations from Njal’s Saga — Pp. 184, 185, 189, 198.

270: “There you go, my two sons…” — The Saga of Grettir the Strong, p. 158.

271: Glam’s curse — Ibid., p. 85.

271: “Then the tide of battle turned…” — The Saga of the Volsungs, p. 53

272: Decapitation of the eight-year-old boy — The Tale of the Heike, vol. 2, p. 700.

272: Heike arrogance, evanescence — Ibid., vol. 1, p. 5. The book is rife with such passages.

273: The dooms of Katla and Odd — Eryrbyggja Saga, pp. 62–63.

273: “Have it your way, but it’s a decision I’ll live long to regret.” — Egil’s Saga, p. 126.

273: Other citations from Njal’s Saga — Pp. 171, 239–40.

274: Guthrún called “demonic” — Hollander, p. 285.

274: Final doings of Brynhild — “Sigurtharkvitha hin skamma” (short lay of Sigurth), in Hollander, p. 260.

275: Sigrún and Helgi in the mound — “Helgavitha Hundingsbana II,” in Hollander, pp. 200–201.

275: Footnote: The “hateful and grim” Valkyrie in Odin’s hall — “Helgavitha Hundingsbana I” (First Lay of Helgi Hundingslayer), in Hollander, p. 186.

Same footnote: “A different, cruder picture” — Davidson, p. 64.

275: “The nape of the neck is the glamor spot…” — Ito and Inoue, p. 64.

276: Footnote: Thomas Blenman Hare’s diagram of gender inflection patterns — Op. cit., p. 3.

276: Remarks of Kenneth Clark — Op. cit., pp. 75, 20–21.

276: Footnote: “Not that the Esquiline girl…” — Ibid., p. 75.

276: “That search for finality of form”… — Ibid., pp. 74–75.

277: Citations from Sei Shonagon — Op. cit., pp. 110, 84.

277: Description of Thorgunna — Eyrbyggja Saga, p. 130.

277: Description of Thorgerd — Egil’s Saga, p. 202.

277: Gold- and jewel-related kennings for women, Sif, Freya, etc. — Sturluson, pp. 114, 115, 96, 30, 94. By puns, women are also referred to with feminine names of trees such as willows, birches, lindens (pp. 94, 116). Women used to wear chains of stones around their necks, so stone, gem and the like is another kenning for women. Women can be called forests, flood-fire-keeping Sifs, mead-Hrists (p. 115).

277: Footnote: “So dear are you, sea-Freya…” — Sagas of Warrior Poets, p. 49.

278: Praise of Oddny Isle-Candle — The Saga of Bjorn, Champion of the Hitardal People, in Sagas of Warrior Poets, pp. 160–61 (in the second citation she is actually “Hrist of the hand-fire”).

278: Praise of Helga the Fair — The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue, in Sagas of Warrior Poets, pp. 139, 135.

278: Citations from Laxdaela Saga — Op. cit., pp. 60, 61, 64, 118, 109, 156, 188.

278: Description of Kojiro’s “Ataka” — After a performance I saw in 2002.

279: Footnote: Lady Murasaki’s diary — Op. cit., p. 56.

280: Hallgerd “was very tall…” — Njal’s Saga, p. 55.

280: Extracts from Viglund’s Saga — Sagas of Warrior Poets, pp. 254, 261.

23: PASSING LIGHT

282: “Frozen motion” + “nothing is frozen” — Wyeth (Wilmerding), pp. 172, 174 (Wyeth’s words).

283: “A similarity of stroke and surface…” — Wyeth (Wilmerding), p. 23 (John Wilmerding, “Andrew Wyeth’s Helga Suite”).

283: Description of “Farm Road” — Ibid., pp. 138–39.

283: “There’s grace in my work like spring flowers…” — Quoted in Meryman, p. 232.

283: Wyeth’s first acquaintance with Helga — Ibid., p. 324.

284: “Nobody knows her…” + “the same slight coarseness…” + “a picture of a whore sitting there…” — Ibid., p. 330.

284: “Letting Her Hair Down” — Wyeth (Wilmerding), p. 35.

284: Helga: “I became alive…” — Meryman, p. 336.

284: “And now I meet this girl…” — Ibid., p. 338.

284: “She was an image I couldn’t get out of my mind.” — Ibid., p. 339.

285: “I felt the country, the house…” — Ibid., p. 355.

285: “Whoever she is to us…” — Wyeth, p. 338.

285: “If I control it, it’s no good.” — Corn, p. 85 (E. P. Richardson, “Andrew Wyeth’s Painting Techniques”).

285: “Braids” — Wyeth (Wilmerding), p. 147.

285: “I’d painted those braids beautifully coming to the fine end… “ — Meryman, p. 354.

285: “Taking the lids off the boxes…” — Ibid., p. 369.

286: “Wyeth’s memory of his father in the coffin…” — Ibid., p. 224.

286: Description of “Night Shadow” — After the plate in the same book, p. 343. Since this painting is not part of the Helga Suite it is not reproduced in Wilmerding.

286: “Who the fuck is this woman?…” — Ibid., p. 370.

286: “Now her sturdy features and sober demeanor…” — Wyeth (Wilmerding), p. 22 (Wilmerding’s words).

286: “It’s not just anybody lying there…” — Meryman, p. 348.

287: Description of the ko-omote copied by Deme Yasuhisa — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko (and slightly revised by me), p. 32. (The visual description, of course, is mine.) After mentioning the “girl in the box,” when I say that the description “continues,” in fact I have misstated for rhetorical purposes, for in the original the “girl in the box” bit comes second, not first. “Kanze Kiyokazu says, ‘Typical female masks used in our performance style express young women, but we use this when we want some lovely and light look. This perfect ko-omote mask can withstand the role of shite, such as the tidy and pure Tennyo in “Hagoromo.” Actually, if this is used for the tsure, its presence might overwhelm the shite.’ ”

288: The Perfect Fluency “has no connection… with the actor’s conscious artistic intentions. ” — Zeami, p. 135 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

288: “… the thing that expresses the way I feel at a particular time…” — Wyeth (Wilmerding), p. 39.

288: “Too real for some people…” — Wyeth, Autobiography, p. 114 (re: “Overflow”).

289: “Fluid and fluctuating… “ — Corn, p. 14 (Brian O’Doherty, “A Visit to Wyeth Country”).

290: “The individual self striving to realize all things…” — De Bary et al., p. 325 (Dogen, “The Fully Apparent Case” [Genjo Koan], 1231). Italics mine.

290: “The gateway to something beyond…” — Ibid., p. 265.

24: WHO IS THE WILLOW TREE GODDESS?

294: “Thinking heart is saddened.” — Bethe and Emmert, Noh Guide 3, p. 8 (literal translation).

25: SNOW IN A SILVER BOWL

297: Description of Radha’s charms — After Jayadeva, pp. 84–85 (III, stanzas 12–15).

26: BEAUTY’S GHOST

298: The two sketches of Ono no Komachi — Hokusai, Encyclopedia: Men and Women, p. 216, no. 3 (Ono no Komachi and Noin, poets in Heian period, both included in the 36 major poets); p. 234, no. 3 (Sekidera Komachi, one of seven legends around Ono no Komachi).

298: Illustration from Hokusai’s version of the Hundred Poets anthology — Op. cit., p. 42.

299: Zeami’s remarks on the “flower” — Op. cit., pp. 20–21, 51, 60.

299: “Whether it is because the faith which creates has ceased to exist…” — Proust, vol. 1, p. 201 (“Combray” part of Swann’s Way).

299: “Endless strength and inconsolable sadness…” — Serano, p. 280.

300: Description of a seventeenth-century zo-onna — Tokugawa Art Museum, Noh Masks and Costumes, p. 26 (plate 41).

300: “The most important accomplishment for a beautiful woman is to be able to write poetry.” — Lady Nijo, p. 113.

300: Biographical data on Komachi — Keene, Seeds in the Heart, pp. 234–35.

300: Komachi’s poem about the breast illuminated with desperate fire — Brower and Miner, p. 206 (“Hito ni awan…”)

301: The ukiyo-e painting of Komachi — Ota Memorial Museum of Art, 1988, plate 10 (Matsuno Chikanobu, “The poetess Komachi washing the anthology to disprove false charge of plagiary” [sic]). In another version of the same scene, the background is a sandy gold and the surface of the water in the basin is also gold with parallel wiggles of ink, as if in preparation to marble paper. — Clark et al., p. 138 (Okomura Masanobu, “Ono no Komachi Washing the Manuscript,” ca. 1711–36).

301: Sei Shonagon’s reference to Komachi (Fukakusa no Shoso’s death) — Op. cit., p. 243.

301: Description of Komachi’s charms in “Sotoba Komachi” — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 14.

301: “A young girl’s trailing white robe, worn over a lavender chemise.” — McCullough, p. 167.

302: “Surrender to you…” — Sato and Watson, p. 113 (“retranslated” by WTV).

302: “It is good for a woman to realize that once she grows old…” — Makuzu, pp. 174–75.

302: Description of background pages of a Genji Picture-Scroll — Tokugawa Museum, Genji Monogatari Emaki, pp. 78, 38, 24.

303: Komachi’s reply to Bunya Yasuhide — The poem appears in full in Brower and Miner, p. 222.

304: “With the rojo, simply being beautiful is not enough…” — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV; p. 76. My visual description of the mask derives from the accompanying plate.

304: “How sad! My heart breaks! A flowering branch on a withered tree.” — Keene, p. 76 (“Sekidera Komachi”).

304: Qualities of sabi — De Mente, pp. 31–32.

305: “I lack form…” — Bethe and Emmert, p. 22 (my “retranslation” of the extremely literal word-for-word gloss).

305: “The century-old woman to whom you’ve spoken…” — Keene, p. 76 (“Sekidera Komachi”), “retranslated” by WTV.

305: Komachi’s tanka imagining herself as her own cremated smoke — Sato and Watson, p. 116.

305: The poem in the Tales of Ise which admonishes the exalted and the base not to fall in love — McCullough, p. 66. Even more apposite to Komachi is the following: “Kenshi’s remains vanished without a trace into smoke — a dreadful sight” (ibid., p. 250 [A Tale of Flowering Fortunes]). Kenshi had been an Empress.

305: Description of yase-otoko mask — After Kanze, Hayashi and Matsuda, paperback commentary vol., p. 55; hardback vol., plates 138–39.

306: The nymphomaniac’s “Komachi Dance” — Saikaku, p. 164 (“The Life of an Amorous Woman”).

306: “Yet could she have been as miserable as I was?” — Lady Nijo, p. 187.

307: “What do you now tell me…” — Sato and Watson, p. 115 (“retranslated” by WTV).

307: “The intensity of her expression of passion…” — After Brower and Miner, p. 29.

307: “Movement will grow from the chant…” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 46 (“Fushikaden”).

308: Komachi’s poem of cowering away from malicious eyes — Brower and Miner, p. 188 (“Utsutsu ni wa…”).

309: Description of the higaki-no-onna mask — After Kanze, Hayashi and Matsuda, paperback commentary vol., p. 35; and hardback plates 64–65.

310: “Revealed as she pulls the peplos to one side…” — Getty Museum, p. 19 (“Statue of a Kore [The Elgin Kore]”).

310: The pine tree immortality of poetry — Keene, Twenty Plays, p. 71 (“Sekidera Komachi”).

311: “My rooms shone with tortoise shell…” — Ibid., p. 74 (“Sekidera Komachi”).

311: “White jade, even in the mud, will retain its real appearance.” — Zeami, p. 136 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

27: URASHIMA’S BOX

312: The tale of Urashima — Manyoshu, pp. 216–18 (poem 656: “Urashima of Mizunoe”).

313: Concerning my ageing face — One late afternoon in a former Heike village, now a hot spring among whose attractions one counts bear sashimi, steaming sulphur-smelling water spewed from hotel pipes into snowy gulleys. The sun was low, the river blackish-green. A man stopped his truck, threw aside the netting from his reservoir, and caught a pair of immense carp for dinner. That low sun on the dark and snowy river reminded me most sadly of my younger times (never mind that I was ten years younger then). I felt oppressed by my own history. But from the crescent moon bridge I could see pressed against steamy panes the wrinkled breasts of old women; these attracted me with all their wise experiences which stratified them into golden sandstone. I wanted to place my forehead against those sulphur-dripping bulwarks of gentleness and drink their sweat as pilgrims do the holy water of Lourdes. Palms pressed against the glass, wide, affectionate buttocks, these performed cleanliness and steadfastness. When I took the waters myself that evening, I tried the outdoor pool. The cold wet air made my sore throat ache. Stripping, I eased myself into the water, which almost scalded me at first, then uplifted me. I gazed at the purple night, with steam from the pipe obscuring the stars.

313: “The town of Fuchu is nothing but corpses…” — De Bary et al., p. 448.

314: “Natural for me.” — Corn, p. 66 (Richard Meryman, “Andrew Wyeth: An Interview”).

314: “It was such a beautiful voice…” — Kawabata, Snow Country, p. 5.

316: Description of Lasa — After Getty Museum, pp. 129 (closeup), 136 (“Patera Handle in the Form of a Nude Winged Girl”).

316: “She sent no answer…” — Waley, No Plays, p. 158 (“Sotoba Komachi,” slightly “retranslated” by WTV).

28: THE DECAY OF THE ANGEL

318: “A face like new-fallen snow, unaware of what lies ahead” — Mishima, Runaway Horses, p. 26.

319: “Up until now I thought it best as his friend…” — Mishima, Spring Snow, p. 193.

320: “The instant that the blade tore open his flesh…” — Mishima, Runaway Horses, p. 419.

320: “In the average person, I imagine…” — Mishima, Sun and Steel, p. 8.

321: “Definitely gifted, but somehow not really sure how to cope with the ‘gift’ ” — Reiko Tochigi to WTV, personal communication, 2001.

321: “He can only be objectified through the supreme action…” — Mishima, Sun and Steel, p. 55.

323: Footnote: Zeami on the vicissitudes of Noh actors at various ages — Op. cit., pp. 22, 24.

323: “One must not copy the vulgar manners of common people.” — Zeami, p. 25.

323: “THE SET is in extremely vulgar and commonplace taste…” — Mishima, Five Modern No Plays, p. 3 (“Sotoba Komachi,” italics in original).

324: Footnote: “There’s always something slightly crude about a dress made by a Japanese?” — Ibid., p. 16.

324: “The park, the lovers…” — Ibid., p. 7.

324: “They’re petting on their graves…” — Ibid., p. 9.

325: “Shadows are moving over the windows…” — Ibid., p. 19.

325: Footnote: Zeami on translating musical atmosphere into visual expression — Op. cit., p. 128 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

326: “If I think something is beautiful…” — Ibid., p. 3.

326: The ukiyo-e painting of Komachi — Ota Memorial Museum of Art (2006), p. 11 (1: Iwasa Matabei, “The Poetess Komachi”).

327: The violet blossoms on the maple — Kawabata, The Old Capital, pp. 1–2.

327: “As time passed, the memory of their embrace…” — Kawabata, Beauty and Sadness, pp. 122–23.

328: Description of ushin — Brower and Miner, p. 271.

328: “To wash oneself clean of one sin that was permeated with sacrilege…” — Mishima, Spring Snow, p. 258.

328: “He was always thinking of death…” — Mishima, Runaway Horses, p. 131.

29: SUNSHINE ON SILLA

331: Description of the Flower of Peerless Charm — Zeami, p. 120 (“Kyui”).

331: “The metaphor is much more subtle than its inventor…” — Lichtenberg, p. 87 (notebook F, no. 41).

332: “Do I not feel as I did in that dream…” — Novalis, p. 104.

332: Description of Rodin’s “Psyche” — Seen in the Musée Rodin. Sculpture ca. 1905, marbre inachevé.

332: Footnote on “Hagoromo” — After Waley, The No Plays of Japan, p. 221 (“Hagoromo”).

332: Description of Kannon — Standing thousand-armed Kannon Bosatsu No. 504, wood with gold leaf by Ruen, Kamakura period, 1251–66, Tokyo National Museum.

333: “In this polluted world…” — De Bary et al., p. 335 (Ikkyu Sojun, 1394–1481, “The Errant Cloud Collection”).

334: Description of the Roman Muse — Melpomene the Muse of tragedy, seen at the Getty Villa in Santa Monica. Her mask was as large as from her head to her breast.

334: Description of the two geishas viewing plum blossoms in the snow — Ukiyo-e print by Torii Kiyonaga (1752–1815), on view at the Tokyo National Museum.

336: The eighteenth-century black and white ukiyo-e print of a courtesan — Clark et al., p. 120 (Torii Kiyomasu, I, “Standing Courtesan,” 1705–7).

30: PINE TREE CONSTANCY

338: Description of the “Takasago” fan — After a reproduction in Chiba, pp. 24–25.

338: “So, awaiting this occasion…” — Zeami, “Takasago,” excerpted in Hare, p. 89.

339: “Like blossoms on an ancient tree” — Zeami, “Fushikaden,” quoted in Hare, p. 65.

339: Mr. Mikata Shizuka — Interviewed in his studio in Kyoto, April 2004.

339: Footnote: Characteristics of the fourteenth-century stage — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 35.

339: Knowledge of ancient audiences about the pine tree god and goddess — For example, the much older Tales of Ise contains an episode about the Sumiyoshi god (p. 152; Dan CXII).

339: Hokusai’s line-image of the old couple — Encyclopedia: Men and Women, p. 107, no. 9 (“Takasago: Noh play celebrating prosperity and longevity”). This is not Hokusai’s only reference to “Takasago.” In his One Hundred Poets (p. 81), he illustrates an early tenth-century poem by Fujiwara no Okikaze. The poet laments the solitude of old age; even Takasago’s pines, he complains, cannot replace his bygone companions. Hokusai’s illustration, done more than nine hundred years later, defies Okikaze’s self-pity: People sit contentedly beneath the spreading branches of an immense pine. Some faces gaze upward; others look at the schematized sea. In one endearingly and typically down-to-earth touch, a tea-seller hunches over her apparatus.

339: “And while the cup of the Shogun is poured out three times…” — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 7.

340: Footnote: “I celebrate my lord” — Zeami, “Takasago” (quoted in Hare, p. 70).

340: “The pines that grew together…” — Zeami, “Takasago” (quoted in Hare, p. 102).

340: “The pine-clad mountain / will never be inconstant.” — McCullough, p. 148 (The Gossamer Journal).

340: Poem of the Gossamer Lady‘s husband — Ibid., p. 108.

340: “Even if you were dwelling near the peak at Takasago” — Ibid., p. 105.

340: “On the Day of the Rat…” — McCullough, p. 214 (A Tale of Flowering Fortunes).

340: “The maiden’s crimson face is gone forever…” — Keene, Seeds in the Heart, p. 141.

341: “My own people! / They stood just so…” — Manyoshu, p. 255 (poem 785, Mononobe Mashima, “Those pines standing in rows…”).

341: “His name alone lives on” + “An ancient pine is rooted in the mound.” — Hare, p. 140 (excerpt from “Izutsu”).

341: Hare’s interpretation of the pine — Ibid., p. 141.

341: “Even when I’m an old woman of sixty…” — Kawabata, The Old Capital, p. 155.

342: “I couldn’t break the bonds of my insane attachment…” — Masuda, pp. 138–39.

342: The vermilion-and-pale-green undergarment used in “Takasago” — From the Kanazawa Noh Museum, seen by me in January 2008.

342: “All art is a revolt against man’s fate.” — Malraux, p. 639.

342: “Love is a madness, but therein it is pure…” — Pinguet, p. 177.

343: “There are fundamental barriers created by society,” etc. — Shirane, p. 119.

343: “Perhaps with love it is always so…” — Keene, Twenty No Plays, p. 86 (“The Brocade Tree”).

343: “The anger of lust denied covers me like darkness.” — Waley, p. 176 (“Aya no Tsuzumi”).

343: “At nineteen I first pledged love with him…” — Hare, p. 146 (trans. of rongi).

343: Authorship of “Matsukaze” — See, for instance, Tyler, p. 183 (introduction to this play); Takeda and Bethe, p. 21.

343: Ancient precedence of “Izutsu” over “Matsukaze” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 214 (“Sarugaku dangi”).

344: The loneliness of Suma — In his One Hundred Poets, Hokusai’s illustration to a twelfth-century poem about just this becomes, in a typically cheerful inversion, a portrait of three buxom sake-makers (p. 162).

344: Genji Picture-Scroll illustration re: Suma — Murase, ch. 12. Genji’s three sad years of exile have become so emblematic that The Taiheiki’s Emperor Go-Daigo en route to his own exile refers to it as if it were real (op. cit., p. 106).

345: Footnote: Kindred “pining” pun in “Hanjo” — Keene, Twenty No Plays, p. 139 (“Hanjo”).

345: Footnote: Effect of Narihira’s poem on the Eight Bridges of Mikawa — Keene, Seeds in the Heart, p. 230.

345: Genji’s reference to Yukihira — p. 241 (Waley trans.). For the convenience of the reader I also give the following: p. 229, beginning of Suma chapter; pp. 246–47, description of Suma; p. 339, pathos of Suma depicted in a picture competition. Pages 11, 221, 595 and 604 refer to Takasago, 609 to Sumiyoshi and 253 to a pine tree screen. See also Tales of Ise, p. 128 (Dan LXXXVII).

345: Hokusai’s Yukihira — Men and Women, p. 205, no. 5 (Ariwara no Yukihira, poet in Heian period).

345: “He changed our saltmakers’ vestments for damask robes…” — Keene, p. 28 (“Matsukaze,” “retranslated” by WTV).

345: “So young!. ” — Loc. cit. Not “retranslated.”

346: The sixteenth-century juuroku mask — Displayed at the Kanazawa Noh Museum, January 2008.

346: Description of Matsukaze-do and environs — From a visit to Suma in 2006.

347: “It makes no sense whatsoever to imagine Matsukaze’s height…” — Keene, Twenty Plays, p. 12.

347: Specification of waka-onna mask for Matsukaze — Ibid., p. 22.

347: Remarks of Ms. Nakamura on “Matsukaze” — Interview of October 2006.

347: Former specification of fukai for the same part — Tyler, p. 188 (introduction to “Matsukaze”).

349: Employment of fushikizo in “Matsukaze” — Nakanishi and Komma, p. 123.

349: “Yuki style with the nose tilted to the right…” — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV; p. 49. My visual description of this mask derives from the accompanying plate.

349: Footnote: “Kanzesoke has the beautiful tsuki…” — Ibid., p. 64. Another example of the specific meanings which can be attached to Japanese beauty: “A woman in a yukata (light kimono) after a bath, turning around while wiping her hands with a towel thrown over her shoulder. Her plump face, slightly open lips, breast barely showing, and the way her hands lay on top of one another, all depict the rich sensuality of a middle-aged woman. Her upright posture brings delicate elegance to the scene. This is what Utamaro sees as ‘the fickle type’ woman. Baimage, which is arranged by wrapping the hair around the kougai (=hairpin) and kanzashi (=hairpin), is a temporary hair arrangement after a bath or during makeup. Using kushi (=comb) and kanzashi for this hair arrangement could be signs of womanliness or fictitiousness of an Ukiyoe. ‘Fujinsougakujittai’ is the earliest series of portraits of beautiful women by Utamaro, attempting to illustrate the different characters and expressions of women.” — Utamaro book, trans. Yasuda Nobuko, slightly rev. by WTV. Picture 5: Fujinsougakujittai (Ten Types of Physiognomic Studies of Women), Uwakinosou (The Fickle Type). Around Kansei 4–5 (1792–93). Large Nishikie. New York Public Library.

350: Remarks of Mr. Mikata on “Matsukaze” — Interview of October 2006.

350: Manyoshu poem on the fisher-girls of Shika — Op. cit., p. 96 (poem 279: Ishikawa Kimiko, “The fisher-maids at Shika…”). A very similar poem in the Tales of Ise (p. 128; Dan LXXXVII) mentions the unloosed hair and also the fact that the combs were of boxwood.

350: Hokusai illustration: burning seaweed — One Hundred Poets, p. 198.

350: Tyler on fisher-girls as entertainers and prostitutes — Op. cit., pp. 185–86 (introduction to “Matsukaze”).

350: Lady Nijo’s nuns — Op. cit., p. 228.

353: Marie Claire, vol. 15, no. 4 (April 2008), p. 190 (Ning Chao, “Picture Perfect: The new makeup designed for high-definition television helps you look more flawless in real life”).

353: Description of the mask “Flower” — After Rath, color plates 3–4.

31: KAGEKIYO’S DAUGHTER

355: “The Way of Heaven has no love for” the fighting man… — Blomberg, pp. 69–70.

355: “The end is near…” — Waley, No Plays, p. 133 (“Kagekiyo”).

355: “Love of woman scarcely ever prevented the Japanese warrior from doing his duty as he saw it.” — After Blomberg, p. 75.

355: “Candle to my darkness…” — Waley, loc. cit.

355: Dampened sleeve poem of pine tree wind — Brower and Miner, p. 314 (Ariie, “The Wind in the Pines”).

355: Poem of the dead wife under the moss — Ibid., p. 310 (Shunzei, “Mare ni kuru…”).

355: Remarks of Mr. Mikata — Interview of October 2006.

356: Kagekiyo’s shame in front of his daughter, and compassion at her shame in being known as a beggar’s daughter — Waley, op. cit., p. 130 (“Kagekiyo”).

356: “No remembrance other,” etc. — Op. cit., p. 133.

357: “A swordsman should prepare a mind of mirrorlike emptiness” — Blomberg, p. 69.

357: The way that Noh is “in absolute harmony with the bushi ethos…” — Ibid., pp. 196–97.

357: Otsu’s two mentions in The Taiheiki — Op. cit., pp. 61, 70. On p. 38 this work refers to “Biwa’s saltless sea.”

358: Drawing of Semimaru — Hokusai, One Hundred Poets, pp. 44–45 (poem 10, untitled poem by Semimaru).

360: Description of Yasha’s masukami — Kanze, Hayashi and Matsuda, paperback commentary vol., p. 35; hardcover plates 62–63.

361: Zeami’s definition of fascination — Op. cit., p. 133 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

361: Footnote: “You become really absorbed at a play…” — Denby, pp. 146–47 (“How to Judge a Dancer,” 1943).

362: “Denied the moon…” — Tyler, p. 249 (“Semimaru,” slightly “retranslated” by WTV).

363: The demented mother as entertainment — In “Miidera” also the madwoman dance is straightforwardly presented as fun (“for entertainment, bring her into the outer garden and have her dance insanely”). Bethe and Emmert, Noh Performance Guide 3, p. 26.

363: Description of the Edo period fukai mask — Kanazawa Noh Museum, on display in January 2008. I wish I could remember what the mask’s eyelids looked like, because in a carver’s description of one fukai believed to be by Zekan I read: “This fukai has no work on the eyelids. This is fine for the role of mothers searching for the child, as in the mother who lost her child in ‘Sumidagawa.’ ” — Hori, Masuda and Miyano, p. 69, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV. — Danyu-san, the musician who played for Konomi-san and Kofumi-san when I met those three together in Gion, told me that she had once performed in a play called “Shizu-hata.” She said: “There was a dance in which a child was kidnapped and killed. The mother went insane. And I was supposed to play the insane woman’s role. It was very difficult. To play an insane person you must not move your eyes.”

363: Description of the fan — This is a certain Hosho School fan employed for roles of such madwomen as the grief-stricken mothers in “Sumidagawa” or the much happier “Miidera.” (It is never used to play Sakagami in “Semimaru.”) This fan expresses strength through golden mist-patterns; it also offers a spray of white plum-blossoms, white chrysanthemums, irises, etcetera. Also seen at the Kanazawa Noh Museum.

363: Sumida River poem — Tales of Ise, pp. 47–48 (Dan IX). Lady Nijo (pp. 199–200) could not resist making matters even sadder when she stood on this spot, remarking: “I recalled how Narihira had put a question to a capital bird here, but I did not see any birds at all.” Meanwhile, “Sumidagawa” has given birth to many allusions of its own — e.g., Kafu, p. 177.

363: “Sumida in Autumn” by Chobunsai Eishi — Ota Ukiyo-e Museum, on display in October 2006.

363: Woodblock by Isoda Koryusai — Uhlenbeck and Winkel, p. 100.

366: Zeami’s thoughts on the child actor in the mound — Op. cit., p. 188 (“Sarugaku dangi”).

366: “What appeared to be a dear child…” — Tyler, p. 263 (“Sumida-gawa,” slightly “retranslated” by WTV).

32: BEHIND THE RAINBOW CURTAIN

367: Epigraph: “Once a man met, courted, and won a woman…” — McCullough, p. 49.

367: Excerpt from Taketori Monogatari — McCullough, p. 57.

368: Hanago’s remark on the sting of love (these words were actually chanted in her name by the Noh chorus) — Keene, Twenty Plays, p. 137 (“Hanjo”).

368: Description of Mr. Mikata Shizuka and other actors in “Michimori” — Performed in Jumenji Temple, Kyoto, October 2006.

370: Kawabata: “For me, love more than anything else…” — Quoted in Keene, Dawn to the West, p. 795.

370: “Even in the provinces…” — McCullough, p. 45.

371: Kawabata’s red weeping cherry trees — The Old Capital, p. 8.

371: One poet of the Manyoshu who pretends that sight of Kyoto would bring back his youth — Op. cit., p. 242 (poem 736: “If I could see the capital…”).

372: Genji’s fear that he will never glimpse the capital again — Tale of Genji, p. 253.

372: “Suma’s image is loneliness.” — Interview with Mr. Mikata of October 2006.

372: “Born at Akashi! What a hideous thought!” — Tale of Genji, p. 637.

372: Effects of the Kokin Shu anthology on subsequent centuries of poetic diction — Keene, Seeds in the Heart, pp. 256–57.

372: Woodblock of the courtesan-turned-letter-writer — Saikaku, p. 155 (illustration to “The Life of an Amorous Woman”).

373: Symbolism of the three pines on the stage bridge — Pound and Fenollosa, p. 36.

374: “Clutching this transient life…” — Manyoshu, p. 23 (poem 63, by the exiled Prince Omi; “retranslated” by WTV).

374: The increasing loneliness of Semimaru’s palanquin-bearers — Tyler, p. 240 (“Semimaru”).

374: “I was not intended for a world in which women shackle themselves…” — Proust, p. 460 (“Place-Names: The Name” part of Swann’s Way).

375: “Trend Watch: Metallics.” — InStyle, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 83 (“Style File”).

375: “The sea her world…” — Tales of Ise, p. 143 (Dan CIV; “retranslated” by WTV).

375: Departure of the tsure and others through the small stage door — Keene, p. 44 (“The Sought-for Grave”).

375: Teika’s thirteenth-century tanka — Brower and Miner, p. 308 (Teika, “Tabibito no…”).

376: “Thither I go, /…” — Manyoshu, p. 44 (poem 109: “In the days when my wife lived…”).

376: Extract from The Taiheiki — Op. cit., p. 355.

376: Protracted entrances and exits in Noh and Kabuki — Gunji, pp. 22–23.

376: “Matching the feelings to the moment.” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 82 (“Kakyo”).

377: “And Lord Suketomo they banished to the land of Sado…” — The Taiheiki, p. 27.

377: Haiku on Sado and the Milky Way — Ueda, Basho, p. 30.

377: Loud and coarse rustling of a plebeian woman’s gowns — Lady Nijo, p. 84, in reference to a fanmaker’s daughter.

378: “Wait awhile…” — Brazell, p. 190 (“Shunkan,” trans. Eileen Kato).

378: Description of Shunkan mask — After Nakanishi and Komma, p. 55 (plate 58).

378: “Please put aside / the River of Heaven…” — McCullough, p. 67.

378: “Sekare sekarete” — Dalby, p. 77 (“Longing”).

379: “A dreadful island…” — The Taiheiki, p. 45.

379: “The cutting is like a gust of wind…” — Ibid., p. 47.

379: Footnote on the natives of Devil’s Island — The Tale of the Heike, vol. 1, p. 186.

379: Same footnote: “When I learned that we were passing Suma…” — Lady Nijo, p. 227.

380: Description of wabi — De Mente, pp. 33–35.

380: Zeami’s recollection of Kyoto’s flowers — Interview with Mr. Mikata, October 2006.

380: “I can’t help thinking about the capital…” — McCullough, p. 77 (A Tosa Journal). In the same source, on the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month, “a certain person” composes a poem about sadness for a dead child, a little girl who will never go home to the capital (p. 75).

380: Proust on the sounds within an egg — Vol. 1, p. 482 (“Madame Swann at Home” section of Within a Budding Grove).

381: “Thus by living in the capital…” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 96 (“Kakyo”).

382: The three pictures of Nancy — Allen, pp. 99–101.

383: “A man’s true feeling for a woman does not arise from the bodily contact…” — Owen, p. 918 (Li Yu, “Silent Operas” [seventeenth cent.]).

384: Zeami’s definition of fulfillment — Op. cit., p. 137 (“Shugyoku tokka”).

385: The famous moon poem in the Tales of Ise — McCullough, p. 60, noting that it was referred to years later in the poems of skillful courtiers in A Tosa Journal.

385: “For many are the pleasant forms which exist in numerous sins…” — Robinson, p. 303 (“The Thunder: Perfect Mind”).

385: The once-a-year frequency of theater-going in Edo — Guide to Edo-Tokyo Museum, p. 8.

385: The geisha song about butterflies — Dalby, pp. 40–42 (“In the Right Now of Now”).

386: Mr. Umewaka: “It’s more difficult to always do the same thing than to change…” — Jeff Clark corrections, to ms. p. 3.

387: “To see with the spirit is to grasp the spirit…” — Zeami (Rimer and Yamazaki), p. 71 (“Shikado”).

387: The square lacquered box with white butterflies — Nakamura Museum in Kanazawa, box ca. 1982.

387: “Those who dedicate themselves to pleasure…” — Makuzu, p. 31.

387: “An allegory carried too far or too low…” — Milton, p. 515 (extracts from Voltaire’s Essay Upon the Civil Wars of France… And also Upon the Epick Poetry of the European Nations from Homer to Milton [London, 1727]).

387: Footnote: “I feel as if a mask kissed me…” — Mishima, Five No Plays, p. 103 (“Kantan”).

388: Description of unfinished ko-omotes as wooden crystals — After illustrations in Hori, Masuda and Miyano, p. 148.

389: Description of the geisha Kikuyo — Kafu, p. 98 (“Decay of the Angel”).

389: Footnote: Sei Shonagon on the etiquette of souvenirs accompanying letters to and from the capital — McCullough, p. 162.

393: Plot of “Nishikigi” — Keene, Twenty No Plays, pp. 89ff. (“The Brocade Tree”).

393: The deathbed poem of Ki no Tsurayuki — Translated and briefly discussed in Keene, Seeds in the Heart, p. 267. This sentiment one comes across any number of times in the classical literature. For instance, the neglected wife of a highbred womanizer writes these eponymous lines in her Gossamer Journal (McCullogh, p. 155): “When I reflect on the perpetual uncertainty in which I exist, it seems to me that this is a journal of a woman whose fortunes have been as evanescent as the gossamer shimmer of a heat wave in the sky.”

393: “We had been fussing about with our dress and powder since early dawn.” — Murasaki, Diary, p. 23.

POSTSCRIPT TO APPENDIX B

411: Descriptions out of Sigrid Undset — The Bridal Wreath, pp. 56–57, 111, 112–20, 16–17; The Cross, pp. 348, 44, 182–85; The Mistress of Husaby, pp. 292–93; The Cross, p. 403.

APPENDIX E: NOH PLAY GROUPS, AND PLAYS MENTIONED

424: “Only a few hundred plays” — Rath, p. 201.

424: Eight hundred pre-1868 plays survive — Waley, The No Plays of Japan, p. 37.

424: Jeff Clark’s estimate — From his corrections, on p. 2 of my ms.

GLOSSARY

425: Definition of the Floating World: Ancient Egyptian love poem — Simpson, p. 333 (“The Song of the Harper”, slightly “retranslated” by WTV).

426: Definition of hikime kagibana: Description of Hokusai’s sketch of a court beauty — Men and Women, p. 35, no. 4 (court lady).

428: Definition of Shinto: Mr. Mikata’s remarks — Interview of October 2006.

429: Definition of tsuki: description of fushikizo: Hori, Masuda and Miyano, trans. for WTV by Yasuda Nobuko and slightly rev. by WTV; p. 42 (quoting Kanze Kiyokazu).

CHRONOLOGY

434: 1780s — “The ideals of the Floating World” — Peabody Museum, p. 124 (Money Hickman, “Geisha to the Fore: Niwaka Festivals and the New Luminaries of Edo”). One niwaka was derived from “Takasago” (ibid., p. 129).

435: 1952 — “Today, the Umewaka school may be forced to cease its performances…” — Bowers, p. 19.