Seventeen Hoofbeats

SEVENTEEN HOOFBEATS A Play in Two Acts by Ken Gaertner 211 McCotter Lane Ann Arbor, MI 48103 734-355-1867 kengaertner@gmail.com Cast of Characters: Kazako, a pleasure girl Ogata, a poet Emperor Komachi, the niece of the Emperor, General Matsumoto’s wife. General Matsumoto Onogi, General Matsumoto’s and Komachi’s son General Endo General Satayamo General Kenno Miyabe, a Buddhist monk General Takishima (Soldier in first act) Aide /Soldier ACT I, SCENE I MUSIC UP. Lights up on OGATA and KAZAKO. A clearing in the mountains where THEY are exiled. At stage right a sliding door leading to a house. Just beyond the door, a flowering cherry tree. Flowering hawthorne bushes and wild geraniums grow, haphazardly. To the left OGATA is sitting at a large flat rock he uses as a table, writing. It is dawn, the tip of the red sun just barely visible over Mount Fuji. KAZAKO is sitting playing the koto, singing. KAZAKO Fishermen from Katada why did you go hunting? Fishermen in the forest twigs crack beneath your feet. (Lights up on GENERAL ENDO, KENNO and SATAYARI, in battle dress, standing upstage left, staring across stage, as at an opposing army.) Fishermen from Katada why did you go hunting? The bears hear rustling leaves as you wander from the sea. (Lights up on GENERAl MATSUMOTO, and ONOGI, in battle dress, standing upstage right, staring stage left as at an opposing army.) Fishermen from Katada why did you go hunting? Bears watch from the trees watch your wavering eyes. (Lights up on the EMPEROR pacing, and KOMACHI standing some distance waiting to enter.) Fishermen from Katada why did you go hunting? Your wives wail at the shore, widows with empty pots. KOMACHI approaches the EMPEROR. LIGHTS DOWN on EVERYONE but KOMACHI and the EMPEROR. MUSIC DOWN.) EMPEROR Komachi. It soothes me to look upon your beautiful kimono. My sister raised you with such exquisite taste. KOMACHI Thank you your eminence. She admired you so much. She always took such pleasure in pleasing you, and taught me my duty to do the same. EMPEROR She was too young to die. Her heart was like a rose in a beautiful vase. It wilted so quickly and left that beautiful vase empty. Nothing disturbs me so much as the dissolution of beauty before its time. KOMACHI But there is a lady whose beauty was ruined, not by the wilting rose within, but by the ugly, grasping vine that was planted by her side and whose arms reached out and crushed all the glowing beauty that once was inside her. EMPEROR You are still bitter that I had you marry General Matsumoto. KOMACHI The same my esteemed uncle as if you had asked me to wear a dirty kimono to blossom viewing. EMPEROR It was a most unfortunate marriage for you. But a most fortunate marriage for the empire. An empire has needs a woman doesn’t. And the welfare of an empire is more important than a lady’s happiness. KOMACHI I wish my sacrifice was not in vain. But he will do the empire no good. He removed our son from my influence at such a tender age. And deserted me without informing you. How will such a willful and selfish man protect the empire he seems to despise? EMPEROR Why do you nag at me? Now? At this critical moment? KOMACHI The truth must shine on the swamp’s muck as well as on the sea. EMPEROR Truth shine? Do you realize that if he fails our heads will be stuck on wooden stakes? KOMACHI I wish you had given command to General Satayamo. EMPEROR You wish? I have spoiled you! How dare you talk to me this way? I need to have confidence in my decision. Shall I worry now, toss and turn, with no sleep, second guessing my decision? Because I was foolish enough to have you brought to me? I wanted to forget my troubles by conversing with a learned and cultured niece, my favorite niece, in her favorite kimono? Instead you mutter like a cowardly shrew, like an old hag, a nag, with her trivial problems, upsetting the whole household. And my empire is at stake! KOMACHI I’m sorry my Lord. I didn’t mean to excite you. Its true I despise him as a husband, but it is just as true that I worry about the empire. Art is blossoming everywhere under your patronage. All the classes smile under your benevolence, the merchants, the farmers, the samurai. Except that one Samurai who has forgotten how to smile. EMPEROR Fool. I don’t need him to smile. I need him to fight. To conquer my enemies. He has never lost a battle. He far outshines General Satayamo as a warrior. General Endo knows that. They’ve learned long ago that his personal eccentricities have no effect on his brilliant mind. If he's the village idiot at the supper table he's the brilliant sage on the battle field. KOMACHI Its just that I remember how weak he was, gloomy, muttering to himself in our chambers. Sometimes he seemed to see enemies in the empty sky. He accused my maidservant of moving his sword. What maidservant would touch a samurai’s sword? EMPEROR He is the greatest general in the land. What he did in your chambers is irrelevant. KOMACHI But if it means ……… EMPEROR Be quiet! Go! Meddlesome woman. What do you know about war? How dare your frighten me with your womanly gossip. Go. It will be a long time before you are invited back. And when I honor General Matsumoto you will prostrate yourself. Do you understand.? You will prostrate yourself and do his bidding. In bed, and out of bed. His bidding. (KOMACHI leaves.) BLACKOUT SCENE ONE IS ENDED ACT ONE SCENE II SETTING: GENERAL MATSUMOTO’s quarters. AT RISE: GENERAL MATSUMOTO is sitting at a table. GENERAL ENDO enters. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Good evening General Endo. Your reputation of a man of courage is well deserved. It is an honor to have you as my guest. May our relations be this congenial for as long as the sun rises over these mountains. GENERAL ENDO It took no courage to come here. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You have lived with courage so long that caution no longer bothers to visit your mind. GENERAL ENDO There was no reason to be cautious. I know how to ride my horse. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Ha, ha, ha. A General as unruffled as a sheet of ice on Lake Yamanaka. It is wonderful to share a cup of tea with you. Please be seated. (THEY sit.) GENERAL ENDO I assume you have more than flattery to offer me. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Please, excuse my exuberance. I am so pleased you are here. Your allies won’t suspect you of treachery? GENERAL ENDO A treacherous man is a man who is tossed about by the winds of change. Base men cannot tell summer winds from winter gales. They know I am not one who is tossed about. GENERAL MATSUMOTO May I offer you a cup of tea. I’ve learned to appreciate tea though I’m still clumsy at the ritual. Or perhaps you prefer a cup of saki? Apologies for my clumsiness serving but I wanted no ears other than ours to hear our words. GENERAL ENDO You know how to serve tea? Learned during pleasant moments spent with your wife? GENERAL ENDO No. From a geisha. The only thing my wife taught me was unhappiness. But you realize that only war brings a warrior happiness. GENERAL ENDO It is true, some warriors can appreciate nothing else but war. GENERAL MATSUMOTO But one can’t always seek his own happiness when the happiness of the Emperor is at stake. One must sacrifice. So I am here to discuss refraining from the glory of war. GENERAL ENDO So contemptuous of glory? How unlike you. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Honor the Emperor. Go to Kyoto and pledge your fidelity. We’ll travel together and bow before him. With the two of us joining forces Japan can be unified. GENERAL ENDO The Emperor is a fool with no political skill. That is why he cannot unify these Shogunates. When one bows to him he bows to the ministers that manipulate him. One might as well bow to a puppet from the theater he so loves. GENERAL MATSUMOTO But we are not fools, and we are not unskilled in politics. The two of us could end all these endless wars. GENERAL ENDO You would spend your life without war? As a bull would spend its life without breeding with the cows. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I wish to cross the sea. War there and return with riches. GENERAL ENDO It is impossible for us to rule together. Two heads cannot always be looking in the same direction. GENERAL MATSUMOTO With trust and clear vision both eyes can gaze upon the same path. GENERAL ENDO I could not let my eyes stray from yours. For if I did how would I know what path your eyes were gazing upon? GENERAL MATSUMOTO So much distrust. GENERAL ENDO The Emperor has a history which we both know, which allows us to see him as he is. You have a history, which, it seems, only I see. You seem totally unaware of your past behavior. It is not a history that would lead a wise man to trust his future to you. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I knew you were a warrior of note. But such powers of a seer. GENERAL ENDO Not only your history does this seer discern, but your future also, or rather your lack of a future. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I had hoped you would see reason. You know your allies are weak links. Why remain with them? General Takishima will let you down. He’s only with you out of cowardice. His troops will break ranks and run when they see his timidity and pallor. You’ve placed him on your flank. Disastrous. GENERAL ENDO Disaster can come from all directions, but most often from the schemes of one’s own mind. General Takishima isn’t my only ally. General Kenno is with me. Don’t let your self-confidence blind you to facts. You would do well to withdraw, stay in your own kingdom. I grant that you are too strong in your own territory to invite us to attack for trivial reasons. But only because we have no need to conquer your kingdom. Withdraw. Fight your border skirmishes the rest of your life and sit puffed up in from of your royal mirror and tell yourself stories of your power and glory. GENERAL MATSUMOTO The stories I will tell will not be the stories that you are now attempting to write. GENERAL ENDO Will your son, Onogi, be joining your army? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Yes. It is time for him to begin gathering his own glory. GENERAL ENDO It may not be glory that Onogi gathers. General Kenno’s son, Hanbei, often played with Onogi. With wooden swords. Onogi often fell backwards raising his heavy wooden sword. We all laughed. He’d get red in the face and stare with vehemence at us. Now Hanbei will be forced to cut him down. Onogi will not rise up and glare after Hanbei’s steel strikes. Think twice about this matter. Its not only your head that will be severed. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Onogi is young. But he has his father’s blood running through his arm. That arm that he wielded clumsily as a child has become an eagle attached to his shoulder, swift and deadly. GENERAL ENDO We don’t seem to have anything to talk about. It was a useless ride, a waste of time. We agree on nothing. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I offer you a way out. GENERAL ENDO I want no way out. And I’m not so foolish to accept an alliance with you. You’re too ambitious. You back the Emperor because he’ll be too weak to oppose your rule. He’ll sit listening to a geisha playing the koto while you are busy strumming the strings of his empire. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Ah, too bad. So much unnecessary blood. GENERAL ENDO Don’t pose as the statesman. There’s nothing in your history to warrant it. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You think my humble beginnings disqualify me? GENERAL ENDO I think your uncouth nature bans you for all except butchery. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I thought the tea ceremony would make you more civilized. GENERAL ENDO Frank words aren’t uncivilized. There’s too much you don’t understand about the high stations of life. Frank discussion is the true cultivation of a Samurai. I will defeat you, and the Emperor, and I will become Emperor of Japan, and Japan will finally be unified. And I GENERAL ENDO (cont) will be honored and respected through all of history for my achievement. The people will honor me as a god. My lineage goes back to Izanagi himself. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Then may I have the honor tomorrow of killing you myself. I like your overweening pride. It will make your head a most worthy trophy. GENERAL ENDO (rising) The tea was weak. And lukewarm. I hope you’ve learned the art of war better than the art of making tea. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (rising) I brew tea for the guest. For those with weak mouths I brew a weak tea. To those with lukewarm hearts I serve a lukewarm tea. GENERAL ENDO I have changed my mind. I won’t behead you. I’m going to parade you in a cage. In the rags from which you emerged. Stinking of pig sties and shit pots. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO bows. GENERAL ENDO takes HIS leave without bowing. ONOGI steps out from behind a screen.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Did you recognize fear in that man? (ONOGI stares at HIS father, without understanding.) Don’t be blind. It may cost you your life. ACT ONE, SCENE TWO IS ENDED ACT ONE SCENE III SETTING: KAZAKO and OGATA’s place of exile in the mountains. AT RISE: OGATA is sitting at the rock, writing. KAZAKO comes out of the house. KAZAKO Have you been successful at writing the Generals poem? OGATA (leaps up) General shouts commands . . . dog barks, bares teeth, turns, bites its own ass. (OGATA runs around barking and snarling, trying to bite his own ass.) KAZAKO Ogata, please. The General will kill you on the spot for a poem like that. Every day I pray to all the gods that live to save us. But gods won’t listen to prayers on behalf of a man who acts like a child. Ogata, you are too proud. Write about the General’s glory. Write a poem to exalt him, to inspire his troops to worship him. Write what he wishes to hear. OGATA The general’s glory? Why not a poem about the fragrance of rotten fish? I’m not too proud to write him a flattering poem but nonsense swirls around in my head every time I think of him. What should be easier than writing a bad poem? Huh? What should be easier? I’ll try a serious pose, maybe a serious poem will follow. General’s sword tip holds the white moon still (A sound of crows flying away and cawing. KAZAKO, frightened, runs and looks into the mountains.) crows drop their snow on him. KAZAKO What scared the crows? OGATA Be calm Kazako. The General won’t arrive yet. KAZAKO (moving to the stone, fussing with his parchment) The frightened crows flew away. They were scared. They acted. (holds his brush out to him) Be like the crows Ogata. Then you will write the General’s poem. Think of that vain man, now on his horse, now climbing the mountain path, and write! OGATA If only inspiration would rise in me like the sun. Nature favors rotten logs that sprout mushrooms more than it favors me. No poem sprouts out of this dead stump. KAZAKO Pride. Too much pride. OGATA What can I do? The poem write themselves. Its Yoshitsune’s fault. I call on his ghost to ride the swiftest tail of wind and bring me inspiration but he replies with (wets, then raises his finger) nothing. Silence. Undoubtedly Yoshitsune's ghost considers the General to be a grave worthy of no headstone. If the goddess Uzemi would help me. She was bold enough to bare her breasts before the sun-god to gain his favors . KAZAKO Ogata! OGATA Not you. Not you. I don't want you to bare your breasts to the General. I want Uzemi to scratch a poem out in my head, a brilliant, insincere poem for the General. Uzemi was busy enough stuffing my head when we lived in Kyoto, when I had poems running out of my brush as if I were a screen painter and did not need her inspiration. (goes to stone table, picks up his brush, and sits on the stone) Ah! Left to my own devices I'm beaten. All the armies of the world can't drag beauty out of an unwilling poet. KAZAKO There you've said it. Unwilling poet. That's what the problem is and has been all along. Don't blame a goddess for your stubbornness. OGATA I am at fault. KAZAKO All right then, let's kill ourselves. Let's fall on a sword, one like his that you've been trying to praise but can only mock. OGATA My swords are only in my mind! KAZAKO Then let's rip my kimono apart, climb that cherry tree, tie our throats to the uppermost limb, and jump. OGATA (goes to cherry limb, and stares at it) Her face among the cherry blossoms. And blossoms on her kimono too. (OGATA cries out.) KAZAKO O if death was as touching as your cry I would embrace it. ACT ONE, SCENE THREE IS ENDED ACT ONE, SCENE FOUR SETTING: GENERAL MATSUMOTO’s quarters. AT RISE: GENERAL MATSUMOTO is sleeping. HE wears a white demonic mask denoting mental distress. HE is having a Nightmare. HE thrashes, mumbles. Lights up on KOMACHI, sitting, putting on make-up. KOMACHI (with contempt) General Matsumoto. Do I hear you snoring and grunting? (to HERSELF) He always brings the pig sty with him. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (seeming to awaken) Komachi? KOMACHI I can’t talk now. I’m at my toilette. It would be rude to be late for Lord Wanabase’s flower viewing. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (getting to his feet) A General’s wife shouldn’t be doing her toilette at a battlefield. KOMACHI Don’t bring me to you, then place blame on me. Your blame placing is what made our marriage intolerable. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (confused) Did I call you? KOMACHI As usual, at the worst time. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You always complained when I summoned you. You mastered all the refined arts, but not the art of being a pleasing wife. KOMACHI Art? You talk to me of refined art? Our family has been of the aristocracy for over a thousand years, and you, wearing your helmet like a turnip, shouting at meals, vulgar in your drunkenness; illiterate, would lecture me on refinement? GENERAL MATSUMOTO I am not illiterate. I could always read and write. And I read all that you suggested. KOMACHI You need not have bothered for all the good it did. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Its true. Those fancy words did me no good. KOMACHI I would have patted you on the head like I did Onogi when he excelled at his lessons. Except you never excelled. GENERAL MATSUMOTO It was good I removed his head from under you hand. He’ll be a superior warrior without your dainty manners and your dainty friends around to soften him. KOMACHI To refine is not to soften. Are swords ruined when the master swords maker refines their steel? GENERAL MATSUMOTO You would have had fan-wavers refine Onogi, not sword makers. KOMACHI I suppose since you’ve kept him away from me he’s become a perfect lout. GENERAL MATSUMOTO There’s still too much of you in him. I should have sent him to General Satayamo earlier. KOMACHI Poor Onogi. GENERAL MATSUMOTO He can read, and write, and count. But he won’t be taught how to hold me in contempt by those cultured friends of yours. I know how to read their smirks, their evasive eyes. They think Samurai are hired hands like their stable boys. You like to crawl with those snakes. You, and your friends don’t walk, you slither. Base I may be, but all great mountains, all great temples, all great monuments have a base. Your Lords, wrapped in their cocoons of silk, hang by threads from dead tree limbs, dry and dusty inside. KOMACHI Lord Tadayoshi commanded me to marry you. I obeyed. He wished to insure your loyalty. He did not know your limitations. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (amused) In our bridal bed you stuck your small fist in your mouth to stifle your cries of pleasure, so afraid your ladies in waiting would hear. Onogi was conceived in one of your moments of cowardice. Lucky for him he was also born in my moment of prowess. KOMACHI Lout. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I would have honored Lord Tadayoshi with a fruitful marriage. But I would have had to send all of our children away from your insipid blossom watching. Even our daughters. (ONOGI appears, stops outside, and listens.) KOMACHI I missed seeing Onogi grow up. You did me that injury. All the other injuries I can forgive. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Onogi’s character was carved by a warrior’s sword. I sweated your foppishness out of him. Courage was cultivated in him. He is not full of the timid resentments that your friends hide by covering themselves with powder. KOMACHI Whenever you understand nothing you mock it. And for that you were mocked. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Onogi still has much of your weakness in his blood. I’m hoping enough battle wounds will bleed that weakness out. KOMACHI It will take his head being chopped off to bleed him of your vulgarity. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You know nothing of blood. You bleed white paint. ONOGI (outside, unseen) Father? Who are you talking to? (KOMACHI flees. GENERAL MATSUMOTO lies down.) ONOGI (entering) Father. The sun is outlining the pine needles against the sky. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (sitting up, removing HIS mask) Onogi? Did I shout? I was dreaming. Was I walking in my sleep? ONOGI I don’t know. GENERAL MATSUMOTO So many dreams! ONOGI I could not sleep before a battle. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (putting on his battle gear) Awake, or sleeping, I dream too vividly. ONOGI The winds cascading off the flashing swords of the battle will blow your bad dreams away Father, and create dreams for all great warriors in the western lands. GENERAL MATSUMOTO After I defeat General Endo the Emperor will shower me with honors. Ha! Like my April showers of arrows destroy armies. Emperor showering me with honors. Me pissing showers of hot urine on the ice army of General Endo. Ha! I have subtlety of mind. No? ONOGI Yes. And deserved honors, because it’s your plan that will finish the rebellion, your strategy, your knowledge. General Satayamo should not include himself as an equal and speak of appearing with you before the Emperor. I honor him as second to you, but when he tries to claim equality with you he’s trying to usurp unreachable glory. Manure might as well try to usurp the rice fields glory. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Come. It’s time to observe the battlefield. And remember. Whether a sword is raised above you or you raise your sword above another. Calmness. Your enemies see only calmness. If you do not allow fear GENERAL MATSUMOTO (cont) to enter you it will fly away and force itself into the hearts of your enemy. (MUSIC UP.) LIGHTS UP on GENERALS ENDO, SATAYARI, TWO SOLDIERS and SATAYAMO prepared for battle.) ONOGI The rebellious General Endo’s army seems to know that they’re on the field of death, that their blood will flow to nourish the roots of the waving grass. They’re standing as immobile as cattle. They’ve seen your helmet. That’s why their courage has drained away. GENERAL MATSUMOTO General Endo doesn’t fear me. But fate has ordained that his army shall embrace despair. He’ll die with them. ONOGI Better for him than disgrace. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (GENERAL MATSUMOTO leads OGOTI to stand behind GENERAL SATAYAMO. GENERAL SATAYAMO turns and smiles at ONOGI.) And death will be a nobler reward for your protector General Satayamo, your false Father, than fame, or glory. He’s not durable enough to bear weight of the future. Only heaven’s preferred have bodies strong enough to shoulder the armor of the gods. ONOGI General Satayamo will die? GENERAL MATSUMOTO That is your commission. A mission I could only trust my son to carry out. ONOGI Commission? I don’t understand Father. GENERAL MATSUMOTO General Satayamo must die. It is necessary that you kill him. ONOGI Murder General Satayamo? My protector? My foster-father? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Don’t use that word father. You will have allies, people to use, but don’t drag them to the pinnacle with you. The pinnacle is as big as two feet. No larger. Allow someone to stand there with you and its too crowded, then someone must fall. Keep the high ground to yourself. And eventually when I fall, you step to the pinnacle I have protected. There will only be room for you. ONOGI So high. Only the eagle for company. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Don’t ever kill an eagle. They protect your soul. ONOGI No one in my realm will be allowed to kill eagles. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Go to General Satayamo. He will readily see you in private. Kill him! But be shrewd. Bring enough soldiers with you to paralyze all around him, and then arrest his aide, Colonel Soguchi, for the murder. We’ll publicly execute the Colonel when the battle is over. ONOGI How can I do this? Kill General Satayamo? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Forget that you’ve ridden together, forget the rice you chewed at his table, forget the fish you caught with his net, forget all. I must not let a rival cast shadows across my splendor. ONOGI O, sunlight has become a heavy cloak upon my shoulders, shadows a poison I drink. Breezes swirl about me like tycoons. Kill General Satayamo who laughed with me in the fields, put me on my first horse? GENERAL MATSUMOTO To obey your father causes the elements to turn against you? ONOGI I must take up the duties that are floated to me on the rising tide of your blood, Father. O, could I think of a heavier duty? When I lift my sword it will be like lifting Mount Fuji. Heavy duty, heavy heart. GENERAL MATSUMOTO The Emperor’s dependency on me must be complete. Otherwise you may be called on to assassinate me. ONOGI I could not. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Nor can my rivals if they are sleeping in the land of impenetrable darkness. ONOGI From your great height you see patterns in the world that lesser mortals cannot see. I will obey your command Father. General Satayamo will die. If my sword weighs in my hand like lead then my realization of my duty to my venerable father will strengthen my arm and it will become as strong as the neck of an ox and I will able to lift it and strike. (MUSIC UP. GENERAL MATSUMOTO, GENERAL KENNO, GENERAL ENDO and SOLDIERS dance a ritualized battle. ONOGI murders GENERAL SATAYAMO. GENERAL MATSUMOTO kills GENERAL KENNO. GENERAL ENDO kneels and is beheaded by a soldier. The soldier retreats. MUSIC DOWN.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO General Endo was a brave man. He had his aide sever his head rather than live with the disgrace of rebellion and defeat. General Endo, you shall have a funeral worthy of an Emperor himself. (LIGHTS DOWN on GENERAL MATSUMOTO) ACT ONE, SCENE FOUR IS ENDED ACT ONE SCENE FIVE SETTING: OGATA and KAZAKO’s place of exile. AT RISE: OGATA and KAZAKO are standing before the flowering tree. KAZAKO Don't grieve my beloved poet. I'm still here. And I'll be here, not hanging from a cherry tree. I'm only sorry that I nag and fuss with so little time left, but, please, in your heart ask the Buddha to help write a poem that will immortalize General Matsumoto. OGATA Ask Buddha for blasphemous favors? You're not helpful at all. It only shows Buddha how base we've become under the influence of a base man. KAZAKO I'm desperate. And I wish you were, too. Perhaps then you'd save me, selfish man. OGATA O most beautiful of women, can't you understand what I've been telling you? Your head is perfectly carved, but still as wooden as mine. You assume a poem will appease him, but we don’t know what he expects from us. KAZAKO What else could he expect? He doesn’t need your father’s money. He doesn’t need favors, or influence, from a mere minister. Its all you have to offer. OGATA He has no right to expect anything from me. KAZAKO He has the right of power. He can kill you for any reason. He'll say you disturbed the meadowlark's song, your shadow mingled with the moon light, your snoring disturbed a mountain goat's sleep. Who would challenge his reasons? You know he is saving the Emperor from a serious betrayal. Who would think of taking a complaint about him to court? Who would dare contradict him? Perhaps you see a poetic ending to all this. I know you. After you're murdered you imagine that I'll wander through the forest for the rest of my life, moaning, chilling lover's hearts when they hear me. But the General will never let me wander. He'll have other duties for me to perform. OGATA Maybe I shouldn’t have called on Uzemi. Yamazaki Sokan was the father of poetry. Father’s listen more readily to the requests of sons. If Sokan’s ghost would pass he could hand me a poem from his shadowy fingers. But Sokan is strolling under a moon, night and day. A moon I’ll soon gaze upon. KAZAKO Let me help. You write the first two lines, and I’ll write the last. Like we did in Kyoto when we were drowsy with wine, but too stimulated by love to sleep. OGATA This is how you’ll save us? This isn’t Kyoto. KAZAKO My last line won’t be able to be any worse than yours have been. OGATA All right. Ready? The horses, unblinking, stare; a thousand shields silently rise . . . KAZAKO O! A child's trampled shoe! OGATA Yes. Yes. But you think that line will flatter his exalted opinion of himself? KAZAKO Yes. It shows how all encompassing is his reign. How even the tragic is beautiful when the General rides to war. OGATA Sophistry. It might be good poem - but it's bad praise. You understand nothing about a military man's vanity. We need an excellent bad line, about armies being destroyed by the fierceness of his stare, about lands being scorched under the heat of his rage. KAZAKO Let me try again. Go ahead, start. OGATA (acting the poem out) Raised lances build the sun a cage, shields lift the wind . . . KAZAKO The scent of plum blossoms. OGATA See. Nature pushes the General’s pomposity out of your mind to make way for plum blossoms. KAZAKO He's not a studious man. We can steal a great poem from a former age. There must be one that will fit him. He'll never know. OGATA Someone would recognize its origin and go running to tell him. For that insulting trick we'd be tortured and then killed. That's worse than what he has planned for us now. KAZAKO Then let's leave. Let's run away. We can disguise ourselves as peasants. Bent in the rice fields we'll never be recognized. OGATA Do you think the peasants would deceive him to protect us? KAZAKO I'm frantic to do something. I don't want to be a fish gasping in his stagnant pond. OGATA And I don't want to wander alone in the spirit world, looking down on this clearing, composing poems about your fan laying on the ground. (He bends, picks up her fan) Lifting up your fan I startle the silk cranes. (OGATA shows it to her) Look at them tremble. KAZAKO So frightened. OGATA I ran out of poems, one short of death. (The lights dim to half-strength on OGATA and KAZAKO. LIGHTS UP on GENERAL MATSUMOTO and ONOGI. THEY are on horseback.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Not even a great General can impress the mountains. How indifferently they look down on us. ONOGI Unlike fleas on a soldiers body our bodies haven’t the power to irritate these mountains. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I’m feeling more relaxed now that the rebellion has been crushed. I’m in the mood for beauty and wine. ONOGI I wonder if he’s written a poem reciting the glory of your victory. GENERAL MATSUMOTO He hasn’t heard of our victory. And he may have written no poem, although he must know how dangerous that would be. I only told Kazako that I would return, that I looked forward to the pleasure they would have prepared for me. We shall see what they have prepared, this great poet, this great beauty. ONOGI How much talent does it take to recite the glory of your deeds. A drunken soldier would rise to poetry just by telling what happened. Your deeds KAZAKO themselves are the highest poetry. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Its not drunken mumbles I’m after. ONOGI Aiii. If only I was a poet we could save ourselves the steep mountain path. (LIGHTS dim on GENERAL MATSUMOTO and OGATA. LIGHTS to full on OGATA and KAZAKO.) OGATA For a poet I had it much too easy. I created beauty out of your love. I remember the first morning I awoke by your side. In the damp grass a cricket's tiny voice chirps to wake this lover. KAZAKO We never saw that lady cricket. She either found a husband, or died. Then I looked into the empty street. You were barely awake. That child's ball bounces down the steps, tap, tap, only rain pursuing it. KAZAKO I was always so afraid you'd get married to have a child who would steal your love from me. OGATA I remember our first walk too. We passed the graveyard and saw that old couple. We were so young. That white-haired couple; they visit gravestones together, near your pleasure house. (OGATA accidentally knocks his brush off the rock, but doesn’t notice.) I'm too restless to draw characters. Join me. Link your verse with mine, like we used to. It was by linking verses that we linked our lives. KAZAKO Wait. There are many men and horses picking their way slowly. It has to be General Matsumoto. I can hear their hoof beats. (Lights to full on the GENERAL MATSUMOTO and ONOGI.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Inspiration from the gods shouldn’t have far to go with Ogata and Kazako breathing the mist of clouds. ONOGI Why did she leave the pleasure house? She was wealthy. Renowned. Admired. I saw her in Kyoto, often, riding in her carriage through the streets. Everyone admired her beauty. The cost of her gowns! Why did she give it up to go with Ogata? GENERAL MATSUMOTO He’s not poor you know. He’s a member of the Shinibitsu clan. His father is a minister. Ogata settled an enormous amount on her owner to become her patron. She probably didn’t like being a pleasure girl. Her father was poor, sold her to the house when she was too young to have breasts. ONOGI Such a beauty. GENERAL MATSUMOTO And as learned and skilled at dance and playing the koto as any geisha that ever lived. Which obviously appealed to Ogata, spoiled brat that he is. Maybe she composed a fine song to play on her instrument. Maybe Ogata will dance. ONOGI Ogata, undoubtedly, considers himself most fortunate. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I doubt it. Ogata has always been spoiled, given whatever he wanted without earning it. The wealthy are often like that. I don’t know GENERAL MATSUMOTO (cont) where he got his genius. His father’s intelligent, but a lowly merchant. His mother is vapid, and not very handsome. ONOGI If I was rich I would not purchase the freedom of a pleasure girl. GENERAL MATSUMOTO What would you purchase? ONOGI I’d purchase the pleasure and go home. GENERAL MATSUMOTO That’s why you are Onogi. You pick up beauty like a bowl of rice, consume it, and set it aside. While your father likes to sip beauty like warm saki, let it delight all my senses, warm the edges of my dreams. Day after day I like to sip from the same cask of exquisite saki. (KAZAKO walks to the edge, and stands is standing, looking into the gorge.) OGATA So high on the crest the lady stands, the scent of her hair, so near . . . KAZAKO (turning to HIM) I remember the first morning I woke by your side. I got up before you and looked out. Wind blowing snow every which way. Restlessly the poet tosses, turns. OGATA Blossoms and clouds are flushed a deep pink this evening, so, too, her young breasts. KAZAKO The water drips so slowly off the pine needles. The thunder - so far away. OGATA Moon is shining, inside the grey cloud; both shine within her hanging robe. KAZAKO Memories are too painful when you don't plan on adding to them. (looks) I don't see them anymore. (listens) I thought I heard their horses stumbling, but it's only my heart missing beats. OGATA (joins HER, and shouts into the mountain pass) You fancy yourself a patron of beauty, you rodent who devours beauty! How can a poet think of a word of praise for such a fop? KAZAKO Stop yelling you fool. He'll hear you. OGATA Come on up. I'll fart seventeen times for you. People can smell this mountain and think of you. For all time. Sniff. Sniff. I smell the great General Matsumoto. KAZAKO O it's all over. All over for both of us. (LIGHTS dim to half on OGATA and KAZAKO. LIGHTS to full on GENERAL MATSUMOTO and ONOGI.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Did you hear that? (laughs) Did you hear that? ONOGI Was that Ogata? GENERAL MATSUMOTO The chicken screeches when it views the knife. ONOGI I hope he doesn’t scream when you kill him. Nothing irritates me more than a screaming man. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Cowards don’t scream long my son, not long at all. (LIGHTS to full on OGATA and KAZAKO.) OGATA Ah, what's to be done. KAZAKO You did your best. No. We've been fools. Don't flatter his military genius. Flatter his illusions. Flatter his spiritual nature. OGATA Spiritual nature? I don't know. On the muddy road hoof-marks slowly dissolve as the army gallops. KAZAKO That's better, but more flattery. Compare him to the Buddha. OGATA Shield on warrior's arm . . . OGATA mist and autumn darkness, Buddha's stone face. (Sound of hoofbeats.) KAZAKO Thousands of hoofs trampling my heart. I can't breathe. OGATA Seventeen beats! Only seventeen beats of inspired poem. (KAZAKO sees OGATA's writing brush lying under the hawthorne bush and becomes alarmed. She runs to it and stares, as at a body, not picking it up.) KAZAKO Dear, your brush fallen, here, beneath the hawthorne bush. So white, so still. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO and ONOGI arrive.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Hah! Kazako. Still beautiful as war! Face startling as the height of battle. Working hard Ogata? (walks around KAZAKO and looks into HER face again) KAZAKO Immortality is worth much more than a woman's beauty General Matsumoto. Mercy is a much more noble trait. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Mercy? A vice, called a virtue by weaklings who manipulate strong men into releasing them from the consequences of their failures. I thought I heard a monkey chattering on the way here. Chip, chip, chip. But my soldiers GENERAL MATSUMOTO laughed and said it was the spirits of drunks who ride these mountain winds and scare travelers. Chip, chip, chip. Ha, ha. You didn't hear some chattering monkey did you Ogata? OGATA Me? I've been busy trying to compose a poem worthy of a illustrious general. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I hope you've done more than try. OGATA A force of nature decrees poem, and nature is stingy. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Break into nature's storehouse, and take what you want. OGATA Lucky for nature you're a General, not a poet. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Buffoonery? OGATA A buffoon who immortalized the woman you plan on dishonoring. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Be careful. I only dishonor enemies of the state. Have you immortalized an enemy of the state? The worst deaths are reserved for traitors. OGATA My mind is numb. I think that soon I'll be as silent as the past. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Let me hear what you have composed. OGATA Ah! GENERAL MATSUMOTO Ah? (drawing HIS sword) Is silence all the praise you have for me? KAZAKO (running to the GENERAL MATSUMOTO, blocking HIS path) Ogata will draw your poem for you, then recite it. Move your brush Ogata. (OGATA looks for HIS pen) KAZAKO There is your pen Ogata. By the hawthorne bush. OGATA Its bristles are dirty. KAZAKO Wait. (KAZAKO runs into the house. SHE returns with a red brush, and hands it to OGATA.) OGATA A red brush? KAZAKO The color of cranes eyes, the color of the rising sun. OGATA The color of blood. (KAZAKO starts to go back to the house for another brush but OGATA grabs HER arm, and gently takes the brush from HER.) OGATA No. (HE sits at the rock, draws characters, then recites.) Rooster and Buddha strut at rice field's edge . . . only one crows! (There is silence as GENERAL MATSUMOTO reflects on the poem.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Ah so! Only one crows! Only one crows! Who? Ha, ha. Who? Me, a splendid rooster, or the Buddha? Ha, ha. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO caresses the blade of his sword.) KAZAKO Ogata captured your Buddha nature. Be compassionate and detach yourself from your ugly thoughts. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO ignores her.) Would Your Excellency enjoy watching Kazako dance? GENERAL MATSUMOTO You are a beautiful dancer Kazako. But yours is not the dance I want. KAZAKO What would please the General? GENERAL MATSUMOTO I will let you know. But for now, Ogata, if you were to surpass yourself on the theme of another General, or worse yet, the Emperor, then I would be lessened by a degree in comparison. Your own genius, not me, places your poem in jeopardy. OGATA Not so. All great poems live together in harmony. They aren't in competition. GENERAL MATSUMOTO If I die before you, and my successor demands it, you might write a poem that would diminish what you've written about me. OGATA All humans, no matter how exalted, must be contained within the vast borders of your eminent life. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Poets are sophists. They flatter who command it, or from whom they desire privileges. OGATA A great poem does not destroy a different great poem. Does a mountain crush the stream flowing from its summit? GENERAL MATSUMOTO View the mountain when it erupts in rivers of fire. Streams hiss and die. (HE draws HIS sword.) OGATA The assassin’s sword gleams yet my eyes are drawn to her face . . . and those tears that shine. KAZAKO (as ONOGI pulls KAZAKO to the side.) He trembles, imprisoned in the flowers that surround the General’s boots. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO raises HIS sword, strikes.) OGATA (falls to the ground) A dark stream drowns me. Let your face, so luminous, sink with me …… so deep. (OGATA dies. KAZAKO sucks her breath in, too horrified to scream.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Come Kazako. I will honor you and let you recite his poetry at my court. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO grabs her wrist and begins to pull HER. SHE struggles to run to OGATA. HE refuses to let HER go.) KAZAKO Roughly he pulls me, through geraniums and hawthorne flowers, through scattered dreams. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO pulls her, struggling from the stage.) SLOW BLACKOUT ACT ONE IS ENDED ACT TWO SCENE ONE SETTING: GENERAL MATSUMOTO’s private quarters in his castle. A large screen, with a fierce tiger painted on it, hangs on the rear wall. . AT RISE: GENERAL MATSUMOTO is sitting alone. Lights up on ONOGI far left stage. ONOGI (reading as to an assembled crowd) Rooster and Buddha strut at rice fields edge . . . only one crows! (HE waits, then angrily, forcefully.) Rooster and Buddha strut at rice fields edge . . . only one crows! (silence, LIGHTS DOWN on ONOGI. LIGHTS UP on MIYABE. GENERAL MATSUMOTO turns and watches MIYABE.) MIYABE Rooster and Buddha strut at rice field’s edge . . . only one crows! Poor Buddha. A Buddha who struts is a Buddha who has lost his way. (LIGHTS DOWN on MIYABE. GENERAL LIGHTS UP on KOMACHI. MATSUMOTO turns to KOMACHI.) ` KOMACHI Lord Komatsu listen! Countess Takori listen! Rooster and Buddha strut at rice fields edge. . . only one crows! (laughs uproariously) My husband has this recited over all his lands. He’s become so cultured he’ll soon have his soldiers smelling of plum water. But we won’t be favored with an invitation to his court. We’ll have to have our own poetry writing party. Will we be able to find anyone to equal this poem? White moon. General Matsumoto struts . . . ankles brown with chicken dung. (SHE laughs. LIGHTS down on KOMACHI. GENERAL MATSUMOTO sits, depressed. Enter ONOGI.) ONOGI After the battle everything seems so quiet here. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Always after a battle. The wind quits blowing. The sun does not move. All that grows is paralyzed. It is a time to mend equipment, promote those who are worthy to replace those that have died. Much boring detail. ONOGI I’m sorry my father is so low of spirit. I feel lazy but I feel good. I start to get bored and then I remember the surge of joy I felt at our great victory and I’m full of energy again. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I remember that repulsive haiku. ONOGI It was my fault Father. I am educated. I should have recognized its baseness. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Oh yes. You are educated. Your mother took great pains to insure that. Why didn’t you recognize the insult to me? You wanted me publicly humiliated? ONOGI I was exuberant from victory. Even the horses shitting sounded wonderful to me at the time. GENERAL MATSUMOTO General Endo was the fortunate General in our battle. He died with honor. I survive with dishonor. ONOGI I am here to honor you Father. And your army honors you, as do your subjects. The rest of Japan fears you and respects you. Only a few fops laugh at that poem. A day of reckoning will come. Then their laughter will quake and fade into the silence of fear. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You’re too confident. Without thinking matters through. Which is why you proclaimed that idiotic poem to the army and townspeople. ONOGI I will not fail you again Father. I am getting shrewder with each mistake. GENERAL MATSUMOTO The fox is shrewd but can its shrewdness outwit the dog’s nose. ONOGI Maybe Kazako can cheer you up. Shall I bring her to you? GENERAL MATSUMOTO No. She will not amuse me. I don’t mind killing men, but I shouldn’t have killed Ogata. His death has diminished Kazako’s beauty. There’s no life in her. Its like taking a cold vase to bed with me. No sprightly conversation. She wears the face of a scarecrow. I should have brought Ogata back with us. I could have used my treatment of him to motivate her treatment of me. She would have pleased me to make sure I treated Ogata well. A woman without hope is a barren lover. ONOGI She’ll forget him soon enough. As General Satayamo is already forgotten by the Emperor. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Ogata won’t be forgotten so easily. Immortal poems create immortal lives. In Kyoto they are fussing about him. His house shall be preserved, made a shrine. It may mean Kyoto needs my attention. Such arrogance to honor a traitor! ONOGI He did not die well. Moaning about a woman and her tears. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I will have to erase the memory of his poem of mockery with a great act of war. But I have no more enemies worthy of a great battle. The remaining General’s bring me gifts and pledges of fidelity. ONOGI General Takishima still waits outside the gates to present his gifts and obeisance. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I hate peace and its frivolities. ONOGI (pointing at painting) Are you not like a tiger? What pleasure lady would not rejoice to be taken to your bed? If Kazako had any ambition she would know her fame would be assured by the winning of your favor. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I even promised Kazako a pension when her skin begins to sag. ONOGI And still she pouts. Is my father treating her too kindly? GENERAL MATSUMOTO You may be right. She is a woman. They are unstable of mind. They crave kindness but show only contempt when they receive it. Go. Send her to me. ONOGI Before I go may I be so forward as to suggest that we give the envoys of General Takishima an audience? They’ve been waiting since yesterday. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I’m to worry about the impatience of General Takishima’s envoys? Tell me why I am now to worry about General Takishima’s envoys? Send Kazako to me. (ONOGI bows, and leaves. GENERAL MATSUMOTO waits, paces. KAZAKO enters.) How can this be? Your beauty fills my spirit with grey smoke, as though the red of your kimono is a flame that torches all I set my desires on. How have you, a slight creature, so thin and fragile, cut through the armor of my life? KAZAKO I am sorry for my disturbing presence my Lord. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I hear your warmth when you talk to my pleasure ladies, then my blood fill with ice. If I had known that every morning your beauty would cast such a pall over the rising sun I would have sent you back to Kyoto. KAZAKO It cannot be someone as unworthy as me the General is displeased with. GENERAL MATSUMOTO No? Now you’re a soothsayer? You know my mind? KAZAKO Is it your failure to conquer my unhappiness that forms the clouds blocking the sun from your life? But I can’t conquer my own unhappiness. I, too, live in a sunless valley of cold mist. All that was green has rotted, and lays colorless upon the ground. Trees wave their leaves in a breeze but I see only their skeleton as though the trees stand barren after disease has withered their roots. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Grieving for that poet? KAZAKO I don’t wish to dishonor Your Eminence with my self-absorption but grief is thrust into me as your sword was thrust into him. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I’m not a poet with a koto for a tongue so I can’t lighten your heart and make you dance to my words. KAZAKO (bows) I am grateful to have been treated so kindly by the General. GENERAL MATSUMOTO The treacherous face plots behind the placid face that bows. KAZAKO To what end would someone as weak as I try to plot? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Simplicity in women is their greatest duplicity. Only the thin blade of a sword is really simple. KAZAKO Would the General like me to sing him a song? GENERAL MATSUMOTO No, sadness has dried the trill in your voice. When you sing its as though autumn leaves are rustling instead of the bird that once sang in your throat. KAZAKO I am sorry my voice is not worthy. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Too bad Ogata is not here. Then you would sing like a cock-a-too. But your voice withers before me. I’m only the most powerful General on earth. A mere trifle. Not a truly powerful man like Ogata, who is now reciting poems to the worms. KAZAKO If I were a sorceress I would relieve the General’s distress. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Such a kind heart in this pleasure girl. KAZAKO The happy General would then, in gratitude, send me back to Kyoto. GENERAL MATSUMOTO So, no kinder than any other schemer. KAZAKO Would it please the General if I left? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Armies I have never feared but this strange sadness you bring becomes stronger muck the more I try to wade through it. KAZAKO My lord has had these gloomy spells before me. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Who told you that? KAZAKO Doesn’t all of your court know your every mood? GENERAL MATSUMOTO What do they say about me? KAZAKO That they are most fortunate to inhabit the refreshing coolness of your shadow. GENERAL MATSUMOTO About my moods? KAZAKO That, as the moon, sometimes, covers the blazing eye of the sun and darkness conquers the light of day, so your dark thoughts sometimes eclipse the radiance of your face, and in your eyes, that usually shine like polished steel, darkness forms like rust, and dulls their gleam. Your steps then are like the ox. You turn as slowly as a branch growing. The days of your happiness seem to be frozen in the bowels of Fujiyama. GENERAL MATSUMOTO If all they have to do is sit staring at me then there is too much idleness in this land. We need a war. KAZAKO War? GENERAL MATSUMOTO War! When warriors are idle darkness spills like ink upon their minds. They lose their appetite. Sleep bounds from them like a hare. KAZAKO I don’t know of such things. GENERAL MATSUMOTO How could you know of such things? You are a lover of dead things. KAZAKO Yes. I am most sorry. The monk Miyabe rebukes me also. He tells me to be attached to nothing. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I know what Miyabe means to say. He’s known for his sharp tongue. He means that you should realize you need nothing because you have nothing! Life here is nothing? I am nothing. Isn’t that what that foolish monk wants to say? I ought to have him killed. KAZAKO He won’t care. GENERAL MATSUMOTO But if I had you killed you would care. KAZAKO I am weak. I still have desires, therefore fears. GENERAL MATSUMOTO What do you desire? KAZAKO Death mostly. I desire what I most fear. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Death is my strongest rival. And I am impotent to banish it from this world. KAZAKO And I am impotent to invite it into my soul. GENERAL MATSUMOTO But you invite Miyabe into your soul. Why are you always visiting him? KAZAKO I see his Buddha nature. But as I see a clear brook. When my eyes turn away from him its not there any longer. The brook belongs to its path. I belong to mine. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I should talk to this monk that so impresses everyone. But Ogata impressed you. He didn’t impress me. KAZAKO Poor Ogata. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You love this monk Miyabe? KAZAKO I love the Buddha he reflects. But my love doesn’t lift any weight from my soul. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (goes to HER, touches HER sleeve) Then why love him? KAZAKO His words fall into me as pine needles. Their fragrance is pleasing, even if they don’t lift my oppression. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (touches HER cheek) Your skin is turning grey. KAZAKO Cherry blossoms fade in a cold wind. GENERAL MATSUMOTO When I’m unhappy all color turns to gray. Gray, the color of parched earth, of winter clouds, even dried blood. No one’s flag of war is gray. KAZAKO Nor are the kimonos of pleasure ladies. GENERAL MATSUMOTO When all is grey I close my eyes and wait. And wait. Eventually light suffuses, slowly, dissolving that uninteresting curtain, and I can’t stop laughing. Everything pleases me. KAZAKO And the General drinks too much. And throws too many banquets. GENERAL MATSUMOTO And stays up until dawn, and rises, even before that new sun has dried the night-dewed fields. KAZAKO But it doesn’t last. GENERAL MATSUMOTO No. KAZAKO So much sadness in the world. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (gently) And more to come. Go. Leave me alone. (KAZAKO leaves. GENERAL MATSUMOTO broods. MUSIC UP. The stage darkens slowly. The moon rises, casting dim light. The ghost of OGATA enters, moving in a slow dance.) OGATA Condemned to bob like a cork upon the waves of Kazako’s beating heart. Condemned to wander in the steps that Kazako has left. Shut out of heavenly peace. Poems rise off my tongue, then dissolve like mist. I, too, dissolve like mist. Until the breeze blows my shape together once more. I see Kazako dancing in streams, dancing in green leaves stirred by the world’s breath, and in silent lotus blossoms, always just out of reach. I follow after her, stand by her abandoned flowers in her deserted room, sometimes staring at her image dissolving in rain puddles in the village street. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Why are you here? This is not the netherworld. You’ve lost your way. OGATA (speaks to GENERAL MATSUMOTO) So red the poppy. So red the rising sun. Dried blood, gray on a stone. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Without blood you are useless to the world. What brings you here? You want another blow to the head? (laughs uproariously, and blows on OGATA) Why waste blows from my sword? If wind can dissolve you, then my breath will dissolve you more ruthlessly than a sword. The blows of General Matsumoto are remorseless. They scatter all before him like a typhoon. (blows harder) Disperse. Go read your poems to the worms that have made their home in your body. They’ll wiggle out of your eyes to listen. (pauses) Why don’t you stop and rest for a moment? You can’t? I understand. Neither can I. But I need to be alone to rest. So go. Then maybe we can both rest. (to HIMSELF) Ogata is not here. Moonbeams bounce from water to rock, gather within the waving leaves, float and dip on the wings of insects, fashioning moon drawn images that cannot breathe. OGATA Kazako. I am doomed to wander among the lingering odors of your departed presence. Doomed to wander in this unreal world, until your wandering thoughts quit leading me from sky to mountain pass, from room to room, from day to day, until you release me, until you quit desiring me. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I will watch calmly, as though no moonbeams created this vision. I will see only the placid, unassuming air. My mother sang me a song when I could not sleep and saw foxes snarling in the midnight sky. (HE sings a children’s song.) The wooden horse is strong but goes nowhere, the turtle’s back is round, but only bears the air. Ogata, don’t anger me! OGATA Abandoned kimono. Thatched roof rustling with rats. The wood lamp unlit. GENERAL MATSUMOTO As usual there is no reasoning with you. You’re like a woman. Kindness makes you more haughty. Go. I command you. Spirit, or not, you will obey. Its your disrespect that dooms you to the earth. You think I don’t know your poem was meant to embarrass me? You wanted my humiliation. Were you hovering above the court , enjoying their smirks when my wife Komachi read it at court? But its no matter. It was an arrogant gesture for your last act. But arrogance is only the refined mask of inferior men. You’ve insulted me. That’s why you wander and suffer. OGATA Condemned to follow the imprinted earth, the trembling leaves that she has brushed, the sound of her footsteps along the path. GENERAL MATSUMOTO But the jokes on you. Your poem mock me? It can’t. My deeds bury the puny words of poets. (draws sword) Mock me? Insubstantial spirit. I will cut your image into a thousand moonbeams. I will scatter you like pollen over the world. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO shouts, swings HIS sword at OGATA, surrounds HIM, attacks HIM again and again. ONOGI enters, sword in hand, and watches, distressed. GENERAL MATSUMOTO keeps flailing HIS sword.) Demon of moon dust, I’ll change you to earth dust. You dare appear before me. You dare mock me. You dare come here with your useless moans. These are my lands. All, above and below, spirit and solid. Mine. You will obey. You weakling. Too afraid to die. (Slow fade out of lights on OGATA. OGATA fades from the stage. ONOGI bows deeply. GENERAL MATSUMOTO notices HIM and stops HIS attack on the moonbeams. MUSIC DOWN.) ONOGI I heard you shout father. I was alarmed. I was ready to behead an assassin. GENERAL MATSUMOTO This matter I can handle. ONOGI Yes sir. (ONOGI begins to withdraw.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Wait. (ONOGI stops.) Come with me. Get some pleasure ladies up. Find me companions with voices as honeyed as bee hives. We shall have a party. But don’t bring that sour pear Kazako. Or I shall peel her and throw away the core! She harbors ghosts in her breasts that leap out and make their home in me. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO exits.) ONOGI Fighting warm breezes father? I will have to be strong. And crafty. I will have to learn better how to listen and to realize when your subjects petaled tongues hide their knifelike stems. Madness brings out the treachery in a kingdom. Madness blinds a ruler to real threats. General Takishima’s army goes distressingly stronger as he waits to honor you on his peace mission. I fear the gifts he will bestow on us will be as hard as trampling hooves. We must present a face of unscalable granite to his army. I will have to be worthy enough to protect you until this episode passes. Its Kazako who is withering your mind. I may have to kill her to save you. But you will respect me when these evil days are past. As all your enemies will respect me as your worthy son. They will know this kingdom is strong, not to be trifled with. You will recover your senses. Did you not teach me that there is only room on the pinnacle for one great General? ACT TWO, SCENE ONE IS ENDED ACT TWO SCENE II SETTING: GENERAL TAKISHIMA’s quarters. AT RISE: GENERAL TAKISHIMA sitting. An AIDE enters. GENERAL TAKISHIMA So my envoys still wait on General Matsumoto’s pleasure? AIDE They send reports back. By word. They fear to write anything. GENERAL TAKISHIMA Are they chafing under General Matsumoto’s insolence? AIDE They say that General Matsumoto is not well. His insolence has turned into indifference. GENERAL TAKISHIMA One of his gloomy spells. We shouldn’t pay too much attention to that. AIDE But he’s not coming out of it this time. And he’s heard shouting alone in his quarters at night. GENERAL TAKISHIMA His abilities, his judgement? AIDE At this time severely impaired. His commanders meet and sit, sullenly, drinking sake. They say nothing but their gloomy faces can be read openly. But who among them would have the heart to try and take charge? GENERAL TAKISHIMA No one will speak. All are afraid to take initiatives. It could cost them their heads. Onogi? AIDE He tries to jut his chin out, and strut like a rooster, but he’s too in awe of his father. He issues no significant orders. GENERAL TAKISHIMA Then it may be that General Matsumoto is ripe for harvesting. When rice is plump shake it into the bag. AIDE I think sir, that you may soon consider an attack and tumble this upstart from his undeserved, exalted position. GENERAL TAKISHIMA Send me our spies. I’ll interrogate them myself. Indeed the time of harvesting may be approaching. General Matsumoto to harvest the bad seeds of his arrogance. And I to harvest the plump seeds of my patience. BLACKOUT ACT ONE, SCENE TWO IS ENDED. ACT TWO, SCENE THREE SETTING: MIYABE’s hut. MIYABE is sitting inside, drinking tea. AT RISE: ONOGI and GENERAL MATSUMOTO approach the hut. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I shouldn’t have listened to you. You’ve given me bad advice again. I should have summoned him to the castle. My coming to him will give him a swelled head. ONOGI Miyabe is irascible. And vain. The Emperor visited him when he was abbot of Daitoku-I Monastery and he would not bring the holy scroll to the Emperor but made the Emperor walk to him. We have to come to him if you want to interrogate him. Otherwise he would not come. GENERAL MATSUMOTO No man is too heavy to be carried. ONOGI But isn’t it true that this way he’s more apt to discuss views with you. If we dragged him to court he might say nothing. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Bad advice again from you. His superiors shouldn’t bow to his whims. The Emperor should have had Miyabe and his scroll dragged to him as I should have had him dragged to me. ONOGI Saksai, the abbot of the Shingai sect, despises Miyabe. They were young monks together studying with the venerable Tettsu. Maybe we should introduce Kazako to Saksai. He might teach her to assume a cheerful face. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Leave Saksai be. He’s very popular with the Emperor and his court. Maybe I am too hard on Miyabe. If the court hates him he must have many manly virtues. (THEY arrive. ONOGI enters the hut.) ONOGI Your master is here. MIYABE Fool. He’s always been here. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO enters.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Don’t play with his meaning. MIYABE Why? I like to play. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I like to war. Will that keep me from salvation? MIYABE If their army is stronger. Or their General is wiser. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Hah! True. But seriously now. Kazako says you can life my oppression. With enlightment. So tell me. I command you. What must I do to be enlightened? MIYABE Nothing! GENERAL MATSUMOTO Impossible. MIYABE Action is impossible. EGENERAL MATSUMOTO Inaction is death! MMIYABE Precisely. Ain’t it grand? G GENERAL MATSUMOTO You’re as foolish as I heard. They tell me you play kick ball with the children in the village. MIYABE Badly. They play well. But when I run its like I’m shuffling two rowboats instead of sandals. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Action! It doesn’t seem like Buddhist behavior to me. MIYABE The Buddha nature has many behaviors. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Sitting on your duff thinking about him seems to be your favorite behavior. MIYABE Well, I can’t go to him. I have to ask him to come to me. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Laziness? Is that a Buddhist virtue? MIYABE Virtues are not a problem for this Buddhist. I’ve never practiced them. GENERAL MATSUMOTO We have something in common. Neither have I. MIYABE I am told that you practice gloominess, that its your virtue, and your Buddha. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Wine can take care of gloominess. Wine and war. MIYABE Did you bring some wine? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Of course not. This is not an occasion that calls for it. MIYABE Did you bring some war? GENERAL MATSUMOTO I brought only my eyes to view you. Quite a disappointment. I find a buffoon. MIYABE Of course. And a baboon. GENERAL MATSUMOTO So, you insist on kicking words about like the ball you kick in the playground. MIYABE I kick words, you kick ass. Words bounce, asses don’t. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Its just like Kazako to find someone like you to admire. She loves buffoons. She loved that buffoon Ogata. MIYABE Exactly. And when you learn to admire yourself you’ll, too, end up loving a buffoon. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You dare to insult me. You think you have no duty to honor your superiors? Only to humiliate them? MIYABE I spend my life honoring my superior. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You’re like Osaka. Contempt is veiled in your platitudes as contempt was veiled in his poem. MIYABE Oops, you kicked, and missed the ball. On your ass, bam! GENERAL MATSUMOTO I might have you killed. But then I might have to fight your image made of moonbeams. Better I set you on a lonely island. You can become famous as a hermit. MIYABE Oops. You missed the ball again. On your ass, bam! (GENERAL MATSUMOTO enraged, kicks a bowl in front of MIYABE. MIYABE takes a deep breath.) Oops. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO stalks out and leaves. ONOGI stares at MIYABE. MIYABE meets his eyes and gazes, placidly, back. ONOGI leaves.) (BLACKOUT) (END OF SCENE) ACT TWO, SCENE FOUR SETTING: KAZAKO’s room. AT RISE: KAZAKO meditating. GENERAL MATSUMOTO walks in. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I saw that fool, Miyabe, that you think is an incarnation of the Buddha. A charlatan. KAZAKO Miyabe has upset you? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Hah! Can a wave on a lake upset me? I’m here. On land. Not in some No play with paper seas that can only pretend to drown one. KAZAKO He could not help you with your sadness? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Fools sadden me. Kick fools to the side, no more sadness. I have important matters of state to attend to. I cannot take the time to be sad. KAZAKO The General is fortunate to have thrown away his sadness so easily. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I win battles. All battles. Sadness was a puny enemy. So was Ogata. KAZAKO Ogata was no enemy. GENERAL MATSUMOTO He mocked me on his way to the dark, unmockable land. But he’s come back. Cockle a doodle do. Roaming in the garden, disturbing me. But no more. I scattered his soul. KAZAKO But he is dead. How scatter his soul? GENERAL MATSUMOTO He is now made of moonbeams. And roams about. In my chambers, wherever you have been. But I’ve scattered those moonbeams back into the land of unrelenting darkness. KAZAKO Ogata was in your chambers? GENERAL MATSUMOTO His spirit. Yes. His spirit. KAZAKO He’s not resting in peace? GENERAL MATSUMOTO He is now resting in peace. A deep sleep. In that land he came from before he was born. KAZAKO Dear Ogata, you are not resting? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Dear, dear, dear. Keep it up. Dear, dear, dear. You weave a chain of love with that one word like nuns beads. He told me that you keep him roaming this world, that he is condemned to appear at every place you have just left, condemned to miss you. Until you quit desiring him. As though you could quit anything, you, with no will, only a straw soul rustling with every breeze from the graveyard. Straw soul that never blooms. Spring, summer, your soul slowly rustles, season after season, going nowhere, just shrinking, losing its gold, getting drier and drier. KAZAKO Ogata! GENERAL MATSUMOTO I took care of his spirit. He won’t return. I will take care of Miyabe too. I’ll take care of all Buddhists. They’re arrogant, think they’re immune from the power of the state, think their good fortune depends on the way they act, not the way I organize all life. They’ll mislead the peasants, create unrest. The old religion was better. It pleased everyone and bred respect for superiors into the population. I’ll burn all their temples. What do they think they’re pulling? KAZAKO I must go to Ogata. Please send me to Ogata. GENERAL MATSUMOTO No. And I forbid you to kill yourself. It would be a waste of time. He said he is wandering because you love him. He doesn’t want you to love him. He wants you to forgive him. If you forgive him he can find peace. KAZAKO Forgive him for what? GENERAL MATSUMOTO How should I know. Forgiveness is a vice I haven’t been tempted to try. You try! KAZAKO I must see Miyabe. He can tell me how to appease Ogata’s angry, tormented spirit. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Ogata is not capable of anger. KAZAKO Oh, what if you’re wrong. What if he is? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Do I need fear his anger? He’s not even interested in me. You’re right to fear his anger. If the spirit Lords would let him he’d find you and drive you to despair with his ghostly complaints. But they’ve forbidden him to see you. KAZAKO Oh that he would come and scold me for loving him. Then I would have the courage to die. (BLACKOUT) (END OF SCENE) ACT TWO, SCENE FIVE SETTING: KAZAKO’S empty room. AT RISE: The ghost of OGATA enters , tries to pick up HER scarf. HIS hand passes through it. OGATA Cold fog, Ducks quack. Boat passing. Oars sound. Drip, drip. A loon cries. Wings whirr. (OGATA exits. KAZAKO enters. SHE senses something.) KAZAKO Ogata? (ONOGI enters.) ONOGI No. Not Ogata. It is me. KAZAKO I thought I sensed Ogata. ONOGI Perhaps you should join him. Perhaps he’s inviting you to join him. KAZAKO I long for death, but am afraid of death. I’m like a thrashing chicken in my own hands, terrified of the knife. ONOGI It is distressing to long for what you fear. KAZAKO Why are you here? ONOGI I wish I didn’t have to come. I have many unpleasant duties. Some more unpleasant than others. If people would perform their own unpleasant duties I would have less to perform. KAZAKO Does your father know you’re here? ONOGI No. KAZAKO You’re not afraid to be where he did not send you? ONOGI When his welfare is concerned I cannot be afraid. His welfare is the welfare of the State. KAZAKO What have I to do with the affairs of rulers? ONOGI You’re unhinging his mind. KAZAKO I? ONOGI His head falls on his chest when you aren’t there. He looks up and sees not. KAZAKO He’s always been plagued by black moods. ONOGI He’s always been able to reason with precision before. KAZAKO I haven’t stolen his reason. ONOGI As a gust of wind deflects a falling cherry blossom you’ve deflected his mind. KAZAKO Have him send me away. Back to Kyoto. I can become old. I’ll watch the cherry blossoms each year, and watch my life fall slowly away like their blossoms. ONOGI He will not send you away. Not until he has conquered you. He is stubborn. KAZAKO Its Ogata he cannot conquer. Or Miyabe. Anyone that has conquered eternal lands that won’t fall before his sword. ONOGI He must not be tormented. It weakens him. KAZAKO He torments himself. ONOGI He must be left in peace. KAZAKO Then I must pass through that door that horrifies me? (ONOGI bows, and leaves.) Ogata! Hear me. Come to me, not to General Matsumoto. Come to me. Hand me a knife beautiful enough for me to cut through my cowardice. Ogata, Ogata. (Light up on OGATA across stage.) OGATA Mountain wind roaring. Poor fallen nest of sparrows. Frightened, so frightened. ACT TWO, SCENE FOUR IS ENDED. ACT II, SCENE SIX SETTING: GENERAL MATSUMOTO in his quarters, alone. AT RISE: MUSIC UP. The ghost of OGATA enters. OGATA The wind, like the sea, rises and descends, blossoms radiate joy, then fall, rice ripens, then is gathered . Only Kazako’s love remains, unharvested. I go to embrace her, to entice her to this shadow land but always too late, always too late, arriving to her scent only, the imprint she has left. Let your desire die Kazako, let your desire die and I’ll be released to float, untroubled, to the lotus land. (turns quickly, looks up. MUSIC DOWN.) Geese honk overhead. A perfect V, except for one falling, arrow struck. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You’re here! Again! OGATA I wander. Arriving where she’s left. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (MUSIC UP. GENERAL MATSUMOTO dances with his sword attempting to scatter OGATA. OGATA floats away from his blows. GENERAL MATSUMOTO stops, winded, and shouts. OGATA continues floating around. ) My sword is too solid to slay this apparition. (MUSIC DOWN.) Can you speak to me? (OGATA pauses.) OGATA Unmoving sun. Clouds. Empty white boat in the reeds, swirling, drifting. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Can you speak to me? (MUSIC UP.) OGATA begins to dance HIS dance of wandering.) Leave here. I can’t sleep with you disturbing me. I, so badly, need sleep. And here you are in your eternal sleep disturbing my mortal sleep. Barbarian! Leave this world. I swear I’ll find a way to scatter you. I’ll find a witch to cast out barbed words that will haul you from the underworld like a fish is hauled from the sea. Accept your station in life. You dishonor your death. Ha, ha, and they say I have no wit. (ONOGI appears in the background, unable to see OGATA, and observes GENERAL MATSUMOTO.) Yes, a witch. To drag you down into the lower seas. You won’t return from there. Use your good sense. Remove yourself. Give up on Kazako. I had to give up on Kazako. She doesn’t know her own no mind. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Doesn’t know her own no mind. Get it? Your kind has always scorned my mind. What do you know with your poems polished like diamonds? (to HIMSELF, sadly) My mind’s become a piece of coal. But no fire, no smoke. (OGATA stops dancing.) Kazako is a witch. She bows her head, and my thoughts spill out. And some Devil artisan has welded a heavy shield to the inside of my forehead. I am besieged by enemies I can no longer imagine. OGATA Deserted battlefield, chopped heads on the ground. Horses munch grass and snort. GENERAL MATSUMOTO O sad reason of mine, fleeing, like a hound released from the chain. What sorcery has unbound you? Whose sorcery raises this fog so I can find neither the dog of reason or the path he’s taken? Sorry vision - the more confused I become, the clearer I see you Ogata. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO sees ONOGI.) Get rid of him. (HE points to OGATA whom ONOGI cannot see.) ONOGI Who, your excellency? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Ogata. I’ve tried to talk to him. Its useless. ONOGI Ogata? GENERAL MATSUMOTO Don’t deny you see him. ONOGI Your excellency, my eyes are tired from scroll reading. I see nothing. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You see nothing? ONOGI But my eyes are exhausted. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You lie! ONOGI (bows) Father, I wish only to see what you see, honor what you honor. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You all give me fancy words. But your eyes are elsewhere. ONOGI My life is yours. GENERAL MATSUMOTO No one’s life is mine. Only their death. Don’t you see. He mocks me. He mocks death. ONOGI Who, your excellency? GENERAL MATSUMOTO That fop Ogata. Here, wandering, stopping only to recite. He has nothing to say I want to hear. Order him to go. ONOGI (not seeing OGATA) All restless spirits, be they Ogata, or any others condemned to the world of shadows by General Matsumoto, depart this room immediately. (HE strides about the room.) Out, out. Quit bothering General Matsumoto. (MUSIC UP. OGATA begins his dance of wandering.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO He ignores you. ONOGI I did my best. Perhaps someone else. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Everyone fails me. Get no one. You have all failed me. ONOGI You are revered. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (wearily) Go. (ONOGI exits.) OGATA Arrogance brought doom to the woman I love. My arrogant poem enslaved her. Now I’m enslaved. Enslaved by her love for me. GENERAL MATSUMOTO No. Not you condemned. I, I am condemned. To watch your relentless dance. To hear your endless complaints. Hatchiman, God of faithful warriors whom I have always honored, why have you deserted me? (The lights on OGATA begin to fade. OGATA wanders off-stage. MUSIC DOWN.) Onogi! (ONOGI enters.) Bring Miyabe here. Drag him here with ropes if you have to. (ONOGI exits.) Hatchiman! Hatchiman, God of War! This strange battlefield you cannot find! (HE sits quietly while the moon rises. ONOGI returns with MIYABE.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO (to ONOGI) Leave us alone. (ONOGI exits. MIYABE bows grandly. GENERAL MATSUMOTO returns his bow.) Did he have to force you to come? MIYABE No. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Why not? MIYABE It was what I felt like doing. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Oh, you felt like coming here. Were you on your way before my son came to you? MIYABE How can I be on my way? There’s nowhere to go. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Clever asshole! MIYABE The asshole never fails to perform its right duty. Unless, of course, it is swollen up. Then ouch! GENERAL MATSUMOTO Ha, ha. I like you. MIYABE You like someone who doesn’t exist. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Ha, ha, so do you. MIYABE Glad to make your non-acquaintance. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I need your powers. Mine are like raindrops disappearing down the ravine. MIYABE There is much power in falling water. GENERAL MATSUMOTO My subjects are plotting against me. MIYABE What do you expect me to do? GENERAL MATSUMOTO You are a powerful man. MIYABE Powerful, like you, at extinguishing. GENERAL MATSUMOTO People say you command the weather. MIYABE What a bad job I’m doing. We need rain. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Show me this great power the peasants say you possess. Don’t be shy. Your power can’t threaten me. You have no ambition for worldly gain. (points to the painting of tiger) GENERAL MATSUMOTO (cont) Kill that tiger! MIYABE No problem. (MIYABE walks resolutely to the painting and plants himself before it, in a ferocious stance.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Kill him! MIYABE (turns to GENERAL MATSUMOTO) Send him out! GENERAL MATSUMOTO Ah so! Neither of us have any power. MIYABE To be, not to create. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Others adapt to me. But for a few traitors. Tell me who they are. Whom to trust. Whom to execute. I can’t trust myself anymore. Disobedient spirits are running loose in my mind, and in my realm. I haven’t slept for days. I may never sleep again. When I close my eyes a dark curtain lifts and the play begins. And my part is demanding, exhausting. I try to execute my tormentor but I fail, time and again, I fail. And nothing is more exhausting than failure. But I cannot sleep. Exhaustion keeps me awake. Meanwhile earthly enemies plot against me. You’ve conquered the far kingdom by seeing clearly the earthly kingdom. Tell me how to save my kingdom by harnessing the power of the far kingdom. MIYABE I don’t concern myself with affairs of state. GENERAL MATSUMOTO But you can read a man’s character like a soothsayer reads entrails. Look at them. Tell me. He is condemned to hell, his face mirrors treachery. Another, he is weak, he will follow the stupidest man. Another, he is cowardly, he only stabs backs. MIYABE I would chatter like a magpie if I told you of all the men that meet those descriptions. GENERAL MATSUMOTO So many? I knew it. I felt it. I smelled it. Since I humiliated myself with that foolish poem. Why wasn’t I warned? Why didn’t Onogi laugh at that poem when we heard it? Why did he read it publicly? Treachery, treachery. MIYABE Hah! Why? Onogi should have laughed. Ogata should have laughed. Kazako should have laughed. General Matsumoto should have laughed. Unfortunately, terror blocks laughter. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Cowards. All of us? You’re no help. I can’t save my kingdom with that knowledge. MIYABE I can’t help you. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Who reads your character? MIYABE I have no character. That is why I disappear when there is nothing more to be done. (MIYABE leaves. GENERAL MATSUMOTO paces, and ponders. HE goes to his war gear, and puts it on.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO My enemies saw me reclining too much. All of them. I’ll turn my army against them. They’ll know then. (ONOGI enters.) ONOGI General Matsumoto is dressed for war! GENERAL MATSUMOTO All life is war. ONOGI Do you want the troops assembled? GENERAL MATSUMOTO To what? Attack me? ONOGI The thought cannot be fathomed. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Assemble no one. I will have a party. No one will dress as a soldier, but I. No one can protect me, but myself, therefore all you who have let me down will wear other costumes. And you will sing the Rain Mist song. Without your uniform. ONOGI What does my father desire me to wear? GENERAL MATSUMOTO I want you to dress as a peasant. Wear a straw hat and a straw raincoat. ONOGI My Lord, the moon is shining. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You would argue with me? ONOGI As you wish? GENERAL MATSUMOTO I’ll dress them all in costumes. They won’t know who they are or how to plot against me. Bakers will be farmers, soldiers will be bakers. Ha, ha. Kazako! (KAZAKO enters.) I am dressing my kingdom. You are part of my kingdom. I will dress you. KAZAKO My kimono displeases you? GENERAL MATSUMOTO I’ll disguise you. Ogata will appear. You can tell him to go away. He’ll obey you. He’s a weakling, used to obeying women. He won’t obey me. Coward, worm that he is. KAZAKO Ogata has returned? GENERAL MATSUMOTO You think he will go away? Where will he go to? He’s doomed to appear where you’ve just left. He’s in your quarters now. Sniffing like a dog I bet. Ha, ha, ha. But I’ll disguise you. I’ll make you a spear carrier. That’ll fool him. KAZAKO Is the deep sadness upon my Lord? GENERAL MATSUMOTO I am all lit up in a world of deep sadness. I am a forest fire, I am a clear flame that feeds itself. Others have deeper sadness because they are not me and can’t light their way through the uneventful darkness. Mourn for them. They are not me. But I won’t wear a disguise. I’m the only one in this kingdom who is too real to wear a disguise. And I’ll find out who is plotting. The cook will raise the pot to strike me and a cloud of steam will betray him. I’m too clever for them. KAZAKO Surely, no one desires to strike you. GENERAL MATSUMOTO Then they’re fools. Because I desire to strike them. (SLOW BLACKOUT) (END OF SCENE) ACT TWO SCENE SEVEN SETTING: KAZAKO’s room. AT RISE: KAZAKO is standing, dressed as a spear carrier. ONOGI enters, dressed in a peasant’s costume. ONOGI He is going mad. KAZAKO I cannot calm his mind. He is driving himself insane. He says he can’t make Ogata obey, but its himself he cannot make obey. He is jealous of Ogata. Ogata has conquered the eternal world with his poems and General Matsumoto cannot conquer that exalted world. It is the same reason he is jealous of Miyabe. He wants to conquer eternity. But he is powerless. That is what is driving him mad. And poor Ogata is doomed to never see me. He can only appear when I have left. I cannot influence his spirit. ONOGI General Matsumoto is upset because you will not shine in his presence. He doesn’t see Ogata. There are no ghosts. He blames Ogata so he won’t have to kill you. You’ve made his mind weak. KAZAKO I? I have made him nothing. ONOGI So, you have turned a great General into a nothing. You’re proud of this? KAZAKO I mean nothing to the General. OGATA Nothing, nothing, that’s all I hear from you. KAZAKO I am small and weak. I am nothing. I know nothing. ONOGI I wish you were strong. Then you would commit seppuku. KAZAKO I have raised the knife and felt its point upon my belly. But then my arm trembles with ferocity, like a beheaded chicken, and the knife falls into my lap. ONOGI That’s too bad. Its easier to die when you are brave. (HE unsheathes HIS sword.) KAZAKO Oh, so evil. I have committed no sin. I have honored your father. ONOGI So, yo tried to delude me. It is not death you desire. KAZAKO I desire a death that brings me life. Do you bring me such a death? ONOGI Your happy death is not a consideration. Once you’re gone he will be restored. We can’t allow him to fall into madness. We will be attacked. And we will not survive. The troops are disheartened. Spies are everywhere riding off to inform his enemies of his wild, brazen actions. We do not wish to perish. KAZAKO My death will solve nothing. Ogata won’t leave him alone. ONOGI There is no Ogata bothering him. You would not honor him. That is what has turned him mad. If he’s allowed to grieve for your death, the hole torn in his soul will bleed the madness out. Your death will release him. KAZAKO But what if he sees my spirit return? Then what will you do? ONOGI You won’t return. You have no reason to return. Your beloved Ogata is on the other side. You will not leave him and he won’t have to return here to look for you. All can return to normality. Even my father. KAZAKO I could sing for you. My voice may come back and then I could please your Father. ONOGI No more words. (HE raises HIS sword.) KAZAKO White moon. White geese. My reflection trembling on his silver blade. (ONOGI kills HER, and leaves. GENERAL MATSUMOTO is heard muttering and laughing as HE approaches. HE enters HER room.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Kazako, I have my kingdom dressing. I have soldiers dressing as pleasure ladies. I hope you are fierce in your spear carrier uniform. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO sees KAZAKO.) What is this? You’ve disguised yourself as a fallen soldier? (HE kneels.) No breath? You’ve disguised your breath as stillness? (pokes HER) You’ve disguised your graceful dance as death? You play your part so well. But its not a part I’ve planned for you. (prods her) You are not made of moonbeams, not made of loss. (prods her again) Oh, are you dead, vanquished by that Lord who wears no mask? You’ve killed yourself, timid as you were? Did you gain the heart of a spear carrier when I ordered you to dress as one? (GENERAL MATSUMOTO turns her over.) No. Not killed yourself. This gaping wound was caused by a blade in the tight grasp of another. Ohhhhh, Ogata has done this. He drove a soldier mad and made him do this. Because you would not let him rest. Like you did not let me rest. But I didn’t kill you. I wouldn’t have killed you. Moonlight in her room. Fern shadows upon the floor. And upon her forehead too. I won’t leave you naked on a rock for scavengers. I’ll wrap you as a gift and present you to the snow white loons that fly above Lake Yamanaka. So many things to remember. I’ve forgotten them all. (OGATA enters. The ghost of KAZAKO rises and goes to him.) You join him? After what he’s done? Is there no vileness of his that will kill your love for him Kazako? (The lights fade first on KAZAKO and OGATA, then on GENERAL MATSUMOTO.) (END OF SCENE SEVEN) ACT TWO SCENE EIGHT SETTING: GENERAL MATSUMOTO’s quarters. AT RISE: GENERAL MATSUMOTO is gazing at a screen on which cherry blossoms are painted. ONOGI is with him. GENERAL MATSUMOTO We must defy ice and snow and grow blossoms every winter. The ducks can feed on them. (tries to pick blossoms from the painting) I eat them myself. It freshens my breath. It’s a shame Ogata had Kazako killed. Have you found the guilty soldier who did Ogata’s bidding? Don’t make his death easy or honorable. She would have enjoyed these flowers. No, she would not. She enjoyed nothing. ONOGI I cannot at this time execute a soldier. They are near rebellion. General Takishima has been joined by General Nobunaga and his envoys are nowhere to be found. There is much unrest the General should attend to. GENERAL MATSUMOTO The beans they feed my horses make them fart. ONOGI Your kingdom is sliding off a cliff. Your officers need a General that sees the danger and who can protect the state. They’ve asked me to come to you. GENERAL MATSUMOTO They’ve chosen you? ONOGI Yes. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I would have chosen me. Who better to talk to me than me? When my mind wanders it always returns. I’m loyal. ONOGI Colonel Hakani believes that General Takishima is ready to attack. We can’t withstand them. All is confusion. The peasants are hiding food, the woodcutters are hiding in the forest, the merchants shiver from fear and bury their wares. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (leaps up) I’ll put things right. I’ll shake all misery from my skull. (shakes HIS head vigorously) See! My misery is spilling on the ground. All of it. (picks from the floor what HE thinks is a piece of HIS misery) See what an odd shape this piece has. Like a worm after a bad meal. What could a worm eat that would upset his stomach? (picks up another piece HE believes to be HIS misery) This one is better. It’s round. Like a medallion. (sinks to floor) So many. So many pieces of misery. Come, help me pick up these pieces. I should not have shaken them out. They belong in my head. We’ll have to put them back. (ONOGI stands, silent, confused as to what to do.) No, forget them. (GENERAL MATSUMOTO sits in front of the tiger portrait, and takes his short sword out of its scabbard.) If this tiger leaps out I will protect you. General Satayamo didn’t teach you tiger slaying. ONOGI Father, clear your mind. The tiger is not our enemy. You have only to appear and rally our troops. Establish yourself again. Everyone honors you. GENERAL MATSUMOTO But I do not honor myself. Who can erase that dishonor? ONOGI You’ve done nothing dishonorable. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I dishonor the dead by my impotence to slay them. My great talent is to slay. But I can’t slay them. ONOGI Your impotence to slay them? They are already slain. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I cannot command them. Even so I have come to prefer ghosts. Perhaps I am a ghost. Have you killed me? ONOGI You are not a ghost Father. GENERAL MATSUMOTO My head feels so light. Like smoke. ONOGI Lead your strong will out of your vaporous breast. Turn its ferocity towards your enemies. Or they will mock you and shame me. GENERAL MATSUMOTO You’re right. I will fight. But I’ll be too clever. My soldiers will wear monk’s robes and carry their horses on their backs. That will confuse my enemies. My soldiers will hold the horses so high in the air that the enemy troops will think ferocious gods are riding them. Have my soldiers strap saddles on their backs. Feed the horses well. Keep feeding them beans. When they fart the enemy will turn their horses and gallop towards Kyoto. ONOGI Father. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I am, aren’t I? ONOGI All of war I have learned from you. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I’ve learned from me myself. But what I can’t remember. ONOGI And how to conquer the minds of my enemies. GENERAL MATSUMOTO But don’t try to capture the mind of a ghost. Their minds are quick as hornets. (swats HIS cheek) ONOGI Do you remember what you taught me about the pinnacle? GENERAL MATSUMOTO That it was sharp? ONOGI No father. That there was only room for one. Or a kingdom would be divided and would fall. GENERAL MATSUMOTO I’m uneducated. I can count no higher than one half. (ONOGI sets his feet, firmly, lifts his sword, but can’t strike. HE drops HIS sword walks about, and returns, and stands quaking. GENERAL MATSUMOTO looks at ONOGI, then bows his head, presenting HIS neck. ONOGI with a loud cry, strikes, and beheads GENERAL MATSUMOTO.) ONOGI Father forgive me for obeying your last command. O noble Father affairs of State dictate the actions of rulers. This is what you have taught me. Father, I take a sacred vow, standing here in the river of your blood, to conquer all the lands upon which the sun rises, and to erase from all memory, written on scroll, or conveyed by speech, of Ogata and his whore Kazako. No scrap of parchment, nor story told by silken tongue, shall remain to pass on the story of Ogata’s infamy, and his wretched poem. Now, as your honorable son, I take up my duties, and set about restoring right order to all the lands that have been honored to recite your name in their histories. All shall fear General Matsumoto Onogi, who from this day forward shall be known through all these lands as the monster who assassinated his two fathers. The terror that rises over the land upon the telling of this tale will be used to paralyze the enemies of my kingdom, to paralyze the will of all lands that float beneath the rising sun. (shouts) Assemble the chiefs of staff. Immediately! (ONOGI strides boldly from the stage, imitating his father. OGATA and KAZAKO start to depart. The ghost of GENERAL MATSUMOTO looks up.) GENERAL MATSUMOTO Wait. I wish to go with you. I do not command in this world so I honorably request that you wait for me to join you. (OGATA and KAZAKO pause.) OGATA (to GENERAL MATSUMOTO) Light of the moon covers the vast sea. Waves lap against the rocks. GENERAL MATSUMOTO (to KAZAKO) Adorning each wave a cowl of silver. Fish leap in the moonlight. KAZAKO (to GENERAL MATSUMOTO and OGATA) Western lake is calm. The cherry blossoms fall. So many white boats. (MUSIC UP. GENERAL MATSUMOTO rises. OGATA, KAZAKO and GENERAL MATSUMOTO exit. MUSIC DOWN.) BLACKOUT THE PLAY IS OVER