kansaiphones | Part 2 Concerning the play

Background Information on Kitsune

The main inspiration behind “Kitsune” was a story arc from “Ayakashi: Classic Japanese Horror” called “Bakeneko”, a Japanese animated series, as well as the spin-off called “Mononoke”. I was aiming for a noh play that would be contemporary but had a lot of traditional ideas in it.

The genre of the series is a paranormal/mystery, making it ideal material for a noh play. Even though the main character, Kusuri-uri, did the main task of exterminating the mononoke, the story behind the featured opponent made the viewer feel like they were the main character. The purpose of finding the katachi (form), makoto (truth) and kotowari (regret) was discover why this mononoke came into being. A waki’s role in a play is to allow the audience to know what is happening in the play. They explain the scenery, interact with the shite, and ask why certain events occurred during the kyougen interlude. This made Kusuri-uri an ideal candidate for a noh play.

The omoai of “Kitsune” is a girl named Kayo. She is a recurring character from “Ayakashi” who is also seen in two “Mononoke” story arcs. Unlike the other characters in both series, she seems unafraid of him and truly interested in him. Some would be infatuated with the young exotic looking man, but soon later hate him while others loathe him completely.

Another reason why I used Kayo as the omoai was to serve as a storyteller and create the setting and date for the play. In the epilogue of the “Ayakashi” story, she mentions going back to her parent’s home (which we are never told about) after the clan she worked as a servant girl was decimated by the bakeneko. This village, her hometown, serves a bridge between the two series and a possible scenario of what would happen if these two characters met again. The original “Bakeneko” story was set in Japan’s Edo period, so I found it fitting to keep the play in time with this fact.

I featured one song and a “poem” in “Kitsune”. The so-called “poem” is the shite’s call as a vendor to lure customers. The song, “Haru no Katami (Memento of Spring)” was another “Ayakashi” inspired idea. This song, sung by Chitose Hajime, was the ending theme to the entire “Ayakashi” series. “Haru no Katami” reflects on the idea of spring, and fleeting beauty because the blossoms that spring brings eventually will die. The lyrics were kept in Japanese to preserve the mood of sadness as well as to satisfy Professor Maruki’s request to his Japanese 485 students who are taking his theater class to have some Japanese in our plays. “Haru no Katami” is truly a sad love song, which also fit the shite and his situation.

As the title suggests, the shite is a kitsune, a fox. In Japan, foxes are seen as tricksters or messengers of the Shinto god of rice, Inari. Foxes’ favorite food is supposedly aburage tofu, fried tofu. To blend with humans, foxes often shape shifted to a human form. In Japan, a person with a “fox face” would have high cheek bones, a slender face, and think eyes. The idea of a fox running an oden stand comes from a manga called “xxx-HoLiC” by the manga circle of CLAMP, which focuses on supernatural subjects. (Do not let the title fool you. It’s actually pronounced “holic” and the x’s are to denote a variable.) Foxes in Japanese folklore are an interesting subject to me and I always wanted a “Mononoke” episode on them.

The play is set during sunset on one autumn day. Sunset is the transition between day and night. This is time when ghosts, demons, and other non-human beings awaken. Autumn is also another transition. Being in between the lively season of summer to the cold winter, this season serves to bridge the two. There is a sense of beauty when the leaves turn to red and yellow colors. The Kitsune, however longs for spring. He not only cherishes the season of birth, but this is when he becomes attached to the woman. Leaves were used heavily because kitsune use leaves to do their transformations.

While writing “Kitsune”, I went through many writing obstacles. Although the idea was clear in my head, putting the play on paper was a difficult challenge. Not all the ideas of “Mononoke” could fit perfectly into the play. In the series, when Kusuri-uri discovers the three things needed to exterminate the mononoke, he goes through a transformation. This placed an awkward strain that forced me not to have him go through that phase and just fight on his own. The appearance of Kusuri-uri would also set some problems. Traditional waki are usually played by middle aged men while he is a young man. Not only does he wear specific clothing, he has distinct facial features, which would require a custom made-mask, when waki usually go unmasked. What I had the hardest time doing was trying to make the play enjoyable to different types of audiences and determining what could bring out the hana of an actor. This plays would probably seem more enjoyable to those who have watched the series before or have a good knowledge of Japanese folklore. Despite all of this, I think I managed to create a reasonable play.