Ten Kiogen in English
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TEN KIOGEN
—IN—
ENGLISH
TRANSLATED
BY
Yone Noguchi
TOKYO
THE TOZAISHA.
1907.
PREFACE.
Our literature (how little it is known to the world!) would be a grey waste as far as comedy is concerned, if the ‘Kiogen,’ (farce, the word meaning crazy language) did not rescue us. It developed fully in the Middle Age simultaneously with the growth of ‘No’ (operatic performance) which was based invariably on Tragedy. The number of Kiogen on record is said to be over two hundred. Alas! their authors are not known. The themes were freely taken from folk-lore and old stories. The dramatic characters are an ignorant lord, forgetful servants, boorish farmers, a coward, fakirs, or such like. Their aim was laughter. The Kiogen may be regarded as a comical outburst of the national temperament. Many a humorist of later centuries adopted them, completely losing, however, the innocent irresistibleness of the original.
Yone Noguchi.
CONTENTS.
| Page. | |
| The Melon-Thief (瓜盗人) | 2 |
| The Demon’s Shell (拔殻) | 14 |
| The Ink Woman (墨塗女) | 36 |
| The Two Blind Men (丼礑) | 48 |
| The Demon’s Mallet (鬼の槌) | 68 |
| The Fox Hill (狐塚) | 98 |
| Aunty’s Saké (伯母酒) | 120 |
| The Gift Mirror (土産の鏡) | 140 |
| Niwo (仁王) | 154 |
| The Demon Tile (鬼瓦) | 176 |
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1947, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 77 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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