Ippitsusai Bunchō (一筆斎文調) (artist )
Segawa Kikunojō II in the Stone Wall (Shakkyō - 石橋) lion dance.
02/1769
5.8 in x 12.2 in (Overall dimensions) Japanese woodblock print
Signature: Ippitsusai Bunchō ga 一筆斎文調画
Ritsumeikan University
Harvard Art Museums Michael Watson in his 2021 essay 'Mochizuki: History and Context' noted on page 44 gives some background to the performance of the lion dance in noh theater:
"A text known as Kanze Taiyu Shojō dated to Tenmei 3 (1783) records a story that a certain Tobi Daiyu, pupil of one Komparu Jūrō, was not given permission to perform the lion dance in the nō Shakkyō, so he introduced the same dance into Mochizuki (Taguchi 26). The part could only be performed with the permission of one’s teacher, a tradition that continues today, where performing Shakkyō still marks a significant stage in a nō performer’s career—as does an actor’s first performance in Mochizuki. The play Shakkyō (Stone Bridge) centers around a tenth-century Japanese monk in China called Jakushō (formerly Ōe no Sadamoto) who has a vision of the Boddhisatva Monju (Skt. Mañjuśrī). In one of the surviving kyōgen parts for the play (Nonomiya and Andō 741), the story of Jakushō’s vision of Monju and the lion dance is narrated at some length by the kyōgen actor during the nakairi interval when the shite was changing into the lion costumes. Lion dances are found throughout Asia. They had existed in Japan since Nara times, but the nō play was later to inspire the lion dance performed on the kabuki stage (Borgen 108)."
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The actor performs a lion dance with bells jingling on lion hand puppets, the lions in a bed of peonies chase butterflies (which wiggle on (invisible) wires attached to the dancer's robes).
"Shakkyô [石橋] (lit. "stone bridge") is a fifth-category (kiri-nô) Noh play featuring a lion dance (shishimai). Numerous other plays, in kabuki and other forms, take after this play, and are known as belonging to the sub-genre, or category, of Shakkyō-mono ("Shakkyô pieces"). Most often, today, only the second half of the play, that is, the lion dance itself, is performed.
Plot Synopsis
A monk by the name of Jakushô (also known as Ôe no Sadamoto) comes upon a stone bridge at Mt. Shôryôzen (in modern-day Shanxi province) during his travels in China. He meets a small boy, who says that the land on the other side is the Buddhist Pure Land belonging to the bodhisattva Monju (Skt: Manjusri), but that only those who have spent many years in ascetic training in preparation for crossing the bridge have been able to do so safely.
One or two lions (depending on the performance) appear and come across the bridge to where Jakushô is, dancing and playing among peony flowers. When their dance is finished, they cross the bridge again, and return to the Pure Land.
Performance
Shakkyô is a fifth-category play, meaning it is best performed as the closing act of a longer performance. Short, energetic, and auspicious, it corresponds to the kyû of the jo-ha-kyû pacing of a Noh program, when preceded by other plays.
Because of the special skills associated with performing the lion dance, Shakkyô is considered a hiraki-mono, the first piece performed by an actor after achieving a particular rank or level of experience, and emblematic of his talent and skill.
While in most schools, the young boy and the lion are both played by a shite actor, in the Hôshô school, the boy is played by a tsure actor, and the shite only appears in the second half. The Hôshô school also omits the kyôgen interlude."
This information is quoted directly from "The Samurai Archives" online.
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The curatorial files from the Honolulu Museum of Art say in reference to their print of Kikunojō III by Kiyonaga: "The Shakkyo story is based on a mystical experience the Tendai priest Jakusho (d. 1034) had during a trip to China, where he went to study Buddhism. Originally performed as a Nö drama, this was one of many Nö plays adopted and transformed by the Kabuki theater. Here, actor Segawa Kikunojö (III) is depicted performing a lion dance, wearing a peony hat over a wig of long red hair. He is clothed in three kimonos—black, pink and ivory. In each hand he holds flowering peony branches. Lions and peonies are traditionally associated with this play, and thus help to identify this print."
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Ellis Tinios noted "A butterfly served as the mon of actors bearing the name Kikunojō..."
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According to various sources Shakkyō was first performed in 1465.
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Illustrated in a small black and white reproduction in a sale catalog: Illustrated catalogue of Japanese color prints, the famous collection of the late Alexis Rouart, of Paris, France, together with a selection from the collection of the vicomte de Sartiges, and a few prints from another Parisian collection..., the American Art Association, New York, 1922, no. 268, page 91. This catalog is on deposit at the Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, collections Jacques Doucet.
This print is described on pages 90-91: "The Second Segawa Kikunojō dancing "Shakkyō," a shosa (mimetic dance peculiar to the theatre), representing lion cubs playing amid peonies growing at the end of a stone bridge. The second Kikunojō was especially good in this dance. The print depicts him in the last appearance in the rôle, the second Act of "Soga Aigo no Wakamatsu" at Nakamura-za, February 1769."
Segawa Kikunojō II (二代目瀬川菊之丞: 11/1756 to 2/1872) (actor)