THE JOURNAL OF JAPANESE STUDIES Vol. 7 No. 2 Summer 1981 TABLE OF ConTENTS ARTICLES 25 259 285 39 349 ‘The Aesthetics of Transformation: Zeami's Dramatic Theories YAMAZAKI MASAKAZU Translated with an Introduction by Susan Matisoff Japanese Village Women: Suye-mura 1935-1936 ROBERT J. SMITH Explaining and Predicting Japanese General Elections, 1960- 1980 INOGUCHI TAKASHI Takeuchi Yoshimi and the Vision of a Protest Society in Japan LAWRENCE OLSON, ‘Tara in Transition: A Study of Kamakura Shoen KOZO YAMAMURA THE WORLD SEEN FROM JAPAN 393 403 In Defense of the “Spirit” of the Japanese Language HIRAKAWA SUKEHIRO Why Is the Performance of the Japanese Economy So Much Better? SUZUKI YosHIO,REVIEWS 4s 420 428 433 437 442 447 433 459 463 468 481 Murakami, Kumon, and Sat, Bunmei to shite no ie-shakal HAYAMI AKIRA, Miyoshi, As We Saw Them: The First Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860) MARLENE J. MAYO Jones, Live Machines: Hired Foreigners and Meiji Japan CAROL GLUCK Amesen, The Medieval Japanese Daimyo: The Ouchi Fami- y's Rule of Sud and Nagato KATSUMATA SHIZUO Davis, Dojo: Magic and Exorcism in Modern Japan DAVID W. PLATH Plath, Long Engagements: Maturity in Modern Japan, TAKIE SUGIYAMA LEBRA Harries, trans., The Poetic Memoirs of Lady Daibu RICHARD BOWRING Pierson, Tokutomi Sohd, 1863-1957: A Journalist for Modern Japan MILES FLETCHER Huffman, Politics of the Meiji Press: The Life of Fukuchi Gen'ichiro SIDNEY DEVERE BROWN Suzuki, Money and Banking in Contemporary Japan JOHN H. MAKIN, Tahara, trans., Tales of Yamato: A Tenth-Century Poem-Tale J. 1. Ackroyp, Varley, trans., A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinnd Shdtdki of Kitabatake Chikafusa ROY ANDREW MILLERNotes on Contributors James R. BARTHOLOMEW is Associate Professor of Japanese His- tory at The Ohio State University. He is writing a book on the formation of modern Japanese science. James C. Dosains is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at Yale University. His research concerns the history of heresy in the Jodo Shinshd and he has recently studied for two years at Rydkoku University in Kyoto. Suzanne GAY, a graduate of the University of Washington, is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at Yale University. Her research deals with the Muromachi Bakufu in the city of Kyoto. H. D. HAROoTUNIAN, Max Palevsky Professor of History and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, has completed a book manuscript on late Tokugawa kokugaku, tentatively entitled Berween Religion and Politics. IRMELA Hulva-KIRSCHNEREIT, whose doctoral dissertation was on Mishima Yukio, is now lecturing at Bochum University Manius B. JANSEN is Professor of History at Princeton University. His most recent book is Japan and its World: Two Centuries of Change, forthcoming from Princeton University Press. Karo Hivetosut is Professor of Sociology at Gakushuin Univ sity. Chié Kéron-sha has recently published twelve volumes of his selected works. ELLs S. Krauss is Associate Professor of Political Science at Western Washington University. Co-editor of Political Opposition and Local Politics in Japan (Princeton, 1980), he is now studying patterns of conflict resolution between government and opposition parties in the Diet. During 1981 he will be a visiting associate professor at the University of Washington. Kuropa Tosuto is Professor of Humanities at Osaka University. His current research concerns religion and the state in medieval Japan. BYRON K. MARSHALL is a Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, His current research deals with the Japanese academic elite and the politics of the imperial universities. Roy ANDREW MILLER’s most recent book, Origins of the Japanese Language, was published in November 1980 by the University of Washington Press. His new book, Nihongo, Japan's Modern Myth is scheduled for publication by Weatherhill in early 1981.JOHN H. Makin, a professor of economics at the University of Washington, is a specialist on exchange rates. He has recently vis- ited Japan to pursue his current research on the dollar-yen exchange rate. SUSAN MaTisorF is Associate Professor of Japanese at Stanford, Author of The Legend of Semimaru, Blind Musician of Japan (Co- lumbia University Press, 1978), she is studying theatre history, par- ticularly no through early puppet theatre. MARLENE Mayo is an associate professor of history at the Univer- sity of Maryland and director of the University's Oral History Proj- ect on the Allied Occupation of Japan. She is at work on a book on American planning for the Occupation. Roy ANDREW MILLER has a Japanese translation of his Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages (1971) in press at TaishGkan Sho- ten. A translation of his Origins of the Japanese Language (1981) will also be published this summer by Chikuma Shobo. LAWRENCE Otson, Professor of History at Wesleyan University, is working on the intellectual history of postwar Japan. Daviv W. PLaTH is Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies at the University of Illinois. Last year his Long Engagements: Matur- ity in Modern Japan was published by Stanford Press. Rosert J. Sri is Goldwin Smith Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University. He is the author of Ancestor Worship in Contemporary Japan and Kurusu: The Price of Progress in a Japanese Village, 1951-1975, both published by Stanford University Press. In the spring of 1980, he delivered the Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures in Anthropology at the University of Rochester: “*Cultural Continuity and the Shadow of the Past in Con- temporary Japanese Society.” ‘Suzuk Yosttio is advisor to the Bank of Japan and lecturer on Japanese monetary policy at Tokyo University. His Money and Banking in Contemporary Japan was published last year by Yale University Press. ‘Kozo YaMAMURA is chairman of the Japanese Studies Program in the School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He recently contributed an essay on economic growth in Japan, 1550-1650 in a book entitled Japan Before Tokugawa (Princeton University Press, 1981), which he co-edited. ‘YaMazaxt Masaxazu is a professor in the Department of Theatre Studies at Osaka University. Author of numerous works on Japanese culture, he is completing an English translation of Zeami’s theoretical works on theatre, in collaboration with Thomas Rimer.YAMAZAKI MASAKAZU The Aesthetics of Transformation: Zeami’s Dramatic Theories Introduction by Susan Matisoff The theoretical treatises of Zeami Motokiyo (13639-1443), writ- ten over a span of some thirty years," preserve the wisdom of the ‘master playwright as teachings intended for his fellow actors in the Kanze no troupe or for succeeding generations of performers. Some of the teachings bear notes indicating Zeami’s wish that they be revealed to only the finest performer in any given generation, and all of his theories, whatever their specified degree of secrecy, must be read with awareness of Zeami's thoroughly practical intent. His writings were designed to help assure his disciples and descendants Success in moving their audiences and to give them competitive advantage over actors in other troupes. Zeami's dramatic theories are not expressed as a formalized, coherent system, rather, they ‘must be gleaned from a body of texts recording insights which de. veloped and deepened over time, the later writings enriching rather than superceding the earlier. Zeami was both a man of action and a man of letters; his plays and theoretical writings reflect his training in classical Chinese and Japanese poetry, and it may well be that the tradition of critical octic treatises inspired Zeami to commit his theories to writing, In Contrast to the formalism and the overwhelming concern with tra tion evident in much classical Japanese poetic theory, however, Zeami’s writings consistently reflect a spirit that seeks what is effec. 1. Not all his critical writings are datable. Fishikiden, partially completed ia ‘400 is the earliest, while Kyakuraika, 1433, is considered the latest ertcal text and inisho, his poetic dary of exile, completed in 1436, is hs last known wring 2s216 Journal of Japanese Studies tive, rather than what is traditional or proper. The direct, practical nature of Zeami’s writings is apparent as well in their contrast with the far more abstract, Buddhist-tinged dramatic theory of his son- inlaw Komparu Zenchiku (1405-14702). In his analysis of Zeami’s theories, Yamazaki Masakazu brings to bear a multifaceted critical perspective similar, in some ways, to Zeami's own. A widely published critic with a strong specialization in the philosophy of aesthetics, Yamazaki is also the author of some ten volumes of plays. In a prefatory section of the monograph from which this article is a partial translation, he discusses his discoveries and reactions when his own first play was performed, and his per- sonal experience as a man of the theatre consistently informs his reading of Zeami. ‘A graduate of Kyoto University, Yamazaki spent 1964-"65 at the Yale Drama School under the auspices of the Fulbright exchange program. He is currently Professor in the Department of Literature at Osaka University and director of its Program on the History of World Theatre. His numerous books and essays cover a broad spec- trum, touching on subjects that range from the work of Mori Ogai and Natsume Sdseki to critiques of aspects of contemporary Japanese and American society. His principal areas of concern, in addition to the philosophy of aesthetics, are dramatic theory and practice—both traditional and modern, Japanese and Western—and the nature and significance of the individual. In that this article touches on all three subjects, it is succinctly representative of much of the range of Yamazaki's work. While this is the first of his scholarly writings to be translated, three of Yamazaki’s plays have recently been published in English. Fune wa hobune yo, frst performed in 1973, appeared as The Boat Is @ Sailboat in Modern Japanese Drama: An Anthology, Ted T. Takaya, editor and translator. Mask and Sword: Two Plays for the Contemporary Japanese Theater by Yamazaki Masakazu, trans- lated by J. Thomas Rimer,? includes Zeami, 1963 (revised 1974), winner of the Kishida prize as the best modern drama of 1963, and Sanetomo (first produced in 1973 as Sanetomo shuppan). In addi- tion Rimer's volume includes the transcript of an extensive inter- view with Yamazaki. In his play Zeami Yamazaki addresses some of the same issues as this present article, notably the nature of the 2. Columbia University Press, New York, 1979. 3. Columbia University Press, New York, 1980Matisoff: Introduction 27 patronage relationship uniting Zeami and Yoshimitsu and the inten: sity of Zeami’s devotion to his art. This article is a translation of about seventy-five per cent of Yamazaki’s essay entitled Henshin no bigaku—Zeami no geijutsu- ron, originally published in 1969.4 To shorten the translation, the author chose to cut the prefatory chapter concerning his personal experiences which led to a deepened interest in Zeami's critical writings and several pages from the first translated section concern- ing the historical connection between drama and religion, their se aration in Medieval Japan, and the consequent low social status of the performing artist. The third section has also been abridged, and the interested reader is referred to the original for its more extensive treatment of the actor's “freedom of transformation.” In the original article, passages quoted from Zeami are followed by Yamazaki's translations into modern Japanese. [ have translated directly from Zeami's passages, and in some cases this has meant that interpretive interpolations included in Yamazaki's modern Japanese renditions are not cartied over into the English transla- tions, In rendering the passages from Zeami's writings into English I. have often used the second person. The choice is dictated by two considerations: the desire to reflect the personal and private nature of Zeami’s writings and their didactic tone as training texts for ac- tors, and second, the wish to provide some contrast between Zeami's generalizations and those of Yamazaki which are translated using “one” rather than “you.” All footnotes to the translation are mine. For the most part they simply serve to allow the interested reader to locate the passages quoted from Zeami in their full contexts. Professor Yamazaki kindly looked over the translation, taking the opportunity to make a few changes and add a few sentences here and there which were not in the original Japanese article. However, any errors in translation are solely my responsibility STANFORD UNIVERSITY 4 I was originally published as an introductory essay in the volume entitled Zeami, edited by Yamazaki, No. 10a the series Nihon no Meich3, Chad Kéron Sha, Tokyo, 1969, It was reissued along with three other of his essays in the volume entitled Geijutsu, Henshin, Yagi, Chao Koron Sha, Tokyo, 1975,YAMAZAKI MASAKAZU The Aesthetics of Transformation: Zeami’s Dramatic Theories Translated by SUSAN MATISOFF The Fate of the Artist ‘The year 1333 was profoundly significant because of the chance co-occurrence of two events. In that year in Kamakura the Hojo ‘were finally toppled from power, and Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358), who is credited with their downfall, took the first steps toward estab- lishing the Muromachi Bakufu. In the same year, in the village of ‘Yamada in Iga province, was born a sarugaku actor who would later be known as Kan'ami Kiyotsugu. This brilliant man, founder of the Kanze-za, is, of course, also known today as the father of Zeami. These events in the worlds of politics and the arts appeared together out of a whirlpool of troubled times. Before long the two worlds were concretely linked and the periods of highest actual ac- complishment for both ended at approximately the same time. ‘Though enormously significant, it was an astonishingly short period of time in the midst of chaos. The age of greatness in the history of nd was accomplished largely by the two generations of the Kanze family, and their half-century or so of activity spanned a period of continuous violent combustion in the realm of politics. As a result the intertwining destinies of politics and art at this fourteenth cen- tury juncture show a typical pattern which is rarely visible with such clarity. ‘According to speculation Zeami was born in 1363 when his father Kan’ami was 31. Kan’ami had already become the head of the troupe, had left Iga and was active in service at Kasuga shrine, with the village of YUzaki in Yamato as his base. Sarugaku was already well developed as a folk performing art, and Yamato sarugaku in 218Yamazaki: Zeami 219 particular was on the way toward establishing a strong, unique dra- matic style. At the same time, the Ashikaga Bakufu, too, was ap- proaching a period of prosperity, and Ashikaga Yoshimitsu would enter the scene as the third Ashikaga Shogun but five years later in 1368. An historic chance meeting between Yoshimitsu and Kan’ami and his son would come in 1374 when Zeami was age twelve. Inci- dentally it was about fifty years earlier that Dante (1265-1321) wrote the Divine Comedy, and the birth of Shakespeare (1564-1616) fol- lowed Zeami’s by about two hundred years. Kan'ami became the first person to perform sarugaku before the Shogun, at the time of the Imagumano nd. That was in my twelfth year.! This is but a brief, offhand comment in Sarugaku dangi, but the significance of the influence of this event on the history of nd and on the destinies of Kan'ami and Zeami is incalculable. Prior to this Kan'ami had participated in a seven-day series of performances at Daigoji, and it is thought that Yoshimitsu had heard of his fine performance, Young, educated like a courtier, yet possessing the roughness of military life, the youthful Shogun may have discovered something remarkably familiar there within the precincts of the Imagumano Shrine: a form of drama which did not exist within the courtly classical culture he had been taught, but one which had hidden potential for far higher nobility than the usual aristocratic arts. While deeply embedded in folk culture, this art was already burn- ing with the desire to cast a spell, independently, on the populace. In the sense of something in splendid isolation being polished by con- tact with the masses, the nd of the Kanze-za was filled with the same spirit as the new aristocracy of this formative period. Yoshimitsu, who aimed at being part of a new aristocracy, perhaps recognized himself within the nd. At their first encounter at Imagumano, Yoshimitsu immediately decided to nurture the Kanze troupe with his own hand. This was in 1374. Kan'ami was forty-two and at the height of his powers, and Yoshimitsu was a youth in the sixth year of his shogunal reign. 1. The original may be found in Zeami, Zenchiku, Omote Akira and Kat Shichi, ds., Nihon shis6 takei 24 (wanami shoten, 1974), p, 293. For ease of reference in finding the contexts of Zeami's remarks, page numbers for all of Professor Yamazaki’s quotations from Zeami's critical writings in this article are given in refer- ence to this edition220 Journal of Japanese Studies ‘There is a passage in Sarugaku dangi which we should note as evidence of how advanced the aesthetics of nd had already become at this time. The eleven-year-old Zeami watched a performance by the famous dengaku actor Kameyasha at the Houn’in of Kofukuji in Nara. He recollects how moved he had been by the elegant simplic- ity of Kameyasha’s dramatic style. Ki-a performed the part of an old man, wearing a hemp wig and unmasked. Without artifice, quite directly he sang the line “Though in the past T flourished like the flowery capital,” and afterwards ‘when I thought back on his performance I found it even more deeply impressive. ‘At that time Kameyasha’s voice was already growing weak. It is said that he could not even sing all the way through a full piece to his satisfaction, Nevertheless Zeami has recorded his impression that Kameyasha's elegantly simple style was beautiful and dignified, like an old “bronze.” It goes without saying that this is a refiection of medieval aristocratic taste. At least, looking at it from the viewpoint of stage-art consciousness, nd was already at this time aiming at high-culture taste. There is no room for doubt in this matter. It is further recorded that Inué Doami of Omi, Kan'ami’s friend and Zeami’s mentor, had also for some time been moving into this arena of elevated taste. ‘The Omi school absolutely does not aim at breathtaking, arresting moments, sudden unexpected stops which make the audience catch its breath. Theirs is a style based exclusively on masterly smooth- However, in that theirs was a performing art, such violations of popular taste naturally were presented as the result of every possible effort to obtain the applause of the audience. Enthusiastic response on the part of the general public is the mark of both initial and continuing success in the art of a nd troupe. There- fore, if you perform only in an extremely advanced style you cannot be appreciated by a broad audience. For this reason, in nd you must not forget the style of the beginning performer, and if you can suit your performance to the time and place, if you can take into account the need to please even unsophisticated audiences, then you will continue to prosper.* 2, Pp, 261-2, Kis is another name for Kameyssha, BP. 264 4. lshitaden, p. 48.Yamazaki: Zeami 221 Kan’ami understood Déami well and was a life-long friend of his. ‘Therefore we can reasonably take these words to be a rather com- plexly involved elitist statement. Kan'ami continually enjoined Zeami in this manner, yet according to Zeami the performances of Kan‘ami himself were of the “most supreme yagen.” Further, Zeami said “‘Kan'ami alone could ascend without effort to the height, of the styles of the supreme flower, perform with similar ease in the middle-range styles, yet also ‘mingle with the dust’ and descend to the lowest styles.""* Tam startled by the degree of self-confidence which infused the né actors of that time. They were aware of their status as objects of social discrimination, yet somehow they possessed a dignified pride as reflected in the image of “mingling with the dust.” How ‘were these two attitudes interconnected in their minds? It was not their later rise in social status which led them to this self-assurance. Perhaps in the action of artistic expression there is of necessity a budding consciousness of the power of control. At the least, from the time that drama became independent from the spellbinding power of religion, it changed into a kind of heavy labor involving the same tension as does political rule. ‘The failure of a superb performance to move an unsophisticated audience stems from the audience's lack of discernment. However, if you are a really accomplished master, a shite of broad skill, you should be able to perform in a manner which will seem interesting even to the eyes of the unsophisticated.* Without doubt these are the ethics of a powerful person, the consciousness of responsibility of a leader. And his splendid isolated struggle to achieve ‘the most supreme yiigen"” was necessary as grounding which would support this sort of code of a man of strength. People cannot be controlled by that which is fully familiar. We are not entranced by that which we can totally understand. When a ruler aims toward a kind of isolation which appears, at first slance, to be unrelated to ruling, then he is, for the first time, able to lead people effectively. Perhaps we can say that the same effort that those actors expended to sustain ‘the enthusiastic response of the general public” simultaneously led them to that charismatic appeal called yagen. Itis not surprising that the political leader Yoshimitsu found nd 5. Sarupaku dane!, p. 264 6, Flshikaden, p. 44,mm Journal of Japanese Studies supremely fascinating, filled as it was with this kind of tension Kan'ami is thought to have been included among the group of sho- gunal attendants known as the débdshi, and the young Zeami is considered to have been Yoshimitsu’s special favorite. In the fa- mous diary Gogumaiki’ itis recorded that when Yoshimitsu went to view the floats of the Gion festival he openly kept Zeami with him in his box in the stands. Competing to buy favor with the Shogun, the daimyo contended with one another in offering gifts to his young favorite, And the diarist records with disgust the enormous mag- tude of their expenses. Pethaps we can imagine that the youthful beauty of Zeami, at that time still known by his boyhood name of Fujiwaka-maru, at- tracted Yoshimitsu’s sexual interest. Furthermore it is hypotheti- cally possible that Kan’ami assisted the Shogun in political intelligence-gathering as a performer traveling about the provinces. ‘But most importantly this new art form gave Yoshimitsu a mag- nificent opportunity to put his own mark on pre-existing aristocratic culture. However, though first brought together for these various exter- nal reasons, it seems that Yoshimitsu, Kan’ami, and Zeami were gradually, secretly bound together in a yet more complex manner. Precisely because this political leader and these social outsiders were each isolated from society at large, they discovered remarkable similarity in each others’ psychology. This was because Yoshimitsu, too, had the will to strive in isolation, without the assistance of the * to enchant the masses. The Muromachi Bakufu was at its peak in Yoshimitsu’s time, but its position was not necessarily stable. While on the one hand boast- ing the prosperity to build his hana no gosho “flower palace,” the Shogun himself several times had to make tours of inspection and ‘command forces of subjugation in the provinces. In such a state of affairs, political control could not be effected simply by ideal strate- gies and the direct exercise of power. In order to sleep securely through the undefended night, the ruler had to manifest a charismat- ic appeal and had to maintain an invisible order. Returning to the origins of politics in matsurigoto, he needed to be able to control even the wild emotions hidden in peoples minds. ‘The image of Yoshimitsu—so resolutely living out his fate—must have fascinated the young Zeami. Numerous episodes in Sarugaku 7. The diary of Sanjé Kintada (1525-1383),Yamazaki: Zeami 2 dangi record Zeami’s nostalgic recollections of Yoshimitsu. The ‘Shogun.was a specific critic of the art of Kan’ami and Zeami, and he understood with remarkable discernment the terror of art. One day when Kan‘ami performed his forte, the play Jinen koji, Yoshimitsu recognized Kan’ami’s consummate skill in making his own large body appear to be that of a youth. Turning to Zeami who was stand- ing on the sidelines, Yoshimitsu said to him in a bantering manner: “You're able to show us all sorts of cleverness, but could you do that? I doubt it!””* Because at that time Zeami was learning about human emotions which transcend the rational, in his eyes Kan’ami and Yoshimitsu were reffected, perhaps, as one double-faceted im- ‘age, an image achieved not by conscious craft but supported by the fragile tensions in man. When an actor or political leader loses that existential feeling, he is fated to be denied his true existence, At that time Zeami came to this realization with the force of a premonition. While serving at the side of Yoshimitsu, despite his patronage, ‘Zeami experienced hardship during his adolescence and youth. Be. fore long Kan’ami died while on tour performing in Suruga province. ‘The twenty-two-year-old Zeami had to pursue his art and polish his skills on his own. He received some advice from Inué Déami, but he had to shoulder the additional heavy responsibility of leading his entire troupe. Moreover his performances at this time had to compete vigorously with those of other troupes. In your practice at around this age you may find that you are pointed out and laughed at, but pay no heed. Day and night train your voice within its limits and realize that this period is the crossroads of your whole life as a performer. You must be firm in your resolve not to give up no entirely. Only this tenacity can protect you in the course of practice.* This is what Zeami wrote in Fiishikaden concerning practice around the ages of seventeen to twenty. Without a doubt there is here an admixture of his own keenly felt painful memories of losing his father at around this age. This is also the age when one quickly loses the natural beauty of youth, while simultaneously becoming self-conscious about one’s looks. The voice changes, the body be- comes awkward, and the happy young boy suddenly encounters the experience of being “pointed out and laughed at."” Surprisingly, 8. Prof, Yamazaki gives a colloquial paraphrase ofa short passage in Sarugaku dlongi, p. 265, 9. P. 16,24 Journal of Japanese Studies Zeami here records memories of his own adolescence in which he for the first time became aware of himself as “ugly.” We can call this the direct opposite of the experience of adolescence in modern times where the youth look upon themselves as perfectly beautiful, cor as natural successes. Zeami, on the contrary, saw himself as somehow ‘“unnatural."” He sensed some strange lack from which he must consciously recover. Zeami called the natural beauty of youth ‘the temporary flower"” and the beauty of manhood, beauty recovered after the loss of the early beauty, “the true flower.” That is, his adolesence was simply a gap in time between two periods of “*flower.”” And the self of which he became aware at that time was a self in a double state of wanting. ‘The temporary flower was already gone, and the true flower had not yet arrived. And the strange unnaturalness that came into being in that interim was the body and consciousness of an eighteen-year-old youth. Previously his youthful appearance was in congenial accord with the gaze of the audience. Perhaps he was, like a flower, unself- conscious, and people accepted that as his natural condition. On the ‘one hand this was undercut by his own physical growth. He discov- ered himself to be the one who betrayed the audience. So it is per- haps natural that Zeami’s attitude toward himself is tinged with a certain sense of penance, Practicing and practicing, with a feeling of self-control, he had to make a constant effort to conceal his ugliness from others. But of course it is also the self which discovers the ugliness of the self. And the attempt to conceal that ugliness is also a kind of self- expression, Zeami was fully aware of this irony, and we would do well to see the complexity of his aesthetic theories as based entirely on the paradoxical nature of self-expression. That is to say, he set about accomplishing, through his own resolve and effort, the art of transforming himself into a beautiful flower before the eyes of oth- ers. While for him expression was a matter of self-concealment, at the same time it had to be made to take the form of subjectively bewitching others. ‘Adding practice upon gruelling practice, he sought, ultimately, public popularity. The terms most frequently repeated in Zeami’s writings are “total popularity” and “total approval.”"® In fact, the attainment, of public popularity was not just a secondary goal in Zeami’s art. Though popularity might be a passing illusion, on the 10, Tenka mo meibd and tenka no yurusare.Yamazaki: Zeami 225 other hand it simultaneously satisfied his contradictory needs for both self-concealment and self-expression. When enveloped in a sense of total popularity perhaps he was natural like a flower in the eyes of others. He could for a while, like an unconscious flower, forget that he was himself, But at the same time his other self was fully succeeding in bewitching the eyes of those who watched him. Probably in the decade of his mid-thirties to forties Zeami was able to feel confident that he had achieved total popularity. In 1399 the thirty-seven-year-old Zeami was favored with the honor of per- forming subscription sarugaku at Ichijo Takehana with both the ‘Shogun and the abbots of the Shoren’in and Shoge'in in attendance, Yoshimitsu had already retired from office and handed the position of Shogun over to his young son Yoshimochi. But at this time real political power remained, as before, in Yoshimitsu’s hands. He must have seen with satisfaction that the new dramatic art he himself had patronized was now finally accepted by the mainstays of the aristo- cratic community. Still, in that sense, the greatest triumph came later, in 1408, On the fifteenth of the third month of that year, Yoshimitsu re- ceived a visit from Emperor Go-Komatsu and enjoyed the great success of hosting, for the first time in history, performance of nd for an emperor. It is thought that the principal performer on this occasion was the forty-six-year-old Zeami. Aristocratic society had accepted the political power of the Ashikaga house. Now they could be said to have accepted the symbol of its taste as well. For Zeami, of course, and for his patron Yoshimitsu as well, this was an epoch-making event which gave proof of their ultimate “total popu- larity.” But what was the meaning of the bonds of patronage for the artist, and the political leader? The forty-year connection between Yoshimitsu and Zeami finally brought them this joint success, a nd performance for the emperor. But isn’t it likely that before that performance there was some feeling of antagonism between them? They were both lonely leaders seeking popularity, but for the politi- cian and the artist, behind those similar qualities, there were hidden differences in fate. The special characteristics of each man offset the other's, but they also exposed each other's weak points, The artist