The Water Mirror Motif in the Noh Play Izutsu

The celebrated noh play Izutsu 井筒 (The Well Curb) is widely considered to be one of Zeami’s 世阿弥 (1363?–1443?) masterpieces. In general its underlying story is based on Episode 23 of the Ise monogatari 伊勢物語 (The Ise Stories, late ninth–mid-tenth century), yet scholars have long recognized that the play also departs significantly from the original. For example, the play’s setting in Isonokami 石上 in Yamato 大和 Province, as well as the identification of the main character (shite シテ) as Ki no Aritsune’s 紀有常 (815–877) daughter, are both derived from medieval commentaries on the Ise monogatari, and not the Ise monogatari itself. Also, the play cuts Episode 23’s last scene, which focused on the figure known as “the woman in Takayasu” (Takayasu no onna 高安の女), the secret lover of the male protagonist. Furthermore, the plot of the play reverses the narrative’s time axis, ending with a scene focused on the shite’s childhood. In Act 1, as the main female character reminisces about the past, it is revealed that her husband, Ariwara no Narihira 在原業平 (825–880), had desisted from further visits to his lover after clandestinely overhearing his wife’s poem. The Ise monogatari gives the poem as follows: