“The Thunder God”. The Kabuki Play Narukami. Introduction, translation, and comments by V. V. Khomchenkova

Abstract

The Kabuki Theater is a striking element of the Japanese culture. Current work is an annotated translation of the play “Narukami”. Its relevance is determined by the growing cultural exchanges between Russia and Japan. In 2018, the Kabuki Chikamatsu-za troupe came to Russia, which was an event of grandiose scale, since Kabuki’s tours abroad, not to mention Russia, are extremely rare. In Russia, there are numerous publications of academic works on the theaters of Noh, Kabuki, and Jōruri. However, the Kabuki Theater has not been given enough attention — most of the available publications date back to the 1960s – 1970s. Since the Russian audience has scarce opportunities to read translations of Kabuki plays, an attempt is made to translate the Kabuki drama known as Narukami (鳴神, “The Thunder God”, 1684), which is one of the eighteen classic plays comprising an integral part of the modern repertoire of the Japanese theater. The translation puts in scientific circulation a Japanese dramatic text previously unknown in Russia. There are four characters in the play: Saint Narukami, who is the main character and after whom the play is named; his two misguided students — monks Hakuumbo and Kokuumbo, who are comic characters entertaining the audience in the course of the development of the play; and Princess Kumo no Taema Hime. The plot of the play is shaped around Narukami, who, using magical rites, creates a drought to avenge the imperial court for his grievances. Then his adversaries send him the beautiful Kumo no Taema-hime, who should seduce the saint and learn from him how to destroy spells and bring the rain back. The translation is preceded by an introduction where the author addresses the features of the play and describes the characters and their stage costumes.

Keywords

• japanese theatre
• kabuki theatre
• japanese drama
• narukami
• “the thunder god”
• ichikawa danjūrō