3. AKI-NO-MIYAJIMA
KAGEKIYO Now blind (disguised as a biwahoshi)
MURASAKI Dressed in travel costume
THREE GENJI SAMURAI
A PRIESTESS OF ITSUKUSHIMA SHRINE
CROWDS OF MEN AT THE FESTIVAL
CROWDS OF WOMEN AT THE FESTIVAL
A place along the open corridor that circles Itsukushima Shrine. It is the
day of the Autumn Festival, and the autumn leaves are beautiful. The
crowds of men and women who have come for the festival are dancing.
Bugaku music continues for a short time, then the chorus sings this verse.
Along a path which drifts on waves across the sea the sighted and the
blind in a single boat adrift in a single fate.
(The curtain rises.)
Yesterday we flourished with flowers in the Capital today we’ve come to
the autumnal western seas Aki-no-Miyajima the solemn Heike palace
though he is blind Kagekiyo is manly and brave excellently elegant the
notes he plays the familiar tune tears fall on this biwa of mine harari hararin
harari hararin the lap on which the biwa rests has grown old.
Men and women from the festival pass by.
The blind Kagekiyo leans alone on the railing of the corridor, his biwa on
his back. He crouches down and listens to the music without moving.
The music stops and from the direction from which it had come three
Genji samurai appear, walking down the corridor.
FIRST SAMURAI: The beautiful priestesses on this beautiful day...
