The Boat-Women:
A Dance-Drama
1. KURETAKE’S HOUSE
KURETAKE - A dancer
MURASAKI - Kuretake's daughter (ten years old)
KAGEKIYO - A man of the Heike clan
FIVE DANCERS
KABU - A boy spy (twelve or thirteen years old)
KOSASA - Kuretake's servant, an old woman
ONE OF KAGEKIYO’S ATTENDANTS
ONE OF KAGEKIYO S RETAINERS
Kuretake’s house. Downtown in the Capital. The cherry trees in the
garden are in full bloom. Dusk approaches. The curtain rises as the chorus
sings the following verse.
Buddha is ever present but does not ever really appear —how sad.
(The curtain rises.)
Kuretake is teaching the steps of a dance to the fi.ve young dancers.
They blossom like the garden’s cherry trees, brilliantly.
In the darkness before dawn no human noise perhaps you can see him
dimly in a dream.
FIRST DANCER: Even in a dream in the darkness before dawn—the
figure of Buddha...
