JM3

====Among the Noh plays you have read, select one that appeals to you the most and discuss why you are drawn to it above all the other works. You may wish to refer to the video illustrations of the excerpts of the plays that we saw in class, as well as the scripts to compose your answer.====

After reading the multiple Noh plays given to us in class I would have to say Sumidagawa was the most interesting one to me. Its many aspects of sadness and mourning made it easily applicable to my life. We first see the mother or as they called her at this moment the ‘madwoman’ in Sumidagawa go to great lengths to find her kidnapped son, traveling all the way from Kyoto trying to get on the boat to continue her search for her son. I know many people as well as myself, who would go the same distances if not more to find their loved ones. As the play goes on we begin to see the devastation in the now called ‘mothers’ reaction to the story told by the boatman. I felt that this play was one of the most relatable ones because you could put yourself in the position of the mother throughout all her emotions from hearing about her sons death to seeing her son in his ghostly form and not being able to touch him for the last time. I thought it was interesting that they other characters in the play such as the boatman called her crazy until they heard her story. I felt that only reading the Noh plays made it hard to understand the idea they were trying to portray, unlike Sumidagawa. I appreciated watching the plays more instead of reading them.

Word Count: 237 Sources: http://www.the-noh.com/en/plays/data/program_012.html Dr. Richmond Notes