The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945) — I: Theater as Education
*SPOILERS*
This week we’ll be looking at what I understand to be a classic story of Noh theater as interpreted by Kurosawa. It’s a story told and retold by many about a group of samurai escorting a nobleman, all disguised as monks, across a hostile border in the aftermath of a battle.
It’s a story of how the cunning and wit of these samurai converge with their interdisciplinary knowledge to accomplish a harrowingly dangerous goal with no room for error.
Noh: Prose and Poetry
If you’re like me then you’re close to perfectly ignorant of Noh, save for brief references in anime; here’s a short, time-stamped breakdown that I’ll summarize. Noh is a theatrical vehicle for religious allegory originally intended to educate members of a shogunate, with a kinesthetic expression that mimics the movement of swordplay as well as with few props and an emphasis on spoken word to encourage viewers to engage with their imaginations. The key takeaways here are that Noh was designed for an audience of well-educated nobles and samurai to develop their minds by way of stories on elevated topics of religious purport, as opposed to other forms of Japanese theater that were more fun and intended for common people.
And this film feels how I imagine a Noh performance might feel. In addition to the characters themselves occasionally singing in that winding hypnotic style, the film also includes off-screen choral and musical accompaniment. (Like a western theater “gallery.” Am I getting that right? Not a theater guy). It’s a unique and engaging format for a film.
Now if you’re familiar with Noh maybe you’ll disagree with me here (and I’d love to hear your take), but I enjoyed every second of this. It was new to me and I liked both the hypnotic vocal metre itself as well as the intentional usage of it to heighten certain moments. I imagine if I understood Japanese the deliberateness with which certain syllables are held might add a richness to the dialogue not possible to appreciate when relying on subtitles.
Finally, in the educational spirit of Noh, I’ll try my best to extract some lessons from the scenarios as they unfold in Segment II. And I’m just some fucking guy so if you saw a scenario as illustrating a different concept, I’d love to hear other perspectives.
Brothers No More
We start off with some written context, like in Star Wars. There’s a nobleman named Yoshitsune who is the brother of the Shogun. He wins a battle and the Shogun becomes paranoid so he puts a warrant out for his arrest, instead of inviting him back home to celebrate his victory. So Yoshitsune sets off with 6 of his loyal samurai to find safety. They enlist the help of a porter who serves as a cartoon of a simple, well-intentioned commoner and provides comedic relief to cut the ever-present tension.
The coolest character, the protagonist of the story and conduit for the lessons you are intended to learn, is a warrior named Benkei. Actually, he’s the only real monk in the group but he can fuck your shit up. Wait what? Yeah, I saw this documentary series on the Sengoku period and it explained that monks in feudal Japan were a warring force. Their temples were safe havens because they were also de facto military institutions. Likewise, their support was pretty much required for any ambitious Lord to consolidate power, so Benkei’s respect as a military leader trained as a monk makes more sense in historical context. And the stories the porter recounts before realizing who these guys are illustrate the legendary Benkei as a 7-foot tall giant who can kill 1,000 people with the stroke of his sword, something that amuses the group given that the real deal is right there.
Porter finds out who this group is and decides to help, providing them with valuable reconnaissance that the border crossing up ahead is on the lookout for a group of warriors escorting a noble all disguised as monks with their exact count. And the group responds like a buncha war buddies, “Well we’ll just have to cut our way through then,” as manly laughter ensues. Benkei however, monster of legend, becomes a voice of reason here, “I’d expect to hear this from a group of younger soldiers but not you. We must take the safest and least violent way through that crossing. This is only one obstacle of many along our path.”
So they go into the checkpoint peacefully. What is this warrior monk planning?
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The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail Essay —
I: Theater as Education
