All the World's a Stage

Izumi stops dancing and goes over to the Inaudible One.

IZUMI I think an hour must have gone by now. So let us take a look and see if my secret balm has helped you as it should. Please, let me have your hand… That’s right, thank you. And if it hurts, let me know straight away.

She cautiously unbandages one hand and examines it, nodding in satisfaction. She unbandages the other one.

There now, that’s a quite different matter. But there is still some redness and the swelling has not yet gone down completely. Now I’ll give you a sleeping draught to drink. A healthy sleep will complete the course of healing.

She prepares the potion. The Inaudible One looks at his hands in amazement and wriggles his fingers.

STORYTELLER

He looks and he cannot believe his eyes. The burns are gone!
He can control his hands, strength has returned to them.
It hurts to move them, but that is a trivial thing.
The assassin can perform his duty with no difficulty.

IZUMI (handing him a cup with a bow) Here, drink this please, and soon you will fall asleep. And I shall stay with you awhile and watch over your sleep.

(To her pupil.) And you go and run around for a while. With your character you won’t be able to sit still in any case. You will start squealing and fidgeting, and we don’t want that. Nobo-ji-san must sleep soundly now.

The little girl bows and goes out. The Inaudible One hesitates and does not take the cup.

Ah, it must still be painful for you to hold it. Let me give you the medicine to drink myself.

She gently takes the Inaudible One by the neck and raises the cup to his lips. He shudders and squeezes his eyes shut. He pauses again, then drains it all.

STORYTELLER

In his heart the assassin feels a sudden strange desire,
An absurd, nonsensical dream. He tells himself:
‘Oh, if there had been deadly poison in this draught,
How gladly would I have drunk the fatal dose!
And in the next life – who can tell, all things are possible –
I could be born to a quite different destiny.
Perhaps Providence would bring us together once again.
And then I would behave quite differently with her.

Izumi lowers his head onto the pillow, which is a wooden support. The Inaudible One instantly falls asleep, his chest rising and falling smoothly. The geisha sits there, looking at the sleeping man.

STORYTELLER

Two feelings arise now in Izumi’s heart
For this man, who saved her pupil from an awful death:
Firstly, admiration: He is a genuine hero!
When everybody lost their heads, he still kept his.
Secondly, there is pity. He is dumb and he has no face!
Oh, how hard it must be for him, living in this world!
She looks at him and sighs. By turns she feels
Her admiration flare up and pity get the upper hand.
A woman’s heart filled with rapture can bring disaster,
But pity is more dangerous to the compassionate soul.
When these two feelings are suddenly combined in one,
Nothing good can come from this combination.
To this we can add mystery. The man without a face
Frightens and fascinates her with his strange allure.
No matter how handsome might be an ordinary man,
Izumi’s pride would not have let her love him.
But this one she beholds with a hundred thousand faces –
As if all men lie there in supplication at her feet.
There is only one way to banish this strange vision –
To glance under the mask while he is sleeping.
The sight of gross deformity will bring her down to earth.
She reaches out to raise one corner of the mask –
Then suddenly, driven by a strange impulse,
She moves away and seats herself before her mirror…

Izumi sits down in front of the dressing table, raises the lid of the casket and looks into the mirror. The sleeping man is left behind her back.

IZUMI (in a low, agitated voice) Yugen is always invisible! Beauty remains concealed! To tear away its veil means only to destroy the mystery. A beloved with no face! That is true yugen! Here my imagination can create the world’s loveliest face, a magical face! I shall love him! Yes, it is decided: we shall be such a couple as the world has never seen. I the best of women and he the best of men. I fine, he finer still, as dream is finer than reality. Anybody can easily see me. But his beauty shall be revealed to me alone!

Suddenly the Inaudible One gets up and walks out of the room. Izumi does not notice.

We women are corporeal creatures, weak and timid. Thus nature’s female Yin created us. My chosen one shall be fearless and disincarnate. A true man is a disembodied Spirit! My face will wither, but an ethereal Spirit is eternal. He is the very one I need!

She looks round abruptly and sees that the sleeping man has disappeared.

Truly he is incorporeal… And, truly, like a Spirit… Could he have heard my words and run off in embarrassment?

She grabs her head in her hands.

The shoji slide open and Sen-chan glances in.

SEN-CHAN A man has come to see you. He wants to talk to you. His face is hidden, and he did not give his name…

IZUMI His face is hidden? He has come back to me! Nobo-ji, come in! Why did you go away?

SEN-CHAN No, my lady Izumi, this is a different man. And from his dress, he looks like an important samurai.

The samurai enters, wearing a straw hat pulled low in front of his face. He gestures impatiently for the pupil to leave. She bows respectfully and disappears. The samurai walks into the room and closes the shoji behind him. He responds to the geisha’s bow with a curt nod, then sits in front of her and removes his hat.

KUBOTA I hope the girl did not recognise my voice. I would not want any loose talk about my visit.

IZUMI You, Mr Kubota? What an unexpected visitor! Ah, to what do I owe this most singular honour?

She bows again, even lower.

KUBOTA Having arrived in Edo, the prince has ordered the presentation of the geishas to be held forthwith. Tomorrow he must attend at court, but on the day thereafter he summons all of you to visit him.

Izumi bows and performs the gesture ‘Joyful Anticipation’.

I advised him to take special notice of a geisha from the Yanagi tea house.

Izumi bows and performs the gesture ‘Boundless Gratitude’.

I said that she is elegant and she, alone of all of them, embodies true yugen.