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Essay on Analysis of Kinuta - The Fulling Block by Zeami

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Kinuta, which is also known as The Fulling Block, is a noh play written by Zeami. The characters, which appear in this play, are: The Husband, a local squire (waki), His Sword-bearer (wakizure), A maid, Yugiri (tsure), The Wife (maeshite), A Manservant (ai), and The Spirit of the wife, after her death (nochijite). The Jo, or introduction of the play, begins with the very first line of the Husband (waki), because it establishes the basis of the play and introduces the shite, or the Wife:
“You have before you a squire from Ashiya in Kyushu. Presently I am staying in Miyako, where I have a lawsuit of mine to look after. Although I had not thought I would be in Miyako long, this year is already my third, and I am very worried about my wife …show more content…

This separation has caused the Wife to encounter anxiety, which led her to believe that her husband no longer loves her. Furthermore, the play’s duality of love and hatred is established. As the play continues, the Wife’s psychological state is further revealed and it is evident that she is no longer in her right mind. “…Were they a dream, these three autumn years; were they a dream, these three autumn years; I should wake from sorrow, yet do not” (Tyler 162). Here, the Wife is no longer able to distinguish her reality from her dreams. I do not find fault with her anxieties, absent state of mind, and beliefs that her husband no longer loved her, because in the past, if a husband did not return to the wife after three years, it was believed that the couple was divorced. Later in the play, as the Wife and the Maid continue their interactions, they hear someone in the village beating a fulling block. The fulling block was used to beat the silk of a robe to restore its luster (Tyler 159). As the Wife hears the beating of the fulling block she is reminded of a tale:

“In China, a man named Sobu was taken captive by the Huns. Imagining him lying sleepless through the cold nights, the wife and child he had left behind climbed a high tower and beat a fulling block. And perhaps the message of their love did reach him, for Sobu in his

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