Who Is The Yamabushi (Mountain Monk) (Mountain Ascetic)?
A boastful monk whose powers fail him
Yamabushi
The Yamabushi (Mountain Monk) is a practitioner of Shugendo who trains in the mountains to gain the power of prayer. In kyogen, he is a pompous figure of fun who brags about his training, only to find his powers useless when it counts.
In The Monk in the Persimmon Tree (Kaki Yamabushi), hunger gets the better of him on his way home from training and he steals persimmons. When the owner spots him, he imitates a crow and a monkey up in the tree, then tries to fly and falls. In The Monster Mushrooms (Kusabira), he is asked to get rid of mushrooms growing in a house, but the more he prays, the more they multiply, until they chase him off.
Plays featuring him are known as yamabushi kyogen, among other names, and have long been loved for the satisfaction of seeing a self-important person put in his place. He has no personal name, and the yamabushi in the two plays are separate characters in separate stories.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 7
Too Proud to Say Sorry, He Played a CrowKaki-Yamabushi
A starving, vain yamabushi sneaks up a tree and gobbles a stranger's persimmons. The orchard owner sees everything and goes along with it: "If you're a crow, caw. If you're a kite, fly!" One apology would end it all, but this man can't apologize, and he ends up leaping from the tree for real. This is Kaki-Yamabushi, the Kyogen comedy that has kept audiences laughing for 600 years.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 8
Sir, Your Exorcism Is Growing MushroomsKusabira
A man with a giant mushroom growing in his yard begs a famous yamabushi, a mountain monk, to pray it away. But every prayer makes more of them. "That means it's working!" he insists. In this classic kyogen play, Kusabira, a so-called expert who can't back down is chased by a silent parade of mushrooms.
19 pages