Shunkan 俊寛

1　A Shingon 真言 priest (1143-79), who was an anti-Taira 平 conspirator, and a tragic exile. The story of Shunkan (1143-79) appears in literature, drama, and art. An administrator of Hosshōji 法勝寺, Shunkan was allied with the circle of retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa 後白河 (r. 1155-58) who plotted against Taira no Kiyomori's 平清盛 (1118-81) rule at the Shishigatani 鹿が谷 villa in 1177. Shunkan, along with co-conspirators Fujiwara no Naritsune 藤原成経 and Taira no Yasuyori 平康頼 was exiled to Kikaigashima 鬼界が島, south of Kyūshū 九州. According to Heike monogatari 平家物語 (The Tale of the Heike), a year after banishment, an amnesty was declared and although Naritsune and Yasuyori were pardoned, Shunkan was forced to remain on the island. The Tale also tells of Ariō 有王, Shunkan's young disciple, who traveled to the distant island after hearing that Shunkan would not be pardoned. Finding the old man in a ravaged and beggarly condition staggering along the beach, Ariō took Shunkan back to his tiny grass shack where the old man died. The dramatic moment when the imperial messenger arrives with pardons for Naritsune and Yasuyori and takes them from the island, leaving Shunkan alone, is the subject of the *Noh 能 play Shunkan. The story was considerably amended in Chikamatsu Monzaemon's 近松門左衛門 (1653-1724) jōruri 浄瑠璃, Heike nyogo-no-shima 平家女護島 of 1719, in which Shunkan receives a pardon, but nobly decides to stay on the island so that Naritsune's islander wife can accompany him back to the capital. The envoy forbids this, but Shunkan kills him and remains on the island. The Shunkan theme was further elaborated in the jōruri, Hime Komatsu nenohi no asobi 姫小松子日遊 of 1757 by Yoshida Kanko 吉田冠子, also called Horagatake no Shunkan 洞が嶽の俊寛, best known for the episode known as Shunkan shima-monogatari 俊寛島物語. In this version, the morning after Shunkan was left alone, a secret messenger came to tell Shunkan that Taira no Shigemori 平重盛 (1138-79) forgave him and thus Shunkan secretly returned to the capital and lived in hiding at Horagatake under the name of Raigen 来現. Later, he helped the imperial concubine Kogō no Tsubone 小督の局 escape from Kiyomori's oppression to bear a son. The various plays and *kabuki 歌舞伎 variants were illustrated in *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 actor prints *musha-e 武者絵 by artists such as Katsukawa Shunsho 勝川春草 (1726-92), Utagawa Toyokuni 歌川豊国 (1769-1825), and Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (also known as Andō 安藤 Hiroshige, 1797-1858). Typically in illustrations of Heike nyogo-no-shima, Shunkan is depicted as a wild beggar wandering on a rough beach, or killing the messenger. The long-haired Shunkan of Horagatake no Shunkan looks in a mirror held by the wife of the servant who has called him to help at the birth of Kogō's son.

2　 Noh mask *nōmen 能面 made for the play Shunkan and representing a warrior of the Murakami Genji 村上源氏 line who at age 37 was exiled by Taira no Kiyomori 平清盛 along with two others to the island of Kikaigashima 鬼界が島. When a reprieve arrives, he is elated, only to fall into bitter despair when he realizes that he alone is to remain on the island unpardoned. Sadly he watches his two companions sail back to the capital. Each of the five Noh schools has its own rendition of the character, but all show a middle-aged man whose expression combines the desolation of exile, the hopes of expected pardon, and the despair of being forsaken. While the Kanze 観世 version (dated 1606 with an inscription reading Hie Gonnokami) has a sour negativism in the drooping eyes and mouth, the Hōshō 宝生 Shunkan mask bears a pained dignity with softened lines and broader features. The Kongō 金剛 mask is more abstractly modeled with sharp corners. See *otokomen 男面.