Komachi

Komachi is a dance inspired by a number of famous Noh plays written about the legendary Japanese poet, Ono no Komachi. She was a gifted poet and a beautiful young woman but her cruelty to her many suitors was legendary and it is said that in her old age she became ugly, quite mad and lived her latter years, as a hermit on a mountain. This dance is an imagistic invention of Komachi. In her old age, long after her beauty has faded, she dreams the memories of a decadent youth and is haunted by the ghosts of her past cruelties.