First act: After being visited by an oracle in a dream about a powerful sword, the 11th century emperor Ichijō sends an envoy to the swordsmith Kokaji Munechika requesting that he forges it. Munechika, who does not have an assistant with the proper skills to help him create the sword, goes to the Inari shrine to pray. There a boy appears and tells him that help is coming.
Interlude: A god from a subsidiary shrine appears. He summarizes the events that took place in the first half of the play, and concludes by surmising that Munechika's prayers will be answered.
Second act: Munechika returns to his home and prepares for the ceremonial forging of the sword. As an answer to his prayers, the deity Inari appears in its form as a fox and helps him forge the requested sword. After offering it to the envoy, the deity disappears.
The Shōdan Map under the video represents the play’s intermedia form. It also shows that the play is composed of two acts, and that the first one contains thirteen shōdan, while the second act has eight.
The background color grouping the blocks shows that most shōdan are bound into dan. Act I has four dan: Waki Enters, Dialogue, Shite Performs, and Shite Exits; Act II also has four: Waki Waits, Shite Re-enters, Shite Performs, and Shite Exits. Bringing the cursor over a shōdan identifies the dan to which it belongs.
A comparison between the duration of the two acts shows that the first one is about twice as long as the second, suggesting that the setting-up of the plot in the first act is more elaborate than the second-act development.
The height of the blocks shows the development of the play’s Index of Intermedia (IoI). The different heights demonstrate that the development is not linear but comes in waves. We have identified three kinds of waves.
First: the rising wave within a dan. In the first act, each dan’s IoI forms a wave leading to a peak closer to its end, suggesting that the relationship between the media complexifies as the dan is unfolding. For example, the First act’s Waki Enters is composed on five shōdan, whose index increases exponentially towards the third one. Then, the IoI peaks during the last of the Dialogue's two shōdan. It is during the third and last shōdan of the Shite Performs that the IoI peaks, while in the Shite Exits it peaks on the second out of three shōdan.
Second: the rising wave across an act. The way the IoI transforms over each act differs substantially. The first act counts four waves, whereas there is only one in the second act, as the IoI of subsequent dan increases until the instrumental dance in the Shite Performs dan. These waves suggest a gradual setting-up of the plot in the first act, followed by a sustained and steady development in the second one.
Third: the rising wave of the play as a whole. The IoI is at its lowest at the beginning of Act I, while its four highest peaks create a wave that culminates in the third dan. Because the play’s premise is already set, the IoI at the beginning of Act II is higher than it was at the beginning of Act I, but lower than Act I 's highest IoI. However, it does not take long for the IoI to recuperate the lost ground and further exceed the first act’s peak, when reaching the highest IoI with the instrumental dance.
Shite: UDAKA Tatsushige (Kongō School)
Waki: ARIMATSU Ryōichi (Takayasu School)
Wakizure: RIKU Hara (Takayasu School)
Kyōgen: SHIGEYAMA Shime (Ōkura School).
Taiko: MAEKAWA Mitsunaga (Komparu School).
Ōtsuzumi: TANIGUCHI Masatoshi (Ishii School)
Kotsuzumi: NARITA Tatsushi (Kō School)
Nohkan: MORITA Yasuyoshi (Morita School)
Jiutai: (Kongō School, back row from right)
IMAI Katsunori,
TANEDA Michikazu (leader),
HIROTA Yukitoshi,
TESHIMA Kouji,
(front row from right)
UDAKA Norishige,
TANAKA Toshifumi,
TANIGUCHI Masahiko,
SOUMYOU Tadasuke
Kōken: YAMADA Isumi
Stage assistant: MUKAI Hiroki
Composed of five modules (shōdan), the function of this section (dan) is to set up the play’s premise and provide a reason for the shite to appear. Although, this role is often assigned to the secondary actor, the waki, in Kokaji’s case, this process is shared between the wakizure who enters first, and the waki.
The dan’s overall Intermedia Index is low since four out of the five shōdan include unaccompanied prose. The first one has an unmetered delivered by the wakizure standing on Square 1. The second one has an unmetered uttered from the bridge. This is followed by a congruent set in hiranori that marks the first entrance of the jiutai and of the two hand-percussion instruments in strict rhythmic setting and a non-congruent nohkan’s part. The two actors enter the main stage as the jiutai delivers the chant. If the wakizure was the leader in the dan’s first half, the waki takes over in the second half. It starts with a very short between the wakizure kneeling at Square 5, and the waki kneeling at Square 9. Finally, the dan closes with a presented by the waki standing at Square 1.
Intermedia analysis:
Nanori
Mondō 1
Ageuta 1
Dialogue
Monologue.
There is no Shite Enters dan in Kokaji’s first act. To make the appearance of the protagonist mysterious and unanticipated, he is not introduced by particular entrance music, rather his entrance is merged with the following dan through dialogue with the waki.
The function of the Dialogue dan is to set the play’s premise. It is spread over two shōdan. It starts with a surprising 'call from a distance' by the shite, followed by an unmetered and unaccompanied in prose between him and the waki. It is followed by the second congruent of the play. Set in hiranori, it is delivered by the jiutai, accompanied by the two-hand percussion instruments in strict rhythmic setting and a non-congruent nohkan's part.
Intermedia analysis:
Mondō-2
Ageuta-2
The first act’s Shite Performs dan establishes the shite's character. It is the highlight of Act I, with the play’s first dance-to-text shōdan, a kuse-mai. In Kokaji's case, it is a sequence of three shōdan, the last of which is the kuse proper. The return to non-congruent singing at the beginning of the dan lowers the Intermedia Index from the end of the preceding one, but then it reaches the highest level in Act I.
The dan starts with a dynamic non-congruent sung by the jiutai, accompanied by the percussion in strict rhythmic setting and a non-congruent nohkan’s part. The next shōdan lowers the overall level of congruency even more with sung by the shite and jiutai, accompanied by the percussion in flexible rhythmic setting and a non-congruent nohkan’s part. This is in clear contrast with the shōdan that follows. This is where the kernel of the plot is presented and as such it is the first act’s point of focus. The shite and jiutai sing the poetic text, set in hiranori, and are accompanied by the percussion instruments set in strict rhythm and a non-congruent nohkan’s part, which substantially raise the play's overall level of congruency.
Intermedia analysis:
Kuri
Sashi
Kuse
The function of the Shite Exits dan’s is to facilitate the shite’s exit, while providing a reason for his return in Act II. It contains three shōdan. The dramatic and energic second shōdan’s that leads to the boy’s exit, but it comes only after he has promised to come back to help Munechika forge the requested sword.
The dan opens with a in prose between the shite and waki whose last line is sung rather than spoken. The return to kotoba with the percussion instruments in flexible setting, and the absence stage movement, drastically reduces the Intermedia index.
The next shōdan is the first act's third and final congruent . Its poetic text, set in hiranori, is performed by the jiutai accompanied by the percussion in strict rhythmic. The addition of a short choreography contributes to the Intermedia Index's increase.
The first act concludes with an accompanying the shite and waki’s exit, as well as the kyōgen’s entrance. It is performed by the three percussionists and the nohkan player. The rhythmic setting is flexible during the exit of the two protagonists, but becomes strict for the entrance of the kyōgen.
The or short performance between the acts, traditionally performed by a kyōgen actor, has a dual function. First, it allows time for the shite to change mask and costume to transform into the second-act character; second, it helps clarify the story. The kyōgen is usually unmasked and engaged in a discussion with the waki, but in Kokaji the kyōgen is masked, since he personifies a deity from a lower-ranked shrine. He also addresses the audience since the waki has left the stage for a change of costume.
The function of the Waki Waits dan is to restart the narrative and set the scene for the shite’s re-entrance. Kokaji’s Waki Waits dan is composed of two shōdan. It opens up with a set in sashinori, accompanied by a steady percussion beat. It is followed by a set in ōnori , accompanied by the three percussion instruments set in strict rhythm. The jiutai sings it following a one-line introduction sang by the waki.
Intermedia analysis:
Notto
Noriji 1
The Shite Re-enters section includes only one shōdan, a dynamic . It continues to raise the Intermedia Index with the two-hand percussion instruments and taiko in strict rhythmic setting and the very first congruent nohkan part in the play accompanying the shite’s energetic kata, which he performs on the bridge.
Intermedia analysis:
Hayafue
There is no Dialogue section in Kokaji’s second act.
The Intermedia Index climaxes in the second act Shite Performs dan. It is composed of three shōdan and its second one, the , is the highlight of the play. It is sandwiched between the play's , and congruent chants set in ōnori. Accompanied by the percussion trio set in strict rhythm, the first one also includes a non-congruent nohkan part. The jiutai who sings the first chant is joined by the shite in the second one.
Intermedia analysis:
Noriji 2
Maibataraki
Noriji 3
The second act’s Shite Exits dan includes two shōdan. It starts with a short, spoken between the waki and shite, accompanied by the two hand-percussion instruments in flexible rhythmic setting. It substantially reduces the Intermedia Index, and serves as a respite from congruency, so that its return with the next shōdan, increases the momentum. Sung by the jiutai and shite, the last shōdan is set in chūnori with a percussion part in strict rhythm and a non-congruent nohkan part.