Komparu Zenchiku

Komparu Zenchiku (金春禅竹, b. Shichiro Ujinobu 1405-1468, 1470 or 1471) was a skilled Japanese Noh actor, troupe leader, and playwright. His plays are particularly characterized by an intricate, allusive, and subtle style inherited from Zeami which convolved yūgen with influences from Zen Buddhism (his Zen master was Ikkyū ) and Kegon. Actors should strive for unconscious performance, in which they enters the ‘circle of emptiness’; such a state of being is the highest level of artistic or religious achievement.

He lived, worked, and died in the Nara area of Japan. He was trained by Zeami and his son, Motomasa (d. 1432), eventually marrying a daughter of Zeami. At some point he took the artistic name Komparu Ujinobu and then finally Komparu Zenchiku. In 1443, he became the leader of the Kanze acting troupe and thus the second successor to Zeami Motokiyo. Zeami passed on his secret teachings to Zenchiku, apparently prompting Zeami's exiling; this refusal to transmit to his blood descendants also prompted a split between the Komparu school and the Kanze. Zenchiku's grandson was Komparu Zempo, and his descendants would continue to head the Komparu school of Noh.

Theoretical writings

 * Rokurin ichiro no ki ("A Record of Six Rings and the One Sword"; 六輪一露之記)
 * 歌舞髄脳記
 * Go'on Sangyoku Shū ("Collected Comments on the Five [Feeling] Tones and the Three Performing Modes [Used to Create Them]"; 五音三曲集)
 * 明宿集
 * 至道要抄

Noh plays

 * Bashō ("The Plantain Tree"; 芭蕉)
 * Eguchi ("Mouth-of-Sound"; 江口; sometimes credited to Kan'ami and revised by Zeami, or Ikkyu)
 * Kakitsubata ("The Iris"; 杜若; possibly by Zeami)
 * Kogō ("Lady Kogō"; 小督)
 * Matsumushi ("The Pine Cricket"; 松虫)
 * Mekari (和布刈)
 * Oshio (小塩)
 * Saoyama (佐保山; Zenchiku?)
 * Seiōbo ("Queen Mother of the West"; 西王母)
 * Senju (千手 or 千寿)
 * Shironushi (代主)
 *  Shōkun (very uncertain authorship; variously attributed to Zenchiku, Zeami, or neither )
 * Shōki (鍾馗)
 * Shunkan or Kikaigashima (俊寛 or 鬼界島)
 * Tamakazura ("The Jeweled Chaplet"; 玉葛 or 玉鬘)
 * Tatsuta (龍田 or 竜田)
 * Teika (定家; about the rumored love affair between Fujiwara no Teika and Shikishi Naishinnō)
 * Ugetsu ("Rain and Moon"; 雨月)
 * Yang Kuei-fei, Yokihi, or Yōkihi ("Everlasting Sorrow"; 楊貴妃)