| Role | Actor |
| Blindman | Shite |
| Upper Kyoyo Man | Ado |
by Don Kenney*
A blindman who resides in Lower Kyoto goes out on the night of the full August moon to listen to the singing of the bugs, as it is quite impossible for him to enjoy gazing at the moon as the others do. On his way, he explains that those who are deprived of eyesight take great pleasure in the sounds of things. When he reaches the fields, he sits down and praises the cries of the various insects raising their voices to the moon. Among them, he identifies such insects as crickets, grasshoppers, loom-hoppers, duck locusts, and pince crickets. A man from Upper Kyoto happens along the road on his way to enjoy moon viewing and he decided to join the blindman. They enjoy themselves for a time composing poems, drinking, singing, and dancing. When they decide to set out for home, they find that they cannot travel together since that live in opposite ends of Kyoto, so they say their farewells and set out on their separate ways. Then, most unexpectedly, the man from Upper Kyoto decides to have some fun by disguising his voice and picking a quarrel with the blindman. In the meantime, the blindman comments on what a wonderful person he has met and sets out singing happily to himself. Then the man from Upper Kyoto bumps into the blindman and berates the blindman for the accident and throws him to the ground twice, blaming him for blocking the road. After the man from Upper Kyoto runs off gloating over thr fun he has had at the blindman's expense, the blindman gets painfully to his feet and searches for his cane that he had dropped. Then he sets out slowly for home, commenting on how different the two man he has encountered were, and singing a sad song to himself as he goes along his way.
* An interesting note is that Don Kenney spoke to our group the night before we went to see Kabuki. He explained the various types of traditional Japanese theatre and even demonstrated some of his speciality, Kyogen. He has been living in Japan for many years doing English versions of Kyogen plays.