Notes

In "Much Ado About Nothing", in the end, if one says nothing really happens, then one is left somewhat helpless but as the title says it is a play where "a lot of fuss is made over something that doesn't need fussing over". The love between man and woman and the talk of marriage has a tragic flavour and makes one think of "Othello" or "The Winter's Tale". The charm of this play is more in the characters than in the story itself.

Beatrice is a woman who does not hesitate to tell us that a woman is not dependant on man and would get by in the modern world. And there is Benedick who accepts this kind of woman. The opposite of Beatrice is in Hero. However, she is not just a simple 'cutie'. There is the amazingly simple Claudio. And there is the beguiling Don Pedro. There is Don John who is not such a bad egg as Iago but who thinks life isn't interesting enough. And in the latter half of the play there is Dogberry to charm the audience in his idiosyncratic way.

In "Much Ado about Nothing" There is the issue of gender. That is to say, what is a man? What is a woman? There is the theme of human's growth through death and rebirth. There is the irony that the lower classes solve the problems of the upper classes. However, one can probably say that this play's real charm is of the characters that throughout the whole move and speak so vividly.

The stage for the original "Much Ado about Nothing" is the island of Sicily of the coast of Italy. Nobility returning from war visited there and caused a commotion. When a man transverses with another something happens. Instead of war, love was born here, and those envious of happiness crushed that lovec. In the end, I thought that the time setting was free (In the case of "The Merchant of Venice" it is not so)

When I was re-reading this work I by chance visited the then topical historic Sannai Maruyama ruins. I was surprised at the sheer scale, the clay pottery discovered directly below the ground I was standing on (made over 3000 years ago but still Jomon felt so close!), and the thing that grabbed my interest more than most was the fact that Jomon people were quite stylish. There are no doubt plenty of reasons why people are stylish. However, just as I thought that one of the reasons must just to be different, my imagination ballooned with the thought of Jomon man in love. In a peaceful life with no war, the playful heart and love become the one same thing.

One more thing is, in spring this year the comet Hale-Bopp passed over our heads. Jomon people probably saw that same comet.

And so in this way, for me, Shakespeare and Jomon love, and our modern epoque and the Jomon period are connected.