Notes

Our "Twelfth Night" is a link between Shakespeare's world and the Sendai clan. The departure point for such a concept is around the year 1600 which was when this work was written and also when British-Japanese relations started when William Adams washed up in the Bungo region (now Oita-ken) of Kyushu. It is a fact that this period was also the dawn of our own Sendai clan. Two worlds born in a time of change for Britain and Japan, "Twelfth Night" is the work of the imagination of a genius writer, and the other is the historical world of the Sendai clan.

When I decided that the line connecting Kyushu and Sendai should be Christian the minute conditions for creating the play became apparent. Illyria is within the Sendai clan boundaries, the date is from December 26th 1603 to January 6th the following year (the original meaning of "Twelfth Night" was the twelfth day after Jesus' birth, January 6th or the Epiphany). For Ohshuu (north-east Japan), the object of the twins sea voyage was to build a seminary in the Christian village of Oukago, and after the shipwreck the place where they get washed up is Arahama Minato of the Watari area. At the time, Sendai was bubbling with energy and building its castle.

Also the six historical figures from the Date household I chose on the model of the Illyria world.

Olivia - Princess Iroha, the eldest daughter of Prince Masamune (tradition says he was a Christian). Oume, the daughter of Sanada Yukimura from Shinshuu Ueda (Nagano) who married Katagura Shigenaga from Shiraishi.

Orsino - Date Masamune's younger brother Kojiro. General Date Shigezane of the virtuous of Watari.

Captain - Shigura Tsunenaga. Once expelled by Masamune, then he led an emissary group to Europe, the importance of his journey was not known before he got to Rome. His singing the Kyushu folksong eThe grass cutter's song' at the beginning of the play is suggestive of his travels.

The Priest Goto Juan, Masamune's translator who was martyred in the Christian oppression.

Making the twins into the nephew and niece of Sorin was my imagination. Finally let me touch on Okuni. In "Twelfth Night" there isn't a character like Okuni, but the base elements in the clowning song, our Okuni has. Having 'festival' (fue-sute) written as 'flute (fue)' and 'discard (sute)' was not just a coincidence of having characters that fitted the pronunciation, but the meaning of clowning about throwing away the song or flute was intended. (Actually the song in the original is highly reduced.)

Behind adding Okuni to the Sendai clan's "Twelfth Night" was the fact that I thought it wouldn't look odd for sharp-sighted Prince Masamune to ask Okuni, who was receiving good praise in the Capital, to Sendai in order to have something novel in Date province. Okuni's dance and the language of the Capital play the role of transmitting the elegance of Masamune's world which itself came from the culture from the Capital.