Funabenkei

• Author: Kanze Nobumitsu
• Japanese: 船弁慶 (funa benkei)

Funa Benkei, or "Benkei Aboard Ship," is a Noh play by Kanze Nobumitsu in which Benkei, helping Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Shizuka Gozen escape from the forces of Shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo, is attacked by the angry spirit of Taira no Tomomori, who died at the Battle of Dan no Ura.

The play is based more directly on the Gikeiki ("Chronicle of Yoshitsune") than on the Heike monogatari ("Tale of Heike"), and though set after Yoshitsune's great victories as a general in the Genpei War.

References

• Royall Tyler, Japanese Nô Dramas, Penguin Classics (1992), 82-95.