Hagoromo (play)
Hagoromo is among the most-performed Japanese Noh plays. It is an example of the traditional swan maiden motif.
Plot
A fisherman is walking with his companions at night when he finds the Hagoromo, the magical feather-mantle of a tennin hanging on a bough. The tennin sees him taking it and demands its return—she cannot return to Heaven without it. The fisherman argues with her, and finally promises to return it, if she will show him her dance or part of it. She accepts his offer. The Chorus explains the dance as symbolic of the daily changes of the moon. The words about "three, five, and fifteen" refer to the number of nights in the moon's changes. In the finale, the tennin disappears like a mountain slowly hidden in mist.Adaptations
W. B. Yeats' At the Hawk's Well drew extensively from the Hagoromo legend.An abridged version of the plot of play is attested in German, with the name Das Federkleid, in Japanische Märchen und Sagen. An English translation exists in the book Green Willow; and other Japanese fairy tales, with the name The Robe of Feathers.
A literary treatment of the play was given as The Fisherman and the Moon-Maiden in Japanese Fairy World. Another version exists with the name The Angel's Robe.
Osamu Tezuka based a short story in his Phoenix series on the story of the Hagoromo, but with a sci-fi twist, featuring a time-displaced human girl from the distant future instead of a tennin. A 2004 short film based on Tezuka´s Phoenix features a drastically different retelling. The story was later adapted into the manga and anime series Ceres, The Celestial Legend.