Shundo school (春藤流)
The Shundo school is an extinct school of waki-kata (supporting actors) in Nohgaku (the art of Noh).
Description
They played waki (supporting actors) exclusively for the Konparu school, and the Shimogakari (a generic name given to the Konparu school, the Kongo school, and the Kita school) Hosho school branched from them afterward. Also, this school was well known for the fact that Shigemasa TAKAYASU, the first head of the waki-kata Takayasu school, learned Noh play from this school, and additionally, Shimogakari waki-kata schools were derived from the Shundo school.
Although opinions about who was the first generation head of the school vary depending on materials, Rokuro Jiro Nagayoshi SHUNDO, who served the Hatakeyama family, is placed at the first generation on a family tree. Nagayoshi learned from Genshichiro KONPARU, who was a leading waki-kata performer of the Konparu school, and then he established the family. According to "Rinchu Kenmonshu" (The Collection of Noh Anecdotes), a son of a Konparu school performer Torakiku tayu (an actor qualified to play the protagonist in a Noh play) married a daughter of Nagayoshi, and then he called himself Yuson (遊巽) SHUNDO. Afterward, since the family of Genshichiro KONPARU, from which the Shundo family learned, became extinct, the Shundo family became the main waki-kata family of the Konparu school.
The third generation head named Dokaku was a waki master, who was nicknamed 'Hige Shundo' (literally, "beard Shundo") because he had a bushy beard. During the time of the fourth generation head named Suboku (寿朴), his younger brother named Gonshichi (also known as Yugen) branched from this school and established the Shimogakari Hosho school by order of Tsunayoshi TOKUGAWA, and this school contributed to the Hosho school.
After the Meiji Restoration, when the 12th generation head Takaaki SHUNDO passed away without any successors in 1893, his follower Toshitane KABURAKI (鏑木祚胤), who was a Shinto priest at Torikoe-jinja Shrine in Asakusa, took charge of documents and inherited things in order to maintain the family's performance style. In 1922, Toshitane's son named Takeo became a deputy head of the family, but he failed to keep the family's influence. Since the family finally became unable to take part in Noh plays due to a shortage of performers, they joined in the Shimogakari Hosho school during the time of Mineo, a son of Takeo, and this school eventually became extinct.