Funa benkei is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese Noh

Noh

, or - derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent" - is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh "performance day" lasts all day and...

 play written by Kanze Kojirô Nobumitsu, eventually adapted to Kabuki

Kabuki

is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...

 by Kawatake Mokuami

Kawatake Mokuami

' was a Japanese dramatist of Kabuki. It has been said that "as a writer of plays of Kabuki origin, he was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Japan has ever known." He wrote 150 or so plays over the course of his fifty year career, covering a wide variety of themes, styles, and forms,...

 in 1885. It was staged for the first time in November that year and starred Ichikawa Danjūrō IX

Ichikawa Danjuro IX

Ichikawa Danjūrō IX was one of the most successful and famous Kabuki actors of the Meiji period ....

.

Story

Minamoto no Yoritomo

Minamoto no Yoritomo

was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate of Japan. He ruled from 1192 until 1199.-Early life and exile :Yoritomo was the third son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, heir of the Minamoto clan, and his official wife, a daughter of Fujiwara no Suenori, who was a member of the...

, seeing his younger brother Minamoto no Yoshitsune

Minamoto no Yoshitsune

was a general of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian and early Kamakura period. Yoshitsune was the ninth son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, and the third and final son and child that Yoshitomo would father with Tokiwa Gozen. Yoshitsune's older brother Minamoto no Yoritomo founded the Kamakura...

 as a rival power, excludes him from the royal family despite his loyal performance in battle. Yoshitsune decides to escape and meet up with his retainer Benkei at the Ômo-no-Ura port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

. While at a hotel en route, his girlfriend Shizuka dances for him, and her headress falls off during the dance. It is a bad omen, so she leaves it and returns to Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

.
Yoshitsune continue the next day and board the boat, where they are stuck by a dangerous storm. During the storm they are attacked by ghosts of the sea, among them Taira no Tomomori

Taira no Tomomori

' was the son of Taira no Kiyomori, and one of the Taira Clan's chief commanders in the Genpei War at the end of the Heian period of Japanese history....

. They fight the spirits, but to no avail. Eventually Benkei realises that the only way to defeat a vengeful spirit is through prayer, and the storm dissipates.