The Noh play Asukagawa is rarely performed and hardly studied. Through close reading, this paper attempts to shed more light on the comparison, made by Tanaka Makoto, between the two old versions and the present version.The play relates the reunion of a father (old versions) or mother (present version) and child against the backdrop of rice planting. Despite its being backbreaking work, transplanting is presented through a large volume of beautiful poetic borrowings.Rather than treating the play as a parent-child piece, the paper discusses its literary aesthetics, and argues that the value of the play for a modern audience lies primarily in its representation of rice cultivation. In this respect, the paper further develops the comments made by Kanai Kiyomitsu
