“Truly, truly, as the Hermit Isseki said, time is slow for one who flies with the light, but it is fast for him who rests.” Isseki is Japanese for “one stone,” and the Hermit Isseki is, of course, Einstein in the Noh play in which these words are spoken by a messenger.
The Hermit Isseki is a new play written by immunologist Tomio Tada in the centuries-old Noh style of music and poetic drama. A group of physical societies commissioned a performance of the play this past summer in Tokyo, and, with a preshow discussion panel and some corrections to the physics, made it into a World Year of Physics (WYP) event.
In the play a wise woman wanders across deserts and seas, over mountains, and through forests in search of Isseki and answers about the universe. As the drama unfolds, allusions are made to art and science of the...
