Modern Japanese Theatre And Performance

Modern Japanese Theatre and Performance is a collection of sixteen essays on Japanese theatre, including historical overviews of twentieth century theatre, analyses of specific productions and individuals, and consideration of the intercultural nature of modern Japanese theatre. Also included is a new translation of a 'Superkyogen' play.

Long accustomed to writing in the tradition of the flamboyant kabuki, Japanese dramatists had a more difficult struggle in modernizing their art than did writers of fiction and poetry. The work of Kishida Kunio, however, established and matured modern Japanese drama, modeled on the western psychological drama of Ibsen and Chekhov. J. Thomas Rimer traces the initial modernization efforts undertaken by the first generation of Japanese playwrights of the shingeki, or "New Theatre.'" His study then concentrates on the work of Kishida Kunio, the most important figure in the Japanese theatre of the 1930s and 1940s. Kishida, who studied with the well-known French director Jacques Copeau in 1921, returned to Japan with the goal of establishing a modern drama of psychological dimensions for the Japanese theatre. His work demonstrated his talent as a playwright and laid the foundation for later modern Japanese playwrights. Originally published in 1974. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Senda Akihiko is one of Japan's finest and best-known modern drama critics. This collection of his essays, articles, and reviews from 1971 to 1987 presents international audiences with the first opportunity to experience the excitement and accomplishments of the theatrical revolution that has continued to sweep over the Japanese stage since the 1960s. Consistently judicious and honest, the essays reveal the excitement (or disappointment) of each phase in the unfolding "voyage" of contemporary Japanese theatre.

This book endeavours to unravel the complicated skeins of Japanese theatre in the modern period and offers an appreciation of the richness of choice of presentational and representational theatre forms. Since the end of world War II there has been continuing but different conflict between the major theatrical genres. Kabuki continues to defend its ground successfully, but the 'new drama' (shingeki) became firmly established in its own right in the 1960s. It was a vigorous and exuberant 'underground' theatre which exploited anything and everything in the Japanese and western theatre traditions. Now, thirty years on, they too have been superseded. The youth theatre of the 1980s and 90s has thrown aside the concerns of the angry underground and developed a fast-moving bewilderingly kaleidoscopic drama of breath-taking energy.

This book endeavours to unravel the complicated skeins of Japanese theatre in the modern period and offers an appreciation of the richness of choice of presentational and representational theatre forms. Since the end of world War II there has been continuing but different conflict between the major theatrical genres. Kabuki continues to defend its ground successfully, but the 'new drama' (shingeki) became firmly established in its own right in the 1960s. It was a vigorous and exuberant 'underground' theatre which exploited anything and everything in the Japanese and western theatre traditions. Now, thirty years on, they too have been superseded. The youth theatre of the 1980s and 90s has thrown aside the concerns of the angry underground and developed a fast-moving bewilderingly kaleidoscopic drama of breath-taking energy.

This anthology is the first to survey the full range of modern Japanese drama and make available JapanÕs best and most representative twentieth- and early-twenty-first-century works in one volume. Divided into six chronological sections: ÒThe Age of Taisho DramaÓ; The Tsukiji Tsukiji Little Theater and Its AftermathÓ; ÒWartime and Postwar DramaÓ; ÒThe 1960s and Underground TheaterÓ; ÒThe 1980s and BeyondÓ; and ÒPopular Theater,Ó the collection opens with a comprehensive introduction to Meiji period drama and provides an informal yet complete history of twentieth-century Japanese theater for students, scholars, instructors, and dramatists. The collection features a mix of original and previously published translations of works, among them plays by such writers as Masamune Hakucho (The Couple Next Door), Enchi Fumiko (Restless Night in Late Spring), Abe Kobo (The Man Who Turned into a Stick), Morimoto Kaoru (A WomanÕs Life), Kara Juro (Two Women), Terayama Shuji (Poison Boy), Noda Hideki (Poems for Sale), and Mishima Yukio (The Sardine SellerÕs Net of Love). Leading translators include Donald Keene, J. Thomas Rimer, Mitsuyra Mori, M. Cody Poulton, John Gillespie, Mari Boyd, and Brian Powell. Each section features an introduction to the developments and character of the period, notes on the playsÕ productions, and photographs of their stage performances. The volume complements any course on modern Japanese literature and any study of modern drama in China, Korea, or other Asian or contemporary Western nation.

Words cannot explain to an outsider the sight and feel of the Japanese stage. And definitions and descriptions do not convey an exact image to people brought up on a concept of the theatre that differs so greatly from the Japanese as ours. In seeing something foreign, too, our eyes must be guided carefully, so that we know what we are seeing and how to look at it profitably. All of us are to be grateful for this book, because now, without leaving our countries, or for that matter our armchairs, we can peer at leisure into expertly selected, edited and glossed highlights of the three great classical theatre arts of Japan-Noh, Bunraku and Kabuki. The Fifty-four ensuing photographs, with their textual commentary, are the equivalent, in my mind, of fifty-four choice seats at some of the best performances in modern Japan and intimate visits backstage.