The first book of its kind: a collection of the most important genres of Japanese performance--noh, kyogen, kabuki, and puppet theater--in one comprehensive, authoritative volume.

The first book of its kind: a collection of the most important genres of Japanese performance--noh, kyogen, kabuki, and puppet theater--in one comprehensive, authoritative volume.

Japan boasts one of the world's oldest, most vibrant and most influential performance traditions. This accessible and complete history provides a comprehensive overview of Japanese theatre and its continuing global influence. Written by eminent international scholars, it spans the full range of dance-theatre genres over the past fifteen hundred years, including noh theatre, bunraku puppet theatre, kabuki theatre, shingeki modern theatre, rakugo storytelling, vanguard butoh dance and media experimentation. The first part addresses traditional genres, their historical trajectories and performance conventions. Part II covers the spectrum of new genres since Meiji (1868–), and Parts III to VI provide discussions of playwriting, architecture, Shakespeare, and interculturalism, situating Japanese elements within their global theatrical context. Beautifully illustrated with photographs and prints, this history features interviews with key modern directors, an overview of historical scholarship in English and Japanese, and a timeline. A further reading list covers a range of multimedia resources to encourage further explorations.

Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre is the only dictionary that offers detailed comprehensive coverage of the most important terms, people, and plays in the four principal traditional Japanese theatrical forms—nō, kyōgen, bunraku, and kabuki—supplemented with individual historical essays on each form. This updated edition adds well over 200 plot summaries representing each theatrical form in addition to: a chronology; introductory essay; appendixes; an extensive bibliography; over 1500 cross-referenced entries on important terms; brief biographies of the leading artists and writers; and plot summaries of significant plays. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Japanese theatre.

Japan has a wide range of unique, highly refined performing arts that haveeveloped over centuries. This guide provides a brief history andntroduction to the features of each genre, together with recommendations oflays that are accessible to non-Japanese audiences. Brief synopses arerovided to approximately fifty selected plays, and well-known popularompanies, actors, writers, and directors are introduced. The text is widelyllustrated, and includes information about theatre listings, how to getickets, and which plays are available on DVD. It will be invaluable fornyone planning a visit to Japan and keen to experience its theatre firsthand,s well as providing additional insights for students of Japanese theatrend literature.

The A to Z of Japanese Traditional Theatre covers all four genres, providing information on nearly every aspect, including actors, theatres, companies, history, makeup, costumes, masks, biographies, theories, training, music, religion, criticism, and many more. This is done through hundreds of dictionary entries arranged alphabetically with abundan