Shakespeare and the Japanese Stage

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 3/4/1999
EAN 9780521470438, ISBN10: 0521470439

Hardcover, 372 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

In this book, originally published in 1999, leading Shakespeare scholars from Japan and the West broke new ground by studying the interaction of Japanese and Western conceptions of Shakespeare, and the assimilation of Shakespeare into richly traditional theatre practice. The first part deals with key twentieth-century moments in the production of Shakespeare, including the work of world-famous Japanese directors such as Ninagawa, Suzuki and Noda, while the second part considers parallels and differences between Japanese and western theatre over a longer timespan, focusing on the relationship of Shakespeare to traditional Japanese Noh, Kabuki, Bunraku and Kyogen. Additional features include full-colour illustrations, a comprehensive chronology of Shakespeare performances in Japan and the English text of a celebrated Kyogen adaptation of The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Introduction Ronnie Mulryne
Part I. Japanese Shakespeare in Performance
1. The rebirth of Shakespeare in Japan
from the 1960s to the 1990s Akihiko Senda, translated by Ryuta Minami
2. One man's Hamlet in 1911 Japan
the Bungei Kyokai production in the Imperial Theatre Brian Powell
3. Koreya Senda and political Shakespeare Dennis Kennedy and J. Thomas Rimer
4. The perils and profits of interculturalism and the theatre art of Tadashi Suzuki Ronnie Mulryne
5. Hideki Noda's Shakespeare
the languages of performance Margaret Shewring
6. Japanese Shakespeare and English reviewers Tetsuo Kishi
7. Directing King Lear in Japanese translation Tetsuo Anzai
Part II. Shakespeare and the Traditional Japanese Stage
8. Preface to the Japanese translation of Renaissance Self-Fashioning Stephen Greenblatt
9. Tragedy and emotion
Shakespeare and Chikamatsu Takashi Sasayama
10. Conflicting authorities
the canonization of Zeami and Shakespeare Gerry Yokota-Murakami
11. Shakespearean drama and the Noh
Theatrum Mundi and nothingness Izumi Momose
12. Tradition and the Bunraku adapation of The Tempest Minoru Fujita
13. The performance of gendered identity in Shakespeare and Kabuki Yoko Takakuwa
14. Kyogenizing Shakespeare Shakespeareanizing Kyogen Yasunari Takahashi
15. The Braggart Samurai
a Kyogen adaptation of The Merry Wives of Windsor Yasunari Takahashi
Part III. Afterword
16. A playgoer's journey from Shakespeare to Japanese classical theatre and back Robert Hapgood
Part IV. A Chronological Table of Shakespeare Productions in Japan, 1866–1994 Ryuta Minami.