The Bunraku Puppet Theatre of Japan: Honor, Vengeance, and Love in Four Plays of the 18th and 19th Centuries

The final play in this collection, The True Tale of Asagao, is an instance of this uncommon reverse borrowing. Bunraku, in turn, has raided the Kabuki repertoire but to a far more modest degree. Newly translated and illustrated for the general reader and the specialist, the plays in this volume are accompanied by informative introductions, extensive notes on stage action, and discussions of the various changes that Bunraku underwent, particularly in the latter half of the eighteenth century, its golden age.. These later eighteenth-century works display a continued development toward greater attention to the theatrical features of puppet plays as opposed to the earlier, more literary approach found most notably in the dramas of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (d. During this period, however, several important puppet plays were created that went on to become standards in both the Bunraku and Kabuki repertoires; three of the plays in this volume achieved this level of importance. 1725). Moreover, it is an example of yet another way in which some plays have come to be presented: a coherent subplot of a longer work that gained an independent theatrical existence while its parent drama has since disappeared from the stage. This span of some sixty-odd years was also a formative one in the development of how plays were presented, an important feature in the modern staging of works from the traditional p

Stanleigh H. . He retired from Pomona College, USA in 2003. Jones, Jr., taught Japanese language, literature and more recently Japanese traditional theatre

"Another unique gift from Japan." according to Eoin. Not an everyday topic but perhaps it should be. Fundamental human issues brought to life by these beautifully crafted puppets but nothing like western puppets. It is a unique art and a truly rewarding read.

Jones, Jr., taught Japanese language, literature and more recently Japanese traditional theatre. About the Author Stanleigh H. He retired from Pomona College, USA in 2003.