Atsumori

Atsumori
Author: Zeami Motokiyo
Publisher: Volume Edizioni srl
Total Pages: 37
Release: 2014-03-07
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 8897747108

The japanese Noh drama by the Master Zeami Motokiyo about the Buddhist priest Rensei and the warrior of the Taira Clan Atsumori. The story of redention of the warrior Kumagai Jiro Naozane that killed the young Atsumori. One of the most popular and touching Zeami's Noh drama inspired by "The Tales of Heike". Contents: Preface by Massimo Cimarelli Atsumori by Zeami Motokiyo Pearson Part I Interlude Part II Glossary Notes

On the Art of the No Drama

On the Art of the No Drama
Author: Masakazu Yamazaki
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2020-05-05
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0691213305

This annotated translation is the first systematic rendering into any Western language of the nine major treatises on the art of the Japanese No theater by Zeami Motokivo (1363-1443). Zeami, who transformed the No from a country entertainment into a vehicle for profound theatrical and philosophical experience, was a brilliant actor himself, and his treatises touch on every aspect of the theater of his time. His theories, mixing philosophical and practical insights, often seem strikingly contemporary. Since their discovery early in this century. these secret treatises have been considered among the most valuable and representative documents in the history of Japanese aesthetics. They discuss subjects from the art of the playwright to the reciprocal nature of the relationship between performer and audience.

The Spirit of Noh

The Spirit of Noh
Author: Zeami
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2013-05-14
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0834828987

The Japanese dramatic art of Noh has a rich six-hundred-year history and has had a huge influence on Japanese culture and such Western artists as Ezra Pound and The Japanese dramatic art of Noh has long held a fascination for people both in the East and the West. For six hundred years it has had a huge influence on Japanese culture—and has inspired such Western artists as Ezra Pound and William Butler Yeats. Here is a translation of the Fushikaden, a seminal treatise on Noh by the fifteenth-century actor and playwright Zeami (1363–1443), the most celebrated figure in the art’s history. His writings on Noh were originally secret teachings that were later coveted among the highest ranks of the samurai class and first became available to the general public only in the twentieth century. The Fushikaden is the best known of Zeami’s writings on Noh and it provides practical instruction for actors, gives valuable teachings on the aesthetics and spiritual culture of Japan, and offers a philosophical outlook on life. Along with the Fushikaden, translator William Scott Wilson includes a comprehensive introduction describing the intriguing history behind this enigmatic and influential art form, and also a new translation of one of Zeami’s most moving plays, Atsumori.

The Japanese Theatre

The Japanese Theatre
Author: Benito Ortolani
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 432
Release: 1995-03-09
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780691043333

From ancient ritualistic practices to modern dance theatre, this study provides concise summaries of all major theatrical art forms in Japan. It situates each genre in its particular social and cultural contexts, describing in detail staging, costumes, repertory and noteworthy actors.

Dramatic Action in Greek Tragedy and Noh

Dramatic Action in Greek Tragedy and Noh
Author: Mae J. Smethurst
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 127
Release: 2013
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0739172425

This book explores the ramifications of understanding the similarities and differences between the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles and realistic Japanese noh. First, it looks at the relationship of Aristotle's definition of tragedy to the tragedies he favored. Next, his definition is applied to realistic noh, in order to show how they do and do not conform to his definition. In the third and fourth chapters, the focus moves to those junctures in the dramas that Aristotle considered crucial to a complex plot - recognitions and sudden reversals -, and shows how they are presented in performance. Chapter 3 examines the climactic moments of realistic noh and demonstrates that it is at precisely these moments that a third actor becomes involved in the dialogue or that an actor in various ways steps out of character. Chapter 4 explores how plays by Euripides and Sophocles deal with critical turns in the plot, as Aristotle defined it. It is not by an actor stepping out of character, but by the playwright's involvement of the third actor in the dialogue. The argument of this book reveals a similar symbiosis between plot and performance in both dramatic forms. By looking at noh through the lens of Aristotle and two Greek tragedies that he favored, the book uncovers first an Aristotelian plot structure in realistic noh and the relationship between the crucial points in the plot and its performance; and on the Greek side, looking at the tragedies through the lens of noh suggests a hitherto unnoticed relationship between the structure of the tragedies and their performance, that is, the involvement of the third actor at the climactic moments of the plot. This observation helps to account for Aristotle's view that tragedy be limited to three actors.

Dancing the Dharma

Dancing the Dharma
Author: Susan Blakely Klein
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2022-03-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1684176239

Dancing the Dharma examines the theory and practice of allegory by exploring a select group of medieval Japanese noh plays and treatises. Susan Blakeley Klein demonstrates how medieval esoteric commentaries on the tenth-century poem-tale Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise) and the first imperial waka poetry anthology Kokin wakashū influenced the plots, characters, imagery, and rhetorical structure of seven plays (Maiguruma, Kuzu no hakama, Unrin’in, Oshio, Kakitsubata, Ominameshi, and Haku Rakuten) and two treatises (Zeami’s Rikugi and Zenchiku’s Meishukushū). In so doing, she shows that it was precisely the allegorical mode—vital to medieval Japanese culture as a whole—that enabled the complex layering of character and poetic landscape we typically associate with noh. Klein argues that understanding noh’s allegorical structure and paying attention to the localized historical context for individual plays are key to recovering their original function as political and religious allegories. Now viewed in the context of contemporaneous beliefs and practices of the medieval period, noh plays take on a greater range and depth of meaning and offer new insights to readers today into medieval Japan.

Zeami’s Style

Zeami’s Style
Author: Thomas Blenman Hare
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 1996-03-01
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0804726779

This is the first full-length study of Zeami Motokiyo (1363–1443), generally recognized as the greatest playwright of Japan's classical Noh theater. The book begins with a biography based on the known documents relating to Zeami's life. It then examines the documentary evidence for authorship and explains the various technical aspects of Noh. Subsequent chapters explore the role of the old man in noh (particularly in the play Takasago), as well as Zeami's plays about women and warriors, with primary attention to Izutsu and Tadanori. The book concludes with a general discussion of Zeami's style and the relationship between his dramatic theory and his plays.

A History of Japanese Theatre

A History of Japanese Theatre
Author: Jonah Salz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1066
Release: 2016-07-14
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1316395324

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.

Six Circles, One Dewdrop

Six Circles, One Dewdrop
Author: Arthur H. Thornhill
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2017-03-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1400887186

Noh drama has long fascinated Westerners by its poetic excellence and its dramatic power. To the student of medieval Japanese culture, however, noh writings, especially dramaturgical treatises, are also of immense value as "monuments" of culture. To uncover the larger patterns of cultural discourse in these theoretical works, Arthur Thornhill presents the first major study in English of the dramaturgical treatises of Komparu Zenchiku (1405-1468?), son-in-law and pupil of the illustrious Zeami and a pivotal figure in the history of Japanese noh drama. The book begins with annotated translations of two of Zenchiku's most important treatises, which delineate a system of seven symbolic categories called "six circles and one dewdrop." Especially significant are two commentaries appended to the first treatise and composed by the Buddhist prelate Shigyoku (1383-1463) and Ichijo Kaneyoshi (1402-1481), the renowned court official and scholar of native literature and the Chinese classics. Together Zenchiku's symbolic system and the two commentaries reveal a microcosm of the intellectual and cultural dialogue among the dominant creeds of the Muromachi period--Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto. Originally published in 1993. 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.