The Voices and Hands of Bunraku

The Voices and Hands of Bunraku
Author: Barbara C. Adachi
Publisher: Tokyo ; New York : Kodansha International
Total Pages: 166
Release: 1978
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN:

The history and artistry of one of Japan's oldest dramatic traditions is presented along with the illustrations of the puppeteers, puppet-makers and other artists and craftsman who have enabled the art to survive.

Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre

Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre
Author: Samuel L. Leiter
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 816
Release: 2014-10-30
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1442239115

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.

The Japanese Theatre

The Japanese Theatre
Author: Ortolani
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2022-07-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004484140

An up-to-date cultural history of the Japanese theatre in all its forms including primitive rituals, court and popular dance-drama, puppet shows and westernized plays, is narrated here for the first time in English by a western authority in the field. The book underlines Zeami and Zenchiku's secret tradition of the nō, explaining Zen-inspired spiritual teachings for the actor's training on the way to enlightened performance. It also gives relevance to the transformation of an anti-establishment entertainment by prostitutes into spectacular kabuki stagecraft, and to the modernization process which created shingeki modern drama, and moved it into the context of world theatre. The final chapter summarizes the history of western discovery of the Japanese stage. The illustrations, the indexes, the glossary and the extensive bibliography — including all major literature in western languages until 1989 — also contribute to make this volume a must for all students of the Japanese theatre, and for anyone interested in a better understanding of Japanese culture as mirrored in its theatrical component.

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.

Early Modern Japanese Literature

Early Modern Japanese Literature
Author: Haruo Shirane
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 572
Release: 2008-04-21
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780231516143

This abridged edition of Haruo Shirane's popular anthology, Early Modern Japanese Literature, retains the essential texts that have made the original volume such a valuable resource. The book introduces English-speaking readers to prose fiction genres, including dangibon, kibyoshi (satiric picture books), sharebon (books of wit and fashion), yomihon, kokkeibon (books of humor), gokan (bound books), and ninjobon (books of romance and sentiment). It also features poetic genres such as waka, haiku, senryu, and kyoka, and plays ranging from Chikamatsu's puppet plays to nineteenth-century kabuki. Readers will continue to benefit from the anthology's selection of significant essays, treatises, literary criticism, folk stories, and other noncanonical works, as well as the numerous prints that accompanied these works. They will also find Shirane's introductions and critical commentary, which guide the reader through the allusive and often elliptical nature of these incredible selections.

The Cambridge Guide to Theatre

The Cambridge Guide to Theatre
Author: Martin Banham
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1268
Release: 1995-09-21
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780521434379

Provides information on the history and present practice of theater in the world.

Circles of Fantasy

Circles of Fantasy
Author: C. Andrew Gerstle
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1684172500

The vibrant merchant culture of Tokugawa Japan gave rise to many new forms of art, none more fascinating than the puppet theater, Jōruri, created chiefly by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, the foremost playwright of popular Japanese drama. In this analysis of Chikamatsu's artistry, Dr. Gerstle focuses on features hitherto neglected by Western scholars the musical structure of Jōruri, integral to the form, mood, and movement of the drama. For extensive translations from the various types of Chikamatsu's dramas, Gerstle supplies the musical notations, which illuminate the sophisticated conventions of this unique and timeless artistic form. Chikamatsu's art, combining puppets, text, samisen music, and chanting/narration, encompasses three major types of drama--history, contemporary-life, and love-suicide plays--each with distinct structural features. Gerstle shows how the music of Jōruri, a mixture of the samisen and chanting/narration, supplements the texts and expresses a dramatized action or emotion through complex changes in pitch, tempo, and style of delivery. Richly illustrated with woodblock prints, this is a fascinating study, which will be welcomed by scholars of Japanese culture, literature, and musicology.

Indian Puppets

Indian Puppets
Author: Sampa Ghosh
Publisher: Abhinav Publications
Total Pages: 729
Release: 2006
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN: 817017435X

Puppetry Originated In India And Travelled Across The Seven Seas To The Eastern And Western World As Vouched By Many Scholars. Puppets Dated Back To A Period Well Before Bharata S Natya Shastra And Have Continued Unabated Throughout The Centuries In Almost All Indian States. Puppetry Is One Enduring Form, Which Has Entertained Masses And Educated People. The Famous Puppeteers Of Rajasthan Are Really Acrobats, Who Only Put On Puppet Shows When They Move Out Of Villages. These And A Thousand Other Scintillating Facts Come Out Of This Exciting Book For The Reader S Entertainment And Elucidation. Puppets Are By No Means For Only Children, -- As The Puppeteers Of Orissa Sing And Dance About The Romantic Love Of Radha And Krishna, And Keralan Puppets Narrate Kathakali Stories In The Same Make-Up And Costumes.The Book Aims At Giving A Connected Account Of The Indian Puppets: Their Variety, Their Multiple Functions, Their Craft, Their Animation And Their Connections With Other Related Arts In Five Separate Parts. The Book Also Contains For The First Time In Any Book On Puppetry -- Four Important Appendices: Museums In India Containing Puppets, Directory Of Indian Puppeteers, Global Bibliography On Puppets And A Relevant Glossary. The World Of Indian Puppets Is Seen In Vivid Colours With Scores Of Coloured Photographs And Many Line-Drawings And Half-Tone Pictures --- In Their Many-Sided Splendour: Variety Of The Glove, Rod, String, Shadow, And Human Puppets And A Myriad Background Stories Of The Puppet-Masters And Their Imaginative Landscape Of Free Creativity.

Traditional Japanese Theater

Traditional Japanese Theater
Author: Karen Brazell
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 580
Release: 1998
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780231108737

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.