Enter a world colored by mythology, history, romance, and spiritual exploration with Japanese traditional theater, a living art form that stretches back centuries. Its many varieties are among the oldest continuous performance traditions in the world. They range from masked Noh dance-dramas during medieval times and the accompanying Kyogen comic theater to the Tokugawa/Edo period’s boisterous Kabuki plays and Bunraku puppet theater, past traditional theater to the Shingeki (literally “new drama”) forms inspired by Western stage plays and the Butoh dance-theater form of artists like Tanaka Min and the duo of Eiko and Koma.
Japanese traditional theater tells stories that are both strange and familiar and has inspired a host of Western artists, including William Butler Yeats, Berthold Brecht, and Julie Taymor. Linda Ehrlich, who has taught Asian studies and traditional theater for several universities, delves into these traditions. Ehrlich shows images of beautiful costumes, evocative masks, and a strong gestural language. She also discusses the transmission of conventions from generation to generation, as well as examples of innovation and renewal.
General Information
