The Japanese Theatre: From Shamanistic Ritual to Contemporary Pluralism (Handbuch der Orientalistik) (Volume 2.1)

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.

Benito Ortolani is Professor of Theatre at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Publications: Das Kabukitheater: Kulturgeschichte der Anfänge; Zenchiku's Aesthetics of the Nō Theatre; editor of the multi-volume annual, International Bibliography of Theatre and of the letters of Luigi Pirandello to Marta Abba.