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(★)([From ´INTRODUCTION´] The history of the Japanese theatre suggests a few similarities with the history of the English stage. Both insular countries, while still in a primitive phase of civilization, were exposed to the theatrical traditions of powerful empires --Rome in the West and China in the East. The Roman legions brought to England only pale, corrupted shadows of the classic Greek theatrical models, nearly submerged by coarse amusements. However, stones of the Roman theatres at Gosbeck Farms, St. Albans, and Canterbury remain to the present day as a mute testimony to the first British contact with the advanced stagecraft of the Roman empire. The carriers of the popular, multifaceted Chinese performing arts of the san-yue were peaceful visitors to Japan, hardly conscious of the fragmentary Sanskrit origin of their repertory. However, the sophisticated ´gigaku´ masks preserved in the ancient capital, Nara, within the precincts of the Toodaiji temple, and in the National Museum of Tokyo leave no doubt that, as in England, the first imported theatre arts in Japan presented certain features of an advanced, mature craft. Both England and Japan reached the high points of their theatrical achievements only after their assimilation of basic religious and cultural heritages imported from the mainland. In both countries a breakthrough of theatre forms destined to achieve world fame happened in the late Middle Ages and in the seventeenth century : The Cycle and Morality plays, followed by the Elizabethan splendor in England, and the ´noo´, followed by the prodigious Genroku achievements of mature kabuki and of exquisite puppet plays in Japan. Theatre presents, in Japan as elsewhere, a synthesis of the idealized past tradition elevated to the function of myth and archetype, as well as the concrete present system of beliefs and moral values determining the decisions which bridge the everyday routine of life and drama. As the English theatre finds its mythical and archetypical roots in the classical Greco-Roman and Christian heritages, so does the Japanese theatre find its roots, its inspiration, and its inexhaustible resources of regeneration in the two main spiritual forces of Japanese tradition, Shinto and Buddhism. Both Shinto and Buddhist heritages are complex, having assimilated widely different elements of distant origin such as Shamanism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, and, later, Christianity. These were present in the Japanese islands at different stages of development and sophistication during different periods. The fortunes of Shinto and Buddhism alternate in Japanese history. A Shinto-dominated beginning was followed by Buddhism´s triumph as a new, fashionable, imported religion in the sixth century A.D. ; the compromising medieval fusion of Shinto and Buddhist cults was eventually followed by Shinto revivals in modern times. From the beginning of this process strong shamanistic and magic folk beliefs were present, and, at the popular level, eventually came to the foreground of the daily practice of both religions. Several intellectual and artistic leaders at the same time dedicated themselves to esoteric practices leading to the perfection of special arts, sometimes as a quest for Buddhist enlightenment beyond the high levels of artistic achievement, while others deepened their research for a sophisticated interpretation of the primitive Shinto heritage. ◆CONTENTS ▼Chapter I : THE BEGINNINGS ▼Chapter II : KAGURA ▼Chapter III : GIGAKU ▼Chapter IV : BUGAKU ▼Chapter V : THEATRICAL ARTS IN THE NINTH TO THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY ▼Chapter VI : NOGAKU ▼Chapter VII : KABUKI ▼Chapter VIII : THE PUPPET THEATRE ▼Chapter IX : THE MODERN THEATRE : SHIMPA ▼Chapter X : SHINGEKI : THE NEW DRAMA ▼Chapter XI : MODERN MUSIC AND DANCE THEATRE ▼Chapter XII : HISTORY OF WESTERN RESEARCH ON THE JAPANESE THEATRE) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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