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(★)(´Brilliance and Bravado, 1697-1766´ is the first volume in a monumental new series --the first collection of kabuki play translations to be published in twenty-five years. Drawing on new research in kabuki performance and history, these translations of traditional plays are the work of twenty-two scholars, ranging from the most eminent in the field to younger scholars for whom kabuki is both an academic and personal passion. Published in four volumes, the series vividly traces kabuki´s changing relations to Japanese society during the premodern era. More than two dozen playwrights and fifty-one plays are represented in a wide range of history or period plays (jidaimono), domestic plays (sewamono), and dance pieces (shosagoto or buyoo-geki). The plays were selected to show the full sweep of kabuki dramaturgy from the Genroku era (1688-1704) to the turn of the twentieth century, when kabuki was struggling to find its place in the modern world. Volume I, Brilliance and Bravado, 1697-1766, consists of thirteen plays that showcase early kabuki´s scintillating and boisterous styles of performance and illustrates the contrasting dramatic techniques cultivated by actors in Edo (Tokyo) and Kamigata (Osaka and Kyoto). Included here are works representing the bravura style originated by the great Edo actor Ichikawa Danjuuroo I, as well as the gentler, more realistic manner created by his Kyoto contemporary Sakata Tojuuroo I, famed for his collaborations with Japan´s preeminent dramatist, Chikamatsu Monzaemon. As the series title indicates, the plays were translated to capture the vivacity of performances on-stage ; stage directions indicating scenic and sound effects and music are included, as well as descriptions of costumes and makeup. The translations, each accompanied by a thorough introduction that contexualizes the play, are based not only on published texts, but performance scripts and the study of the plays as they are performed in theatres today. Each volume is lavishly illustrated with rare woodblock prints in full color of Tokugawa- and Meiji-period productions as well as color and black-and-white photographs of contemporary performances. ◆James R. Brandon is emeritus professor of Asian theatre at the University of Hawaii. A translator and director of kabuki plays in English, his writings include ´Chuushingura : Studies in Kabuki and the Puppet Theatre´ ; ´Kabuki : Five Classic Plays´ ; ´The Cambridge Guide to Asian Theatre´ ; ´Noo and Kyoogen in the Contemporary World´ ; and the forthcoming ´The Death of Kabuki and Other Myths : Kabuki under Occupation Japan, 1945-1949.´ He is the founding editor of Asian Theatre Journal. Among numerous honors, he has received the Order of the Rising Sun from the government of Japan. Samuel L. Leiter is professor of theatre at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and also teaches at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Among his books are ´The Art of Kabuki : Famous Plays in Performance´ ; ´New Kabuki Encyclopedia´ ; ´Zeami and the Noo Theatre in the World (with Benito Ortolani)´ ; ´Japanese Theatre in the World´ ; ´Japanese Theatre and the International Stage (with Stanca Scholz-Cionca)´ ; ´Frozen Moments : Writings on Kabuki, 1966-2001´ ; and his translation/adaptation of Shiro Okamoto´s ´The Man Who Saved Kabuki : Faubion Bowers and Theatre Censorship in Occupied Japan.´ Leiter is the current editor of Asian Theatre Journal. ▼CONTENTS -- ・The Felicitous Soga Encounter (Kotobuki Soga no Taimen, 1697)・Just a Minute ! (Shibaraku, 1697)・Matahei the Stutterer (Domo Mata from ´Keisei Hangonkoo [The Courtesan of the Hangon Incense]´, 1708)・The Medicine Peddler (Uiroo Uri, 1718)・The Stone-Cutting Feat of Kajiwara (Kajiwara Heizoo Homare no Ishikiri from ´Miura no Oosuke Koobai Tazuna´ [The Plum-Blossom Reins of Miura no Oosuke], 1730)・Lady Kuzunoha (Kuzunoha from ´Ashiya Dooman Oouchi Kagami [A Courtly Mirror of Ashiya Dooman]´, 1734)・The Secret Art of Rowing (Sakaro from ´Hiragana Seisuiki [A Beginner´s Version of the Rise and Fall of the Heike and the Genji Clans]´, 1739)・Summer Festival : Mirror of Osaka (Natsu Matsuri Naniwa Kagami, 1745)・The Skylight (Hikimado from ´Futatsu Choochoo Kuruwa Nikki [Choogoroo and Chookichi : A Diary of Two Butterflies in the Pleasure Quarters]´, 1749)・The Sanemori Story (Sanemori Monogatari from ´Genpei Nunobiki no Taki [The Genji and Heike at Nunobiki Waterfall]´, 1749)・The Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji from ´Gion Sairei Shinkooki [The Gion Festival Chronicle of Faith]´, 1757)・The Heron Maiden (Sagi Musume, 1762)・Japan´s Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety (Honchoo Nijuushikoo, 1766) ) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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