Stanleigh H. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835620
- eISBN:
- 9780824871413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835620.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This introductory chapter begins with an overview of the Japanese puppet plays presented in this volume. The plays were created during the period when Kabuki became increasingly a serious competitor ...
More
This introductory chapter begins with an overview of the Japanese puppet plays presented in this volume. The plays were created during the period when Kabuki became increasingly a serious competitor to the popularity of Japan's puppet theatre, known today as Bunraku. They span the sixty-odd years of 1769 to 1832, and all are works that have been sufficiently appreciated by audiences that since their first performances they have continued to appear regularly on the puppet and, in their adapted forms, the Kabuki stages. The group of plays are all classified in the genre known as jidaimono, works set in the past and based on historical (or semihistorical) characters or incidents, a feature that reflects the predominance of that genre in the period covered. The remainder of the chapter describes the form of the puppet stage and the text sources for the translations.Less
This introductory chapter begins with an overview of the Japanese puppet plays presented in this volume. The plays were created during the period when Kabuki became increasingly a serious competitor to the popularity of Japan's puppet theatre, known today as Bunraku. They span the sixty-odd years of 1769 to 1832, and all are works that have been sufficiently appreciated by audiences that since their first performances they have continued to appear regularly on the puppet and, in their adapted forms, the Kabuki stages. The group of plays are all classified in the genre known as jidaimono, works set in the past and based on historical (or semihistorical) characters or incidents, a feature that reflects the predominance of that genre in the period covered. The remainder of the chapter describes the form of the puppet stage and the text sources for the translations.
Stanleigh H. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835620
- eISBN:
- 9780824871413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835620.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter presents the translation of Vengeance at Iga Pass (Igagoe Dōchū Sugoroku), a ten-act play written for the puppet theatre. The play was first performed at the Takemoto Ichiza Theatre in ...
More
This chapter presents the translation of Vengeance at Iga Pass (Igagoe Dōchū Sugoroku), a ten-act play written for the puppet theatre. The play was first performed at the Takemoto Ichiza Theatre in Osaka on May 26, 1783. It is based on the vendetta that came to its bloody conclusion toward the end of 1634 in the town of Ueno near Iga Pass, about twenty-five miles southeast of Kyoto. The historical incident that had led to the vendetta centered on the murder of a brother. Rarely is the complete drama produced today, though certain of the more popular acts are performed often both independently and in sequence.Less
This chapter presents the translation of Vengeance at Iga Pass (Igagoe Dōchū Sugoroku), a ten-act play written for the puppet theatre. The play was first performed at the Takemoto Ichiza Theatre in Osaka on May 26, 1783. It is based on the vendetta that came to its bloody conclusion toward the end of 1634 in the town of Ueno near Iga Pass, about twenty-five miles southeast of Kyoto. The historical incident that had led to the vendetta centered on the murder of a brother. Rarely is the complete drama produced today, though certain of the more popular acts are performed often both independently and in sequence.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835620
- eISBN:
- 9780824871413
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835620.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
The plays presented here were first performed between 1769 and 1832, a time when the Japanese puppet theatre known as Bunraku was beginning to lose its pre-eminence to Kabuki. During this period, ...
More
The plays presented here were first performed between 1769 and 1832, a time when the Japanese puppet theatre known as Bunraku was beginning to lose its pre-eminence to Kabuki. During this period, several important puppet plays were created that went on to become standards in both the Bunraku and Kabuki repertoires; three of which are in this book. Only a handful of complete and uncut plays are produced in Bunraku or Kabuki nowadays; included here is one. Two among the four plays in this book are examples of the much more common practice of staging a single popular act or scene from a much longer drama that itself is seldom, if ever, performed in its entirety today. Kabuki, while better known outside Japan, has been a great beneficiary of the puppet theatre, borrowing perhaps as much as half of its body of work from Bunraku dramas. Bunraku, in turn, has raided the Kabuki repertoire but to a far more modest degree. The final play in this book is an instance of this uncommon reverse borrowing. Moreover, it is an example of another way in which some plays have come to be presented: a coherent subplot of a longer work that gained an independent theatrical existence while its parent drama has since disappeared from the stage. Newly translated and illustrated for the general reader and the specialist, the plays in this book are accompanied by introductions, notes on stage action, and discussions of the various changes that Bunraku underwent.Less
The plays presented here were first performed between 1769 and 1832, a time when the Japanese puppet theatre known as Bunraku was beginning to lose its pre-eminence to Kabuki. During this period, several important puppet plays were created that went on to become standards in both the Bunraku and Kabuki repertoires; three of which are in this book. Only a handful of complete and uncut plays are produced in Bunraku or Kabuki nowadays; included here is one. Two among the four plays in this book are examples of the much more common practice of staging a single popular act or scene from a much longer drama that itself is seldom, if ever, performed in its entirety today. Kabuki, while better known outside Japan, has been a great beneficiary of the puppet theatre, borrowing perhaps as much as half of its body of work from Bunraku dramas. Bunraku, in turn, has raided the Kabuki repertoire but to a far more modest degree. The final play in this book is an instance of this uncommon reverse borrowing. Moreover, it is an example of another way in which some plays have come to be presented: a coherent subplot of a longer work that gained an independent theatrical existence while its parent drama has since disappeared from the stage. Newly translated and illustrated for the general reader and the specialist, the plays in this book are accompanied by introductions, notes on stage action, and discussions of the various changes that Bunraku underwent.
Stanleigh H. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835620
- eISBN:
- 9780824871413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835620.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter presents the translation of Mount Imo and Mount Se: Precepts for Women (Imoseyama Onna Teikin), one of the day-long jidaimono history dramas for which the Bunraku and Kabuki theatres are ...
More
This chapter presents the translation of Mount Imo and Mount Se: Precepts for Women (Imoseyama Onna Teikin), one of the day-long jidaimono history dramas for which the Bunraku and Kabuki theatres are noted. It was written originally for the puppets and first performed on the twenty-eighth day of the First (lunar) Month of 1771 at the Takemoto-za in Osaka. Today, the play is occasionally mounted in all or most of its five acts with their numerous scenes, but it is best known for the often performed scene known simply as “The Mountains” (Yama No Dan) that concludes act 3.Less
This chapter presents the translation of Mount Imo and Mount Se: Precepts for Women (Imoseyama Onna Teikin), one of the day-long jidaimono history dramas for which the Bunraku and Kabuki theatres are noted. It was written originally for the puppets and first performed on the twenty-eighth day of the First (lunar) Month of 1771 at the Takemoto-za in Osaka. Today, the play is occasionally mounted in all or most of its five acts with their numerous scenes, but it is best known for the often performed scene known simply as “The Mountains” (Yama No Dan) that concludes act 3.
Stanleigh H. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835620
- eISBN:
- 9780824871413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835620.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter presents the translation of one of the great history-based plays (jidaimono), The Genji Vanguard in Ōmi Province (Ōmi Genji Senjin Yakata), which came to the stage of the Takemoto puppet ...
More
This chapter presents the translation of one of the great history-based plays (jidaimono), The Genji Vanguard in Ōmi Province (Ōmi Genji Senjin Yakata), which came to the stage of the Takemoto puppet theatre on Osaka on the ninth day of the Twelfth Month of 1769.1 It was so well received by audiences that it was adapted to Kabuki less than six months later. The play continued to be performed occasionally in its full nine acts up through 1830, but since that time it has come to survive on stage principally in the form of act 8, “Moritsuna's Camp” (Moritsuna Jinya).Less
This chapter presents the translation of one of the great history-based plays (jidaimono), The Genji Vanguard in Ōmi Province (Ōmi Genji Senjin Yakata), which came to the stage of the Takemoto puppet theatre on Osaka on the ninth day of the Twelfth Month of 1769.1 It was so well received by audiences that it was adapted to Kabuki less than six months later. The play continued to be performed occasionally in its full nine acts up through 1830, but since that time it has come to survive on stage principally in the form of act 8, “Moritsuna's Camp” (Moritsuna Jinya).
Stanleigh H. Jones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835620
- eISBN:
- 9780824871413
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835620.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
Kabuki, through its penchant for borrowing from the puppets, has been the beneficiary of a large number of works that were written for the puppet theatre—plays that have gone on to become favorites ...
More
Kabuki, through its penchant for borrowing from the puppets, has been the beneficiary of a large number of works that were written for the puppet theatre—plays that have gone on to become favorites in both these traditional theatres. This interaction, however, has not been one-sided. The puppet theatre, particularly in the hands of some of its mid-to late eighteenth-century dramatists, has borrowed from Kabuki a fair amount of that theatre's stage techniques as well as modifications made by Kabuki writers to the texts of borrowed plays. One of these is The True Tale of Asagao (Shōutsushi Asagao Banashi), the translation of which is presented in this chapter. The play was ranked among the top ten Bunraku plays in audience popularity, based on a survey taken in the 1990s.Less
Kabuki, through its penchant for borrowing from the puppets, has been the beneficiary of a large number of works that were written for the puppet theatre—plays that have gone on to become favorites in both these traditional theatres. This interaction, however, has not been one-sided. The puppet theatre, particularly in the hands of some of its mid-to late eighteenth-century dramatists, has borrowed from Kabuki a fair amount of that theatre's stage techniques as well as modifications made by Kabuki writers to the texts of borrowed plays. One of these is The True Tale of Asagao (Shōutsushi Asagao Banashi), the translation of which is presented in this chapter. The play was ranked among the top ten Bunraku plays in audience popularity, based on a survey taken in the 1990s.
