Description
Book SynopsisSatoko Shimazaki revisits three centuries of kabuki theater and its representations of medieval Japanese tales and tradition, reframing Edo kabuki as a key player in the formation of an early modern urban identity. Challenging the common understanding of kabuki as subversive, Shimazaki argues that kabuki instilled a sense of shared history.
Trade ReviewA sophisticated, entertaining, and well-written contribution to nineteenth-century kabuki studies that both challenges the conventional wisdom of early modern theater scholarship and illuminates the splendid, ghastly world of Japanese horror. -- Keller Kimbrough, author of Wondrous Brutal Fictions: Eight Buddhist Tales from the Early Japanese Puppet Theater Satoko Shimazaki's fascinating study of early modern kabuki performance reveals a new kabuki theater to us, not a cultural practice with a relatively stable body of texts at its center but a major site of social and cultural negotiation whose central feature and strength lies in its remarkable variety and adaptability. -- Marvin Carlson, author of The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Memory Machine Edo Kabuki in Transition is an extraordinary contribution to the field of kabuki studies, in both the West and Japan. Its unconventional yet comprehensive view of Edo kabuki's evolution, especially its playwriting practices, filtered through the lens of Tsuruya Nanboku IV's 1825 coproduction of his revolutionary ghost play Yotsuya kaidan and the popular history play Chushingura, is original and searching. Satoko Shimazaki's highly readable, marvelously researched study gives us both a penetrating understanding of the fluidity of Edo dramaturgy and an exceptionally thorough examination of the ghost play genre. -- Samuel L. Leiter, author of The Art of Kabuki: Five Famous Plays This fascinating book is a bold revisioning of the development of kabuki theater in Edo (present-day Tokyo)... Highly recommended. Choice
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments A Note to the Reader Introduction Part I. The Birth of Edo Kabuki 1. Presenting the Past: Edo Kabuki and the Creation of Community Part II. The Beginning of the End of Edo Kabuki: Yotsuya kaidan in 1825 2. Overturning the World: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers and Yotsuya kaidan 3. Shades of Jealousy: The Body of the Female Ghost 4. The End of the World: Figures of the Ubume and the Breakdown of Theater Tradition Part III: The Modern Rebirth of Kabuki 5. Another History: Yotsuya kaidan on Stage and Page Notes Bibliography Index
