The No Plays of Japan
The theatre of the West is the last stronghold of realism. No one treats painting or music as mere transcripts of life. But even pioneers of stage-reform in France and Germany appear to regard the theatre as belonging to life and not to art. The play is an organized piece of human experience which the audience must as far as possible be allowed to share with the actors.A few people in America and Europe want to go in the opposite direction. They would like to see a theatre that aimed boldly at stylization and simplification, discarding entirely the pretentious lumber of 19th century stageland. That such a theatre exists and has long existed in Japan has been well-known here for some time. But hitherto very few plays have been translated in such a way as to give the Western reader an idea of their literary value.
1100633300
The No Plays of Japan
The theatre of the West is the last stronghold of realism. No one treats painting or music as mere transcripts of life. But even pioneers of stage-reform in France and Germany appear to regard the theatre as belonging to life and not to art. The play is an organized piece of human experience which the audience must as far as possible be allowed to share with the actors.A few people in America and Europe want to go in the opposite direction. They would like to see a theatre that aimed boldly at stylization and simplification, discarding entirely the pretentious lumber of 19th century stageland. That such a theatre exists and has long existed in Japan has been well-known here for some time. But hitherto very few plays have been translated in such a way as to give the Western reader an idea of their literary value.
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The No Plays of Japan

The No Plays of Japan

by Arthur Waley
The No Plays of Japan

The No Plays of Japan

by Arthur Waley

Overview

The theatre of the West is the last stronghold of realism. No one treats painting or music as mere transcripts of life. But even pioneers of stage-reform in France and Germany appear to regard the theatre as belonging to life and not to art. The play is an organized piece of human experience which the audience must as far as possible be allowed to share with the actors.A few people in America and Europe want to go in the opposite direction. They would like to see a theatre that aimed boldly at stylization and simplification, discarding entirely the pretentious lumber of 19th century stageland. That such a theatre exists and has long existed in Japan has been well-known here for some time. But hitherto very few plays have been translated in such a way as to give the Western reader an idea of their literary value.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781025188522
Publisher: Hutson Street Press
Publication date: 05/22/2025
Pages: 294
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Stewart W. Holmes has made extensive forays — via general semantics and Zen — into the realm of nonverbal experience. As an officer of the Cambridge Buddhist Association, he was well acquainted with its former president, the eminent Zen scholar Daisetz Suzuki. Dr. Shinichi Hisamatsu, the founder of the Association, was his first Zen master. Among his other publications are Meaning in Language and articles for a number of journals. At present Dr. Holmes, who holds a Ph.D. in English from Yale University, is on the English faculty of Castleton State College, Vermont.

Chimyo Horioka, who is responsible for the nonverbal aspects of this volume, is Far Eastern Librarian in the Asiatic Department of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and author of many articles on Buddhist art. A priest of the Shingon sect and graduate of Koyasan University, he also studied philosophy at Hamburg and Koenigsberg universities. He has been president of the Cambridge Buddhist Association since the death of Dr. Daisetz Suzuki in 1966.

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