Book dossier

The Japanese theatre

by Benito Ortolani

Widely recognized as the standard history of Japanese theatre for Western readers, this work by Benito Ortolani is now available for the first time in paperback. From ancient folk and ritual performances to modern dance theatre, it provides concise summaries about each major theatrical form, situating the genre in its particular social, political, and cultural contexts and integrating a vast array of detail on such topics as staging, costuming, masks and properties, repertory, acting techniques, and noteworthy actors. Complete with illustrations and an extensive bibliography, this book serves undergraduates and specialists both as a reference and as a cultural history of Japan seen from the perspective of the performing arts. "The reader will find no fuller and more informed account of the complexities of Japanese theatre history and of the cultural matrices from which Japan's various theatre forms grew, than in this admirable scholarly work."--James R. Brandon, Monumenta Nipponica. "The book represents the summation of a lifetime's work by a meticulous teacher and scholar whose fascination with his subject now allows him to share his knowledge, and his enthusiasms, with a larger audience."--J. Thomas Rimer, Asian Theatre Journal.