Japanese Theatre

by Faubion Bowers

Japanese Theatre presents a full historical account for Westerners of the theater arts that have flourished for centuries in Japan.

Kabuki, arising in the late seventeenth century, is the theater of the commoner. The successive syllables of Kabuki mean song - dance - skill. The precursors of Kabuki were the puppet theater and the comic interludes in the stately, aristocratic Noh drama - all fully described by the author. In the modem era the Japanese have broken away from Kabuki, and their stage has shown a realistic trend. Left-wing theater groups arose in the 1920's, were suppressed by the militarists, and then revived during the occupation.

Appended to the historical chapters are Mr. Bowers's translations of three Kabuki plays: The Monstrous Spider, Gappo and His Daughter Tsuji, and the bombastic Sukeroku.

This book, with its many excellent photographs, is a permanent addition to the West's knowledge of the exotic, exciting theater of Japan and its tradition of great acting.

Genres: Nonfiction

294 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 1952

Reviews

[ambyr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not qualified to judge whether this is an accurate history of Japanese theatre. There are probably more comprehensive books now available written by actual Japanese people. Certainly this one is heavily slanted toward Kabuki, Faubion Bowers's personal passion--he spends only as much time on Noh and Bunraku as necessary to describe the elements that Kabuki would later borrow, and rushes far too quickly through post-Kabuki theatre styles at the end. But it is still worth reading, both because Bowers's prose is pleasant and, more importantly, because Bowers, in his role as General MacArthur's personal secretary and translator, played a key role in shaping Japanese theatre's future during the American Occupation of Japan. His preferences and passions (and frankly, based on this book, his low-key Communist sympathies) helped determine what aspects of Japanese theatre were able to thrive. (Not, it's clear, that he was wholly successful in promoting his agenda; the book is full of low-key digs toward other parts of the Occupation administration.)

Given that, I could wish the book spend more time on post-Kabuki theatre, particularly on the Japanese Union amateur theatricals whose existence, outside of this book, barely seems to have survived in English scholarship. Bowers's appendix of personally translated Kabuki plays at the end is great fun ("You noodle fool! You used tea leaves idiot!"), but I would have been even more excited if he'd translated some of the Communist propaganda plays he names in passing. (At least he does provide synopses for some of the Communist children's plays of his era, which are entertaining in the somewhat bonkers, scattershot way of children's theatre the world over.) Still, what's here is worth reading, and I'm glad it's still in print.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this mostly for the translation of the kabuki plays, but didn’t realize this encompassed only 45 pages of the book. But that’s fine. The translations were entertaining, but nothing extraordinary.

This book is very similar to several other books I have on bunraku, Noh and kabuki. I didn't read every page of this, but it provides a good overview. I liked some of the observations of the author about Noh theatre.

If you’re looking for an overview of Japanese theatre, this is probably a little dated, but overall good.