Chikamatsu : : Five Late Plays / / C. Andrew Gerstle, Chikamatsu.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Backlist (2000-2014) eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Gerstle, C. Andrew,; Chikamatsu, ,
• TeilnehmendeR: Gerstle, C. Andrew.
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2002]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2002
• Language: English
• Series: Translations from the Asian Classics
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (376 p.)

Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725), often referred to as "Japan's Shakespeare" and a "god of writers," was arguably the most famous playwright in Japanese history and wrote more than 100 plays for the kabuki and bunraku theaters. Today, the plays of this major literary figure are performed on kabuki and bunraku stages as well as in the modern theater, and forty-nine films of his plays have been made, thirty-one of them from the silent era.Translations of Chikamatsu's plays are available, but we have few examples of his late work, in which he increasingly incorporated stylistic elements of his shorter, contemporary dramas into his longer period pieces. Translator C. Andrew Gerstle argues that in these mature history plays, Chikamatsu depicted the tension between the private and public spheres of society by combining the rich character development of his contemporary pieces with the larger political themes of his period pieces. In this volume Gerstle translates five plays-four histories and one contemporary piece-never before available in English that complement other collections of Chikamatsu's work, revealing new dimensions to the work of this great Japanese playwright and artist.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations in the Bibliography and Notes -- Maps -- Introduction -- Twins at the Sumida River (Futago sumidagawa, 1720) -- Lovers Pond in Settsu Province (Tsu no kuni meoto ike, 1721) -- Battles at Kawa-nakajima (Shinshū kawa-nakajima kassen, 1721) -- Love Suicides on the Eve of the Kōshin Festival (Shinjū yoigōshin, 1722) -- Tethered Steed and the Eight Provinces of Kantō (Kanhasshū tsunagi-uma, 1724) -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Glossary of Terms -- Backmatter