Japanese Theatre notes

history of japanese theatre

• wabisabi
• quintessential Japanese aesthetic 
• the art of finding beauty in imperfection and nature
• we need to accept the natural cycle of life
• wabi= way of life/spiritual path
• sabi= material objects art and literature 
• wabi=inward 
• sabi=objective
• wabi=philosophical construct
• sabi= aesthetic ideal 
• wabi=spacial events
• sabi= temporal events 

1853 japanese opened up to trade

end of the curtain 

Wabi sabi

modernism

Would see a box as a “bowl” Box would have natural materials Earthen, crude, less perfect Allow for a problem Even corrosion can make the expression richer Comfortable with ambiguity and contradiction Zen Buddhist “ Modern spoken drama in japan as in Asia was ultimately built on western models. In response to social, artistic, and cultural pressures, but also it was often reacting against western influence during its century long existence.” Should we modernize kabuki… Shin-kabuki=based on western theatre Shin-pa= borrowed western plots and made it Japanese Shingeki= making Japanese theatre as western as possible “no theatre” “ kyogehn” “

Would see a box as a metaphor Slick Well maintained Ambiguity and contradiction

1867= big time of crisis

shoguns were kicked out of power

1868-1912 rapid modernization 

samurai abolished

in this context modern japanese theatre was born 

the heart of modern theatre was tokyo 

ibsen was huge influence on china korea and japan

actors used to be disregarded

actors in modern japan became much more reconized

1872 realism and kabuki 

kabuki started to become more focused on characterization