EA 120 (23015)

Japanese Theater Syllabus
UC Irvine, Winter 2022

Susan B. Klein

NOTE ON ABBREVIATIONS IN SYLLABUS

TJT = Traditional Japanese Theater, edited by Karen Brazell (available in bookstore and on Amazon.com)

JND = Japanese Nô Dramas, translated by Royall Tyler (available in bookstore and on Amazon.com)

Unit 1: Medieval Noh and Kyogen Theater

Week 1a-b (1/4, 1/6) Religion in Noh: Images and Reading/Discussion Questions

Week 1a outline (1/4): Introduction to Japanese theater and Religion in Noh

a. Royall Tyler, Japanese Nô Dramas “General Introduction” [JND 1-19]

b. Adachigahara (AKA Kurozuka), The-Noh.com translation (see also photostory), images, synopsis, video

c. Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow
|
"The Bridge" pp. 19-32
"The Sacred Beings" pp. 34-50.

d. Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow-2

"Exorcism" pp. 298-307

Video: excerpt from "The Tradition of Performing Arts in Japan" (link)

 

Supplemental online lecture on Medieval Japanese History (Online lecture Outline)

Short youtube history of Japan (clean edition)

Supplemental online lecture on shamanism and possession (from course on Japanese Ghosts)

Week 1b outline (1/6): Religion in Noh (2)

 

a. Karen Brazell, "Japanese Theater: A Living Tradition: Historical Perspectives" [TJT 3-24]

b. Izutsu (The Well Cradle)[TJT 143-157 or JND 120-132] photo story, images, Japanese

c. Kinuta (The Fulling Block) [JND 156-170] images

d. review Adachigahara (AKA Kurozuka), The-Noh.com translation (see also photostory), synopsis

Video Clip from This is Noh: Intro to stage, Izutsu (intro), Izutsu 3 (climax)

Video Clip from Kurozuka/Adachigahara video

For more on Buddhism, see link to "Buddhism" on WWW Links page.

For more on medieval Japan, see link to "Medieval  Period" on WWW Links page.

Week 1 (Friday 1/7) DISCUSSION QUESTIONS to be uploaded to Canvas Assignments prior to your section (Scroll down to the end of Week 1 Reading/Discussion questions)

Week 2a-3a (Jan. 11, 13, 18) Images and Reading/Discussion Questions

Week 2a-3a Outline (1/11, 1/13, 1/18): Masks, Costumes, Props, Movement, Chanting

Week 2a Elements of Performance (1)

a. Brazell, "Japanese Theater: A Living Tradition" and “Elements of Performance” [TJT, 24-43,    115-25]
a. Yamamba [TJT 207-225 or JND 309-328],photo story, images, Japanese
b. Atsumori [TJT 126-142 or JND 37-48], photo story, images (ALSO: click here for an interactive text in English with images and Japanese)
c. Review Izutsu (The Well Cradle)[TJT 143-15 or JND 120-132]photo story, images, Japanese
d. Sumidagawa [JND 251-263], photo story

Week 2a-3a outline (1/13, 1/18) Elements of Performance (2-3)

a. Dôjôji [TJT 193-206] photo story, images, Japanese
b. Kamo [TJT 44-60], images, photo story

(if we have time we'll start week 3b, Intro to Poetics of Noh)

Videos: excerpts from Yamamba, Atsumori, Izutsu, Dôjôji, Kamo

Link to mask-making video

This is Noh: Intro to stage

Behind the Scenes in a Noh Theater

Props: meaning of well-curb in Izutsu

Full video of Izutsu with English subtitles; Izutsu in Japanese

Link to Kamo

Link to Atsumori (full performance, no subtitles)

Link to Dôjôji (Kanze Kiyokazu performing the ran no mai dance, no subtitles)

NHK special about a young Kita School actor (Shiotsu Keisuke) doing Dojoji for the first time. Subtitles in Japanese for performance. Performance starts about 31:30. Original Dojoji story told at the temple starts about 5:00 (in Japanese).

Sumidagawa for use of bamboo prop and large tomb prop

Week 2 (Friday 1/14) Discussion questions to be uploaded to Canvas Assignments prior to section (scroll down to the end of the Week 2 Reading/Discussion Questions)

 

Week 3b (Jan. 20) The Poetics of Noh: Images and Reading/Discussion Questions

Week 3b Outline (1/20): Rhetorical Devices and Imagery

Kayoi Komachi Images, photo story, video, very short video

Sotoba Komachi Images, photo story, video pt 1 video pt 2 (Kita School, Goto Tokuzo as shite, Awaya Shintaro as tsure)

Week 3 (Friday 1/21) DISCUSSION QUESTIONS to be uploaded to Canvas Assignments prior to your section (Scroll down to the end of Week 3 Reading/Discussion questions)

ASSIGNMENT 1 ON NOH DUE TUESDAY 2/1

Week 4a-b (Jan. 25, Jan. 27) Kyogen Theater: Images and Reading/Discussion Questions

Week 4a Outline (1/25) Kyôgen Elements of Performance (costumes, props, movement, voice)

a. Review Brazell, “Elements of Performance” [TJT, 115-25]
b.The Delicious Poison (Busu) [TJT, 235-44] Japanese
c. The Snail (Kagyu) [TJT, 256-66]
d. Narihira and the Rice Cakes (Narihira mochi), English Synopsis, Japanese
e. Two Daimyo (Futari Daimyo) [TJT 226-234]

Videos: This is Kyogen; The Delicious Poison (Busu)

Week 4b Outline (1/27): Kyôgen as Parody

a. Carolyn Haynes: "Parody in Kyôgen: Makura monogurui and Tako"
 b. Thunderbolt (Kaminari) [TJT, 61-67]
c. Owls (Fukuro Yamabushi)

Video: Excerpts from Makura monogurui, Thunderbolt, Owls,

Week 4 (Friday 1/28) DISCUSSION QUESTIONS to be uploaded to Canvas Assignments prior to your section (Scroll down to the end of Week 4 Reading/Discussion questions)

 

UNIT TWO: EDO PERIOD BUNRAKU PUPPET THEATER AND KABUKI

Weeks 5a-b, 6a-b, 7a-b (Feb. 1, 3, 8, 10, 15, 17): Images and Reading/Discussion Questions

Week 5a Outline (2/1): Introduction to Bunraku

a. Online lecture on Edo period and outline (watch this to get a background of historical changes)

b. Review Brazell,"Japanese Theater: A Living Tradition" [TJT 13-24]
c. Brazell, “Elements of Performance” [TJT 303-313]
d. Love Suicides at Amijima [TJT 333-63, Japanese]
e. Optional (we'll be watching the video): The Miracle of the Tsubosaka Kannon [TJT 408-417]
f. Optional background article: Donald H. Shively, "The Social Environment of Tokugawa Kabuki," in Studies in Kabuki: Its Acting, Music, and Historical Context (University Press of Hawaii, 1978), 1-61.

Videos: Tradition of Performing Arts in Japan: Bunraku, Kabuki excerpts from Love Suicides at Amijima

For more on the Edo/Tokugawa period, see link to "Edo/Tokugawa" on WWW Links page

ASSIGNMENT 1 ON NOH DUE TUESDAY 2/1

 

Week 5b Outline (2/3): Costumes, Make-up and Form in Kabuki acting I: wagoto male roles and onnagata female roles

a. review Love Suicides at Amijima [TJT 333-63, Japanese]
b. Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Kanadehon Chûshingura) Act 6 "At the Farmhouse" (TJT 375-392, Japanese) and Act 7 "Ichiriki Brothel House" (Gion Ichiriki no ba), Japanese
c. See also English synopsis of the Treasury of Royal Retainers (Chushingura) story.

Video: Tradition of Performing Arts in Japan: Kabuki, excerpts from Form in Kabuki Acting, Ichiriki Brothel Scene, Love Suicides at Amijima

Week 5 (Friday 2/4) Discussion Questions (scroll down through Reading Questions)

Week 6a Outline (2/8): Costumes, Make-up, and Form in Kabuki acting II: aragoto male roles plus shosagoto dance pieces

a. Review Brazell, “Elements of Performance” [TJT, 308-313]; see also “Four Figures of the Thundergod” [TJT, 39-43]
b. Saint Narukami [TJT 68-94, Japanese]
c. Shibaraku synopsis from Wikipedia, images (includes summary of play)

d. Optional reading for more indepth on Kabuki acting: James R. Brandon, "Form in Kabuki Acting," in Studies in Kabuki: Its Acting, Music, and Historical Context (University Press of Hawaii, 1978), 63-132.

Videos: Leonard Pronko, "Form in Kabuki Acting,"Narukami, Shibaraku, Tradition of Performing Arts in Japan (Kabuki) with excerpt from Yoshitsune Senbonzakura (Yoshitsune and the 1000 Cherry Trees)

For more on Kabuki, see links on WWW Links page, especially Kabuki21.

Week 6b Outline (2/10): Shôsagoto (dance) plays, stage craft, and more on onnagata

a. review noh Dôjôji [TJT 193-206, Japanese]
b. The Maiden at Dôjôji (Musume Dôjôji) [TJT 506-24, Japanese]

Videos: The Maiden at Dôjôji (Musume Dôjôji); excerpt on hikinuki costume change
Week 6 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (Scroll down through Reading Questions Week 6)
Week 7a Outline (2/15): Yotsuya Ghost Stories as Kizewamono

a. Yotsuya Ghost Stories [TJT 456-483]

b. Yotsuya Ghost Stories act III (Onbo Canal) and Act V (The Dream and Snake Mountain Hermitage)

b. synopsis of entire play of (Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (Yotsuya Ghost Stories) [scroll down to "summary"--see also reading questions for week 7]

c. Review English synopsis of the Chushingura story and the introduction to "At the Farmhouse" [TJT starting p. 375]

Video: excerpts from Yotsuya Ghost Stories (see outline and links page)

ASSIGNMENT 2 ON KYOGEN DUE TODAY TUESDAY 2/15

Week 7b Outline (2/17): Atsumori in Noh, Bunraku, and Kabuki

a.The Kabuki/Bunraku version:

1. Synopsis of Ichi no Tani Futabagunki (Chronicle of the Battle of Ichinotani) English, Japanese

2. The Chronicle of the Battle of Ichinotani Acts 1 and 2
English

[Act 1 Scene 2 Suma Bay (TJT 442-455) is the most important to the comparison, but I'll be showing scenes from Kumagai's Camp (Kumagai jinya) in class as well]

b.The original story from Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari):

1. "The Death of Atsumori":English, Japanese

2. "The First Attackers": English, Japanese

c. Review the Noh Atsumori: Atsumori [JND 37-48 or TJT 126-142]
(click here for an interactive text in English with images and Japanese)

Videos: excerpts from Kabuki: Traditional Theater of Japan, excerpts from Suma Bay and Kumagai's Camp (Kumagai no jinya)

 

 

 

 

 

UNIT THREE: 20th Century Theater

Week 8a-b (Feb. 22, 24) Shimpa: Images and Reading/Discussion Questions

Week 8a-b Outline: Shimpa (the transition from Kabuki to Modern Theater)

Supplemental Online Lecture on Meiji transition (primarily focused on changing conceptions of gender in the late 19th cenutry)

Supplemental Online Lecture on Taisho period (primarily focused on conceptions of Gender in the 1920s-30s)

a. "The Modern Theater: Shimpa" from Benito Ortolani, The Japanese Theater: From Shamanistic Ritual to Contemporary Pluralism (Princeton University Press, 1995), 233-42

b. Izumi Kyoka, The Demon Pond (Yashagaike), translation by Cody Poulton from Spirits of Another Sort: The Plays of Izumi Kyoka English, Japanese

c. Optional: "New (Neo) Kabuki and the Work of Hanagumi Shibai" by Natsuko Inoue, especially pp. 191-205.

Week 8 DISCUSSION QUESTION (Scroll down to bottom of reading questions)

Videos: See google docs list of videos: Kabukiza 2008 filmed performance version; The Demon Pond 1979 movie version (director Shinoda Masahiro with Bando Tamasaburo as Yuri and Yuki); The Demon Pond Hanagumi Shibai 1991 filmed stage performance version (Parts 1 and 2); The Demon Pond 2005 filmed stage performance version (director Miike Takashi)

For a brief summary of the Meiji restoration see link to "Meiji Japan" on the WWW links page

Week 9a-b (Mar. 1, 3) Ankoku Butoh and Post-Shingeki Theater: Images and Reading Questions

Week 9a Outline (3/1): Post-modern Dance in Japan: Ankoku Butoh

a) Susan Blakeley Klein, Ankoku Butô: The Premodern and Postmodern Influences on the Dance of Utter Darkness, Ch. 1 (1-23), Ch. 2 (24-54).

Videos: Body on the Edge of Crisis, Piercing the Mask

See also: various links to videos and articles on Butoh on the links page

 

Week 9b Outline (3/3): Butoh and Post-Shingeki Theater: Ota Shogo's The Water Station and Komachi Fuden

A. The Water Station (Mizu no Eki)

1. Mari Boyd's Ota's Theatrical Vision, Introductory Material on The Water Station

2. Ota Shogo, The Water Station, trans. by Mari Boyd
Asian Theatre Journal, vol 7 no. 2 (1990) pp. 150-183.

3. Interactive Script of Scene 1 of The Water Station (Mizu no Eki)

4. Scene 1 image slide show

Video: Theater in Japan: Yesterday and Today (see clip from Tenkei gekijo Mizu no Eki 8:55-11:50) To access from UCI search lib.uci.edu for "Theater in Japan" and click on first entry, then click on #1 online version. Link at top "Theater in Video via Alexander Stree Press. Restricted to UCI." You need to access on campus or via VPN.

Also see this video on youtube of a full performance. The scene of "The Married Couple" (p. 17 of the pdf) starts at 24:00.

B. Komachi Fuden (Tale of Komachi Told by the Wind, 1977) based on the noh play Komachi on the Stupa (Sotoba Komachi)

1. play synopsis

2. background provided for a performance of Komachi Fuden by Theatre Yugen in San Francisco; images of the performance in 1986

3. images from various versions, including the original 1977 version.

4. Review: Komachi on the Stupa

 

Week 9 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (scroll down to end of Week 9 Reading Questions)

 

Week 10a-b (3/8, 3/10) Post-Shingeki Theater: Images and Reading/Discussion Questions

Week 10a-b Outline (3/8, 3/10): The Post-Shingeki Movement: Suzuki Tadashi, Ninagawa Yukio

a. Yukihiro Goto, "The Theatrical Fusion of Suzuki Tadashi," Asian Theatre JournalVol. 6, No. 2 (Autumn, 1989), 103-123.

Videos: One Step on a Journey, Theater in Japan: Yesterday and Today

b. John Brokering, "Ninagawa Yukio's Intercultural Hamlet: Parsing Japanese Iconography," Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 24, no. 2 (Fall 2007), pp. 370-97.

c. Shakespeare, Hamlet final scene

video: Ninagawa Yukio's Hamlet

 

c. optional background reading: Notes from Brian Powell's Japan's Modern Theater on Suzuki Tadashi and Ota Shogo

d. Review: Klein, Ankoku Butô: The Premodern and Postmodern Influences on the Dance of Utter Darkness, 10-20.

Week 10: Discussion Forum question and Class Evaluations

DISCUSSION SECTION THIS WEEK IS FOR HELP WITH ASSIGNMEN 3. IT IS NOT MANDATORY. Replaced by Discussion Forum question.

Late assignments and revisions of papers (with original), due LAST DAY OF CLASS (Thursday March 10).

ASSIGNMENT 3: Sunday March 13 to Canvas Assignments