Embodied Performance: Warriors, Dancers, and the Origins of Noh Theater

In this groundbreaking book, Matsuoka Shinpei-a leading scholar of noh theater-provides a detailed account of the birth of one of Japan's most celebrated art forms. Although noh has often been associated with the elite, Embodied Performance explores its links to a wider popular culture, reveali...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Matsuoka, Shinpei (Author)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: New York, NY Columbia University Press [2024]
Subjects:
Online Access:Volltext
Summary:In this groundbreaking book, Matsuoka Shinpei-a leading scholar of noh theater-provides a detailed account of the birth of one of Japan's most celebrated art forms. Although noh has often been associated with the elite, Embodied Performance explores its links to a wider popular culture, revealing a rich and colorful public space where courtiers and commoners mingled.Matsuoka traces noh's connections to popular and religious dances, linked verse, and chigo (beautiful temple boy) culture, emphasizing performance and the body. He describes the world of noh playwright Zeami as well as his views on dramaturgy and performance-and argues that Zeami was once a chigo. Matsuoka shows how religious rituals and cultural forms like ecstatic dance prayer and plays about demons in hell attracted people on the margins. Such activities, Matsuoka contends, drew on the tension between wild acrobatic movement and corporeal restraint, influencing the development of noh as well as the art of flower arranging and the tea ceremony. Janet Goff's translation makes available in English a classic work of Japanese scholarship that will be invaluable to those interested in medieval Japanese culture, noh, and theatrical practice
Item Description:Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 19. Oct 2024)
Physical Description:1 Online-Ressource
ISBN:9780231559294
DOI:10.7312/mats21226

There is no print copy available.

Interlibrary loan Place Request Caution: Not in THWS collection! Get full text