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Palgrave Macmillan

A New History of Medieval Japanese Theatre

Noh and Kyōgen from 1300 to 1600

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Noel John Pinnington

    1. Department of East Asian Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

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  • Represents the only modern history of Noh and Kyogen in English
  • Covers a long period and considers a broad spectrum of social and literary contexts
  • Uses contemporary research in Japan, Asia, Europe and America

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History (PSTPH)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Contexts: Japan in the Muromachi Age

    • Noel John Pinnington
    Pages 1-23

  3. Forerunners of Noh Theatre

    • Noel John Pinnington
    Pages 25-50

  4. Early Noh and Its Founders

    • Noel John Pinnington
    Pages 51-80

  5. Noh in Zeami’s Lifetime

    • Noel John Pinnington
    Pages 81-111

  6. The Classic Noh Plays

    • Noel John Pinnington
    Pages 113-145

  7. Noh in the Age of Chaos 1450–1600

    • Noel John Pinnington
    Pages 147-178

  8. Medieval Kyōgen

    • Noel John Pinnington
    Pages 179-208

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 209-225
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Keywords

About this book

This book traces the history of noh and kyōgen, the first major Japanese theatrical arts. Going beyond P. G. O'Neill's Early Nō Drama of 1958, it covers the full period of noh's medieval development and includes a chapter dedicated to the comic art of kyōgen, which has often been left in noh's shadow. It is based on contemporary research in Japan, Asia, Europe and America, and embraces current ideas of theatre history, providing a richly contextualized account which looks closely at theatrical forms and genres as they arose. 



The masked drama of noh, with its ghosts, chanting and music, and its use in Japanese films, has been the object of modern international interest. However, audiences are often confused as to what noh actually is. This book attempts to answer where noh came from, what it was like in its day, and what it was for. To that end, it contains sections which discuss a number of prominent noh plays in their period and challenges established approaches. It also contains the first detailed study in English of the kyōgen repertoire of the sixteenth-century.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of East Asian Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Noel John Pinnington

About the author

Noel John Pinnington is Associate Professor Emeritus of the University of Arizona, USA. He has held appointments at the Universities of Cambridge, Arizona, and Kyushu. His recent work includes 'The Early History of the Noh Play: Literacy, Authorship, and Scriptedness' in Monumenta Nipponica (2014) and collaboration on the film adaptation of the noh play Kinuta, set in Arizona, titled Wind Well (2017).

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