CHOICE 1997 Outstanding Academic Books This is the first full-length study in English of Japan's folk performing arts covering such topics as the different categories of presentations, public policies affecting the folk performing arts, performance events within and without communities, and the folk performing arts in literature. Throughout, it addresses issues concerning the survival and preservation of traditional culture in contemporary Japan. Once largely unknown outside of their local community settings, Japan's folk performing arts have today captured universal attention. In Japan, almost every municipality is home to one or more of the diverse dramatic, dance, narrative, and musical presentations that make up the folk performing arts. They can be seen at events that range from long-established festivals to newly created folk-culture and tourist programs. Since the 1920s, a growing body of work by folklorists, theater historians, and other academic specialists, together with literary treatment by well-known authors, brought the folk performing arts into the national cultural spotlight. The postwar Cultural Properties Protection Law conferred on them the status of legally designated cultural assets.

Addresses issues concerning the survival and preservation of traditional culture by examining Japan's folk performing arts and the public policies that affect them.

In a traditional society like India, art is the Integral part of the general life of the people. The urge to express, communicate and share something beautiful gave birth to performing arts. Folk performing art is changing its structure , continuously modifying itself to the needs of the changing situation making it functionally relevant to the society. All this has been effectively brought out in this book.

Japanese folk performing arts incorporate a body of entertainments that range from the ritual to the secular. They may be the ritual dances at Shinto shrines performed to summon and entertain deities; group dances to drive away disease-bearing spirits; or theatrical mime to portray the tenets of Buddhist teachings. These ritual entertainments can have histories of a thousand years or more and, with such histories, some have served as the inspiration for the urban entertainments of no, kabuki and bunraku puppetry. The flow of that inspiration, however, has not always been one way. Elements taken from these urban forms could also be used to enhance the appeal of ritual dance and drama. And, in time, these urban entertainments too came to be performed in rural or regional settings and today are similarly considered folk performing arts. Professor Terence Lancashire provides a valuable introductory guide to the major performance types as understood by Japanese scholars.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the historical background, genres, and performers of the traditional performing arts of Korea, such as puppet plays, mask dramas, and Pansori, a uniquely Korean form of narrative song, which originated from the singing and dancing traditions of the ancient Korean people. It offers a detailed introduction to a variety of Korea's traditional performing arts. The book also provides references on related research sources in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese, about Korea's traditional performing arts, for those with an interest in conducting in-depth research, along with featuring some 70 photographs to highlight the noteworthy characteristics of Korean performing arts.

Essays by Abaigeal Duda, Pamela A. Parmal, Sue Welsh Reed, Gilian Shallcross, Carol Troyen, Gerald W.R. Ward.