Wondrous Brutal Fictions: Eight Buddhist Tales from the Early Japanese Puppet Theater
Abstract
This book presents eight seminal works from the seventeenth-century Japanese sekkyō and ko-jōruri puppet theaters, many translated into English for the first time. Both poignant and disturbing, they range from stories of cruelty and brutality to tales of love, charity, and outstanding filial devotion, representing the best of early Edo-period literary and performance traditions and acting as important precursors to the Bunraku and Kabuki styles of theater. As works of Buddhist fiction, these texts relate the histories and miracles of particular buddhas, bodhisattvas, and local deities. Many of ... More
This book presents eight seminal works from the seventeenth-century Japanese sekkyō and ko-jōruri puppet theaters, many translated into English for the first time. Both poignant and disturbing, they range from stories of cruelty and brutality to tales of love, charity, and outstanding filial devotion, representing the best of early Edo-period literary and performance traditions and acting as important precursors to the Bunraku and Kabuki styles of theater. As works of Buddhist fiction, these texts relate the histories and miracles of particular buddhas, bodhisattvas, and local deities. Many of their protagonists are cultural icons, recognizable through their representation in later works of Japanese drama, fiction, and film. The collection includes such sekkyō “sermon-ballad” classics as Sanshō Dayū, Karukaya, and Oguri, as well as the “old jōruri” plays Goō-no-hime and Amida's Riven Breast. The book provides a critical introduction to these vibrant performance genres, emphasizing the role of seventeenth-century publishing in their spread. It also details six major sekkyō chanters and their playbooks, filling a crucial scholarly gap in early Edo-period theater. More than fifty reproductions of mostly seventeenth-century woodblock illustrations offer rich, visual foundations for the critical introduction and translated tales.
Keywords:
sekkyō,
ko-jōruri,
Japan,
puppet theater,
performance traditions,
literary traditions,
Buddhist fiction,
Edo period,
woodblock illustrations
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780231146586 |
| Published to Columbia Scholarship Online: November 2015 |
DOI:10.7312/columbia/9780231146586.001.0001 |
