Nippon Wars and Other Plays

“Nippon Wars” and Other Plays provides a unique and fascinating window into the last thirty years of Japan’s dynamic theater scene.? This collection of plays from renowned Japanese theater artist Takeshi Kawamura gathers together for the first time in English several of his most important plays.

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Nippon Wars and The Lost Babylon explore Japan’s popular culture during and after the economic bubble of the late 1980s and capture the culture’s apocalyptic, but sublime essence. The intertextual work Hamletclone examines the violent complications and stultifying inertia of contemporary politics. Two of Kowamura’s more recent plays, Aoi and Komachi, look at how memories of the past remain in our consciousness. Also included in this collection is the tragedy The White House in the Hills of Argos, where myths of ancient Greece and Japan’s popular culture collide.

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With an introductory essay by a specialist in contemporary Japanese theater, Peter Eckersall, and translations by leading scholars and artists, “Nippon Wars” and Other Plays provides an essential look into Japan’s contemporary theater scene.

Takeshi Kawamura is one of the Japan’s leading playwrights and is a professor of performing arts at the Kyoto University of Arts and Design. He is the author of over fifty plays, including A Man Called Macbeth and Obsession Site. Peter Eckersall is an associate Professor of theater studies in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Shoichiro Kawai is a scholar and translator and teaches at the University of Tokyo. Leon Ingulsrud is a theater actor, director, translator, and teacher. Sara Jansen is a researcher, writer, and dramaturge. Aya Ogawa is a Brooklyn-based writer, director, performer, and translator.

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