Böcker i Brill's Japanese Studies Libra-serien

This well-illustrated work is the first attempt to bridge the gap between several specialized discourses concerning Japanese theatre. Central are problems of scholarly and practical reception of Japanese theatre forms in the West. The essays by a careful selection of internationally well-reputed scholars range widely through Japanese theatre, from the ancient to the postmodern, or, one might say, from "kagura to "angura. It deals with reception of Japanese theatre in the West, the treatment of the body in stage art and drama, Western influence, the impact of Japanese theatre practice and theory upon the actor's training, and stage directing in the West. Readers will come across a wide variety of intriguing topics, such as lion dances, "kabuki, "nth, folk theatre, "taishu engeki, and several important modern playwrights, etc. This book truly promises to intensify future dialogue between the many disciplines concerned with Japanese theatre.

Capital punishment has been carried out in Japan since ancient times. Although ancient Japan uniquely suspended executions for several centuries towards the end of the first millennium, today the death penalty is firmly established in Japan.This volume explores the current state of capital punishment, the domestic discussion on the subject, and the influence of the political orientations of the governments of recent years.The treatise is of current interest especially because of the Aum cult, whose leader Shoko Asahara is at present tried in Tokyo. If found guilty, he may be sentenced to death. After a three years' interval (between 1989 and 1993), Japan is nowadays undergoing a capital punishment "renaissance" with 39 executions between 1993 and 2000.

This book describes the Koguryo language, which was once spoken in Manchuria and Korea, including Koguryo and Japanese ethnolinguistic history, Koguryo's genetic relationship to Japanese, Koguryo phonology, and the Koguryo lexicon. It also analyzes the phonology of archaic Northeastern Chinese.

This study examines how various Japanese authors and other artists seeking artistic representation of traumatic Asia Pacific War experience have drawn upon their imaginative powers to create affect-charged images of the extreme violence, psychological damage and ideological contradiction surrounding the conflict.

In Japanese Historiography and the Gold Seal of 57 C.E., Joshua Fogel examines the waves of historiographical analysis that this first item to pass officially from China to Japan has undergone in the two-plus centuries since its discovery.

Listen, Copy, Read: Popular Learning in Early Modern Japan endeavors to elucidate the mechanisms by which a growing number of men and women of all social strata became involved in the acquisition of knowledge and skills during the Tokugawa period.

Japan's Sexual Gods is an exciting original work about the deities represented by phalluses and female sexual objects in Japanese shrines. Their roles in procreation and protection, their rituals and festivals are described in detail along with unique location photographs.

In From Outcasts to Emperors, David Quinter illuminates the Shingon Ritsu movement founded by the charismatic Buddhist monk Eison (1201-90) at Saidaiji in Nara, Japan, with a focus on Eison and his disciples' involvement in the cult of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī.

The chapters in this volume use diverse methodologies to challenge a number of long-standing assumptions regarding the principal contours of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Japanese society, especially regarding values, social hierarchy, state authority, and the construction and spread of identity.

In this new critical edition of Harima Fudoki, Edwina Palmer presents a fresh translation and interpretation of the stories of gods, people and places contained in this important eighth-century Japanese document, a primary source for all who study ancient Japan.

Through close reading of photography-inspired texts by Tanizaki, Abe, Horie and Kanai, The Rhetoric of Photography in Modern Japanese Literature by Atsuko Sakaki examines the Japanese literary engagement with photography as a means of bringing forgotten subject-object dynamics to light.