One of the more intriguing developments within medieval Japanese literature is the incorporation into the teaching of waka poetry of the practices of initiation ceremonies and secret transmissions found in esoteric Buddhism. The main figure in this development was the obscure thirteenth-century poet Fujiwara Tameaki, grandson of the famous poet Fujiwara Teika and a priest in a tantric Buddhist sect. Tameaki's commentaries and teachings transformed secular texts such as the Tales of Ise and poetry anthologies such as the Kokin waka shu into complex allegories of Buddhist enlightenment. These commentaries were transmitted to his students during elaborate initiation ceremonies. In later periods, Tameaki's specific ideas fell out of vogue, but the habit of interpreting poetry allegorically continued.This book examines the contents of these commentaries as well as the qualities of the texts they addressed that lent themselves to an allegorical interpretation; the political, economic, and religious developments of the Kamakura period that encouraged the development of this method of interpretation; and the possible motives of the participants in this school of interpretation. Through analyses of six esoteric commentaries, Susan Blakeley Klein presents examples of this interpretive method and discusses its influence on subsequent texts, both elite and popular.

Allegories of Desire: Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval Japan (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series)

Literature & Fiction

Klein, Susan Blakeley

History & Criticism

Harvard University Asia Center

Dancing the Dharma examines the theory and practice of allegory by exploring a select group of medieval Japanese noh plays and treatises. Susan Blakeley Klein demonstrates how medieval esoteric commentaries on the tenth-century poem-tale Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise) and the first imperial waka poetry anthology Kokin wakashü influenced the plots, characters, imagery, and rhetorical structure of seven plays (Maiguruma, Kuzu no hakama, Unrin'in, Oshio, Kakitsubata, Ominameshi, and Haku Rakuten) and two treatises (Zeami's Rikugi and Zenchiku's Meishukushü). In so doing, she shows that it was precisely the allegorical mode-vital to medieval Japanese culture as a whole-that enabled the complex layering of character and poetic landscape we typically associate with noh. Klein argues that understanding noh's allegorical structure and paying attention to the localized historical context for individual plays are key to recovering their original function as political and religious allegories. Now viewed in the context of contemporaneous beliefs and practices of the medieval period, noh plays take on a greater range and depth of meaning and offer new insights to readers today into medieval Japan.

Dancing the Dharma: Religious and Political Allegory in Japanese Noh Theater (Harvard East Asian Monographs)

A brief introduction to the history, philosophy, and techniques of the Japanese avant-garde dance movement, Ankoku Buto. Evoking images of grotesque beauty, revelling in the seamy underside of human behavior, Buto dance groups such as Sankai Juku and Dai Rakuda-kan have performed to wide critical and popular acclaim, making Buto one of the most influential new forces in the dance world today. The monograph traces the development of Buto from its birth in the bleak post-war landscape of 1950s Japan, and then addresses the question of Buto as a post-modern phenomenon, before going on to examine the influence of traditional Japanese performance on Buto techniques. The last chapter analyzes a specific dance (Niwa - The Garden) by Muteki-sha, to show how these techniques are used concretely. Includes translations of four essays on Butō by contemporary Japanese dance critics.

Ankoku Buto: The Premodern and Postmodern Influences on the Dance of Utter Darkness (Cornell East Asia Series) (Cornell East Asia Series, 49)

Humor & Entertainment

Cornell East Asia Series

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Klein, Susan Blakeley. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Klein, Susan Blakeley

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Klein, Susan Blakeley. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Allegories of Desire: Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval Japan (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series)

Dancing the Dharma: Religious and Political Allegory in Japanese Noh Theater (Harvard East Asian Monographs)

Ankoku Buto: The Premodern and Postmodern Influences on the Dance of Utter Darkness (Cornell East Asia Series) (Cornell East Asia Series, 49)