Japanese Folk Plays: The Ink Smeared Lady and Other Kyogen

This collection of Japanese folk plays reveals a previously unknown and decidedly unaristocratic element to Japanese theater.

Interspersed between the stately, slower paced dramas of Japan’s Noh theater are the delightful comic plays or interludes known as Kyogen. These brief plays evolved from the bawdy skits that were rousingly enjoyed by the plebeian populaces of the cities in feudal Japan some ...