Susan Blakely Klein's Books

Dancing the Dharma

Religious and Political Allegory in Japanese Noh Theater

By: Susan Blakely Klein

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Dancing the Dharma

Religious and Political Allegory in Japanese Noh Theater

By: Susan Blakely Klein

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 wakashū 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 Meishukushū). 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.

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Page Count

420

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BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

1684176239

ISBN 13

9781684176236

Allegories of Desire

Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval Japan

By: Susan Blakely Klein

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Allegories of Desire

Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval Japan

By: Susan Blakely Klein

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.

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Page Count

372

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BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

1684170389

ISBN 13

9781684170388

The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Historical Fiction and Popular Culture in Japan

By: Susan Westhafer Furukawa

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The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Historical Fiction and Popular Culture in Japan

By: Susan Westhafer Furukawa

Popular representations of the past are everywhere in Japan, from cell phone charms to manga, from television dramas to video games to young people dressed as their favorite historical figures hanging out in the hip Harajuku district. But how does this mass consumption of the past affect the way consumers think about history and what it means to be Japanese? By analyzing representations of the famous sixteenth-century samurai leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi in historical fiction based on Taikōki, the original biography of him, this book explores how and why Hideyoshi has had a continued and ever-changing presence in popular culture in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Japan. The multiple fictionalized histories of Hideyoshi published as serial novels and novellas before, during, and after World War II demonstrate how imaginative re-presentations of Japan’s past have been used by various actors throughout the modern era. Using close reading of several novels and short stories as well as the analysis of various other texts and paratextual materials, Susan Furukawa discovers a Hideyoshi who is always changing to meet the needs of the current era, and in the process expands our understanding of the powerful role that historical narratives play in Japan.

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Page Count

240

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BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

1684176379

ISBN 13

9781684176373

Dancing the Dharma

Religious and Political Allegory in Japanese Noh Theater

By: Susan Blakely Klein

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Dancing the Dharma

Religious and Political Allegory in Japanese Noh Theater

By: Susan Blakely Klein

Average ratings

N/A

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

420

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

1684176239

ISBN 13

9781684176236

Allegories of Desire

Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval Japan

By: Susan Blakely Klein

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Allegories of Desire

Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval Japan

By: Susan Blakely Klein

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

372

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

1684170389

ISBN 13

9781684170388

Book's by Susan Blakely Klein

Dancing the Dharma

Dancing the Dharma

Allegories of Desire

Allegories of Desire

The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Dancing the Dharma

Dancing the Dharma

Allegories of Desire

Allegories of Desire

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