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.

"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.

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.