Project:

Japanese Traditional Theatre Timeline

Noh. Kyogen. Kabuki. Bunraku.   Four distinct traditions, each with its own impressive history, each still being performed today.  For this project, I focused on when the different styles emerged and developed with relation to each other.  The images here, with a few exceptions, don’t necessarily correlate to the time period where they are placed.  The focus in these performance styles on maintaining and passing the traditions on without change, means there is far less variation over time than in the Greek and Roman theatre.

This is best viewed on a large screen (desktop, laptop, maybe a tablet). If you are the scholarly type and notice something incorrect, feel free to let me know (use the contact form in the footer).  I don’t own the copyright to these images, and I am sharing them here for educational purposes only.  Sources are listed at the bottom.

Works consulted:

Traditional Japanese Theatre: An Anthology of Plays, ed. Karen Brazell, Columbia University Press, New York, 1998.
Miracles and Mischief: Noh and Kyogen Theatre in Japan, Sharon Sadako Takeda & Monica Bethe, Los Angeles County Museum of Art Associates, Los Angeles, 2002.
http://www.fragrancex.com/Fragrance-Information/the-kabuki-story.html
Photos of Noh and Kyogen Masks provided by: Inoue Inc. Corp.
Photos of Bunraku Puppets provided by: The Yomiuri Shimbun Osaka