Classic

The series will consist of ten volumes. There will be a supplementary volume on the history and development of the hatchment and any errors and omissions will be dealt with in an addendum when the series is completed.

This book contains an information introduction explaining the nature of kabuki performance patterns as well as the many variations in standard presentations. A helpful discussion of the different interpretations from the viewpoint of actors and critics precedes the text of each of the five plays included here – benten kozo, pulling the carriage apart and the village school (from sugawara’s secrets of calligraphy), Shunkan, and Naozamurai.

The voice is original, plain, pained. The context borders on the gothic. The effect is to reveal both magic and menace as being present in the ordinary.

Without blood opens with a violent vendetta which swiftly culminates in a family tragedy for four-year-old Nina, who is spared only by an extraordinary act of mercy.

Many years later, Nina is reunited with her childhood sevious, prompting them to reappraise both their lives and what took place on that fateful night over half a century earlier,