Overview

America’s Japan and Japan’s Performing Arts studies the images and myths that have shaped the reception of Japan-related theater, music, and dance in the United States since the 1950s. Soon after World War II, visits by Japanese performing artists to the United States emerged as a significant category of American cultural-exchange initiatives aimed at helping establish and build friendly ties with Japan. Barbara E. Thornbury explores how “Japan” and “Japanese culture” have been constructed, reconstructed, and transformed in response to the hundreds of productions that have taken place over the past sixty years in New York, the main entry point and defining cultural nexus in the United States for the global touring market in the performing arts. The author’s transdisciplinary approach makes the book appealing to those in the performing arts studies, Japanese studies, and cultural studies.

Full Product Details

9780472118854

Table of Contents

Reviews

A love letter to Japanese traditional and contemporary performing arts in New York and a detailed scholarly history of the reception and understanding of those arts and that history by Americans from the turn of the last century to the present moment. The volume is accessible, thought-provoking, detailed, and noteworthy for its scope. Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., Loyola Marymount University

Author Information

Barbara E. Thornbury is Professor of Japanese at Temple University.

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