Kunio Kishida (岸田 國士, Kishida Kunio, 2 November 1890 – 5 March 1954) was a Japanese playwright, dramatist, novelist, lecturer, acting coach, theatre critic, translator, and proponent of Shingeki ("New Theatre"/”New Drama").[1] Kishida spearheaded the modernization of Japanese dramaturgy and transformed Japanese theatre acting. He was a staunch advocate for the theatre to operate as a dual artistic and literary space.[2]
At the beginning of the Meiji era, efforts to modernize the Japanese theatre became a critical topic for Japanese playwrights, and these endeavors persisted well into the 1920s before Kishida wrote his first plays. However, his predecessors' attempts did not come to fruition, and Kishida is recognized as the first playwright to successfully reform the narrative, thematic, and performative trajectories of Japanese playwriting and acting through Shingeki.
Kishida was known for his vehement opposition to traditional Japanese kabuki, noh, and shimpa theatre. Following a temporary residency in France, Kishida became heavily inspired by European theatres, playwriting, and acting styles and believed these needed to be applied to Japanese theatre. While Kishida never intended his nation's theatrical scene to undergo a complete Westernization, he recognized that Japan's increasingly globalized presence meant it needed to adapt and engage with its Western counterparts' literary and theatrical practices.
From Kishida's perspective, the theatre was never intended to serve as a popular entertainment venue. He argued for the essentiality of the theatre as a serious performative and literary mode of creative expression.
^“Shingeki.” Global Shakespeares: Video and Performance Archive. MIT. Accessed October 4, 2021. https://globalshakespeares.mit.edu/glossary/shingeki/.
^Kalb, Jonathan (2005-05-17). "Western Drama With a Japanese Accent". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
KunioKishida (岸田 國士, KishidaKunio, 2 November 1890 – 5 March 1954) was a Japanese playwright, dramatist, novelist, lecturer, acting coach, theatre critic...
playwright KunioKishida and Akiko Murakawa Kishida. Her younger sister was the actress Kyoko Kishida and her cousin was the actor Shin Kishida. Kishida was...
comedy-drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on a play by KunioKishida. The marriage of Fumiko and Ryōtarō Namiki has gone stale, with both...
Suginami, Tokyo. His uncle was playwright KunioKishida, and actress Kyōko Kishida and children's author Eriko Kishida were his first cousins. He lived in Nakano...
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dream or art." Kumo no kai – a literary movement group presided over by KunioKishida in 1950–1954, to which Mishima belonged. Mishima Yukio Prize – a literary...
The Kishida Prize for Drama (岸田國士戯曲賞, KishidaKunio Gikyokushō) is a Japanese theater award given by the publisher Hakusuisha in honor of the playwright...
including Kenzo Tange, Kunio Maekawa, Michizo Tachihara, Ryuichi Hamaguchi, Takashi Asada, and many more, who were enrolled in the Kishida Laboratory.[citation...
time. In 1926, he moved to Tokyo, where he convinced the playwright, KunioKishida, to accept him as a student. In 1929, he went to Paris, France to study...
the archaic forms found in kabuki or noh drama. With the playwrights KunioKishida and Tsuneari Fukuda, he established his own theater company, Kumo no...
he often adapted literary works from writers like Tōson Shimazaki, KunioKishida and Isoko Hatano, many of his screenplays were based on his original...
Kigeki [ja] (悲劇喜劇, a theatrical magazine first published in 1928 by KunioKishida) Hayakawa publishes books under a number of imprints. Hayakawa Mystery...
Kikuchi, Kume, Yoshikawa, Yoshiya, Fumiko Hayashi, Matsutarō Kawaguchi, KunioKishida, Masajirō Kojima and Tadao Kumei. The subsequently published works by...
"Big Three" among Shingeki theatre troupes. The company was founded by KunioKishida, Mantarō Kubota and Bunroku Shishi on September 6, 1937. Its name means...
Fairy (1951 film), directed by Keisuke Kinoshita based on a novel by KunioKishida This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title The...
Kunio Shimizu (清水 邦夫, Shimizu Kunio) (17 November 1936 – 15 April 2021) was a Japanese playwright. Niigata is his hometown, which is located on the Japan...
the 1980s small-scale youth theater movement in Japan", he won the KunioKishida Award in 1995 for his play Sunafukin no tegami. Earning a fellowship...
Aimitsu, Kishida Ryūsei, Matsumoto Shunsuke, Nakamura Tsune, Takahashi Yuichi, Yasui Sōtarō, and Yorozu Tetsugoro. The building was designed by Kunio Maekawa...
"Barbarians"), and participated in the playwright workshops run by KunioKishida and Kan Kikuchi. After her graduation, she first worked as a teacher...
of other leading writers (including Eiji Yoshikawa, Nobuko Yoshiya, KunioKishida, and Tatsuzō Ishikawa) to be embedded within the Imperial Japanese Army...
plays while still at university. During this time, he was a disciple of KunioKishida, one of the most prominent Japanese playwrights of the 20th century...
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