Customer Reviews:
 A Spirited Study of Supernatural Stagecraft November 5, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a superb book, sure to remain the definitive study of Izumi Kyoka's drama for decades. And a compelling one at that. Each day I eagerly looked forwards to picking up where I left off, which is rare even for academic studies that I like. Izumi Kyoka is perhaps one of modern Japan's most fascinating writers and yet one of the most understudied for any number of plausible but ultimately unjustifiable reasons, so such a fine work as "Spirits of Another Sort" is doubly precious, certainly. M. Cody Poulton is to be thanked for taking on the difficulties and complexities of Kyoka's work head on and with verve at that, and along with Charles Inouye making that work available in English in all its weirdness and wonder.
The book itself is comprised of two parts, a critical study and a set of translations. The critical study discusses Kyoka's involvement with the theater in depth, from adaptations of some of his early more melodramatic works to original dramas he wrote specifically to be staged (though many weren't until after his death). Extensive attention is given to the strange blend of private mythology and local folklore/religion informing Kyoka's supernatural vision, especially as it shows up in the latter plays--and this is compared and contrasted with similar but ultimately very different uses of similar motifs in plays by Mori Ogai and Tsubouchi Shoyo. Kyoka's interest in and translation of Gerhardt Hauptmann's play "The Sunken Bell" is also explored, and not only do we see Kyoka developing his own ideas on how to present the supernatural on stage in conversation with this work, we're also corrected from mistaking him for some sort of hidebound traditionalist "purely Japanese" and ignorant of the world at large. Rather, he had the self-confidence in his own lights and his own traditions to better appreciate and selectively learn from others. All in all, these critical essays are sophisticated and nuanced and yet well-written and clear, free of unnecessary jargon and pretentiousness (except for a few French quotes left untranslated)--scholarship as it should be, in short.
And all that's just the prelude to the plays. Poulton has translated three of Kyoka's key plays here: "Demon Pond" ("Yashagaike"), "The Sea God's Villa" ("Kaijin Besso"), and "The Castle Tower" ("Tenshu Monogatari"). All three are classic Kyoka, romantic and eerie and populated with both mortals and, well, spirits of another sort. If you've enjoyed his short stories, you'll love these plays, though the requirements of the stage make the supernatural element less subtle and surreal and more overt and solid. Poulton's translations are right on, too, and with great creativity and linguistic playfulness he makes Kyoka's dialogue spring alive in English, staying true to its spirit as well as its literal meaning. And each play is followed by a "commentary" that is basically a fine critical study of each play.
There are lots of little extras, too, like 16 illustration plates and an appendix listing productions of Kyoka's plays since 1986. All of this makes for, as I said before, a truly superb book. If you are interested in the works of Izumi Kyoka, you owe it to yourself to get a hold of it. Those interested in Japanese literature, drama, or religion and folklore more generally should also find much of interest here, not to mention students of modern world drama.
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