"The most thoroughgoing study of bunraku performance yet to appear in English."
--Hugh de Ferranti in the Yearbook for Traditional Music

"Innovative . . . of value to those interested in the historical study of performance and performers."
--Helen S. E. Parker in the Journal of Oriental Studies

"A breakthrough publication. The authors have made an outstanding beginning in what promises to be a truly exciting development in the understanding of bunraku."
--Samuel L. Leiter in Asian Theatre Journal

"A distinct success."
--Susan Matisoff in the Journal of Japanese Studies

"A pioneer work that points the way for further exploration."
--A. Kimi Coaldrake in Monumenta Nipponica

This book is the first attempt to examine Bunraku in performance and to bring together musical, dramatic, and historical analyses into one study. The three authors focus on the famous "Mountains Scene" (Yama no dan), the third scene of the third act of Mt. Imo and Mt. Se: An Exemplary Tale of Womanly Virtue (Imoseyama onna teikin, 1771) by Chikamatsu Hanji. The book with its articles, translations, text, glossary of terms, and cassettes of the performance, is a complete guide to Bunraku as a performing tradition and will be useful to anyone interested in music or theater.