Japanese Theatre

Hello! I’m mainly learning Japanese so that I can travel and watch different versions of traditional and non-traditional Japanese theatre (e.g. bunroku, kabuki, revues, noh etc.) and I’ve been watching what I can find online, but other than sparing archived clips and the kabuki content currently on Netflix, I haven’t been able to find much other than DVDs that I would have to get from Japan to the UK which would no doubt cost a fortune. Does anyone know any good resources for Japanese theatre in particular?

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If you’re fine with religious theatre, then I think there’s actually a lot of kagura on YouTube :thinking:

Hopefully that will have a lot of recommended videos with even more

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that’s a fair shout, i don’t really consume kagura as much mostly just because it’s a lot more dance focused which is definitely not a big issue but isn’t something I’m as interested in, but I’ll definitely keep an eye out for that along with everything else because I usually end up forgetting that it’s also out there

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Is that a motherfricking 鬼滅の刃 reference?

ゴゴゴ

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Does traditional Japanese theater even use modern Japanese?

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I took a Japanese friend to the Kabuki for her first time, and she said some parts were hard for her to understand. Combination of old-style Japanese and the hyper-stylized way they speak sometimes. But she could understand well enough to really enjoy it. (Plus, she speaks English too and I had rented a little box that did English subtitles as we went.)

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It’s kind of a mix tbh, but I don’t really watch it to learn Japanese anyway, it’s more that I started learning Japanese to enable me to travel and then go to watch shows like that.

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Hi I’m also really interested in Japanese theatre which is why I am learning Japanese too. During the lockdown, on YouTube, The Japan Foundation released many full length Japanese theatre shows from all styles such as Kabuki, 2.5d musicals, normal musicals, physical theatre, dance pieces and a lot more. They have a lot of traditional and non-traditional theatre on there which I really enjoyed. If you go on their YouTube channel, if you look at their playlists, they will all be in the Stage Beyond Borders playlists

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Have you looked at Japan Foundation on YouTube?

The Japan Foundation is starting a new project to broadcast 50 full-length performing arts titles with the cooperation of the Emergency Performing Arts Archives and Digital Theater Support Project(EPAD) from 20th October 2021!!
All movies will have subtitles in Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish and Japanese subtitles, for the better understanding of audiences from around the world.

Edit: Oops, sorry, just saw the post above me already covered that :sweat_smile:

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Kabuki x Star Wars = greatness

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I was looking at the Master list of Other Media things, and I didn’t even realize there was a topic for Japanese theater!!! I’m so happy to see it! I’m a huge fan of theater (when I get the chance to go which is very very rare) but I’d love to see more resources collected!!

The Japanese theater group that I got really into for a class is called DUMB TYPE. However their videos are very… not good for listening practice. At all. It’s very… Meta…? Lots of flashing lights and loud sounds, but I love it so much.

I also really like the puppet theater (bunraku?) and kabuki of course.

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I know this isn’t Japanese theatre in the traditional sense, but I found out that this company seems to have made theatre productions of several other Japanese games too (another one I saw was of the Persona series).