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As part of its program to promote democracy in Japan after World War II, the American Occupation, headed by General Douglas MacArthur, undertook to enforce rigid censorship policies aimed at eliminating all traces of feudal thought in media and entertainment, including kabuki. Faubion Bowers (1917-1999), who served as personal aide and interpreter to MacArthur during the Occupation, was appalled by the censorship policies and anticipated the extinction of a great theatrical art. He used his position in the Occupation administration and his knowledge of Japanese theatre in his tireless campaign to save kabuki. Largely through Bowers's efforts, censorship of kabuki had for the most part been e...
"The Problem Of The Gods" is a historical fiction novel that depicts the evil acts of men in those days when Nigeria was not colonized by civilization. Some parts of the Ibibio/Efik villages were worshiping idols, using the power of their forefathers to perform wonders and evil manipulations. Akarika was a witch doctor, who in those days was an evil man. Many innocent souls' blood was stained in his hand. It also revolves around the barbaric Nigerian culture that affects Ibibio widows. It focuses on the pains and rejections they must endure while grieving their husbands. This can be seen in the life of Inemesit after she lost her husband Effiong, who was one of the best hunters of the time. The exercise totally dehumanized her. Then the story talked about some of the culture and lifestyle of the Ibibio people in the southern part of Nigeria African countries.
The King and the Maiden is an intriguing story of the Ibibio culture and traditions. Ekaette, the central character in the book, grew up in the village but later spent a greater part of her years outside her place of birth. Despite leaving the village for so many years to study abroad, she was disturbed by her childhood desire. On her return, she becomes a heroine to the people and a nightmare to some group of men as she inspired the young and elderly people in the village. For her fame, she was hunted by a council of elders who saw her closeness to the people as a threat to their influence on the people and the king. At one point, she became helpless when intimidation started coming from the dreaded masquerade with the backing of the council of chiefs as the highest governing council in the village. They are feared by everybody in the village. As nobody could intervene on her behalf, she went into hiding when she discovered her life was in danger. But when a group of people took to the street, this set the stage for the resilient women union and the dreaded council of elders.
In the latter half of the Edo period, the warrior caste was finding itself pushed out of the top echelons of Japanese society & repeated famines swept the countryside. Against this backdrop, a small number of women built themselves independent lives. The stories in this book recount the conditions in which these women lived.
A brilliant medical doctor works his way through the help of a pen pal into a specialist training course in a foreign country. Initially lonely and friendless save for his benefactor pen pal he later warms his way into the love of an indigenous staff nurse in the hospital where he did his residency program. Fame and fortune smile on the doctor after his specialization and he secures appointment as a staff of a teaching hospital in another region of his native country after an initial discriminatory rejection during an interview. Through further good luck coupled with his sterling qualities of honesty he gets appointed as a chairman of one of his country's largest mining companies after an ac...
Kabuki Plays On Stage represents a monumental achievement in Japanese theatre studies, being the first collection of kabuki play translations to be published in twenty-five years. Fifty-one plays, published in four volumes, vividly trace kabuki's changing relations to Japanese society during the premodern era. Volume 1 consists of thirteen plays that showcase early kabuki's scintillating and boisterous styles of performance and illustrates the contrasting dramatic techniques cultivated by actors in Edo (Tokyo) and Kamigata (Osaka and Kyoto). The twelve plays translated in Volume 2 cover a brief period, but one that saw important developments in kabuki architecture, acting, dance, and the man...