Japan on the Jesuit Stage

by Haruka Oba

"Jesuits in the East were a major source of European information on Japan from the late 16th to early 17th century. Not only were they active as missionaries, they also produced linguistic, religious and cultural tracts, regional chronicles, and thousands of Latin plays written in imitation of classical Greco-Roman theatre. An intriguing yet underexplored segment of Jesuit school theatre is that which stages non-classical, non-Western subjects such as Japan, and this volume is the first to present Latin texts of two of these plays alongside full English translations, commentaries and an...