This is the final volume in a monumental series that contains the texts of 52 plays, all of them until now untranslated. The four-volume set is the first such collection in a quarter of a century. Twenty-two translators have been involved, and the whole has been edited by two outstanding kabuki scholars.
The plays chosen were thought to show "the full sweep of Kabuki dramaturgy." Included are period plays, domestic plays and dance pieces -- all of them illustrated with full-color wood-block prints and color or black-and-white photographs.
This fourth volume is one of the most interesting because it displays the versatility of kabuki confronted with the reforms thought necessary during the Meiji Era (1868-1912). Japan's leaders embarked on an effort to create a society embodied with "civilization and enlightenment," by which they meant some compromise that would be accepted by the Western powers then threatening their country.