Five Modern Nō Plays.

MISHIMA, Yukio.

$3,500.00

Item Number: 138221

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1957.

First edition in English of the author’s collection of five Nō plays. Octavo, original half cloth, illustrated wit ten photographs in half tone. Translated, with am introduction by Donald Keene. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Belle Spewack with the author’s best wishes Yukio Mishima Feb. 1966 Tokyo.” The recipient, Bella and her husband Samuel Spewack co-authored several of the most memorable works of musical theatre history including Kiss Me, Kate. Very good in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Philip Grushkin.

"The world of the psychiatric hospital, of the law office, and of the public park certainly seems a far cry from the dreamlike realms of the Nō, but however free Mishima's use of the original material, the dramatic situations remain identical. What Mishima has done principally is to add a modern understanding to the situations and to explore possibilities only vaguely adumbrated in the fifteenth century texts..." (Donald Keene).