{"product_id":"dancing-the-dharma","title":"Dancing the Dharma","description":"\u003ci\u003eDancing the Dharma\u003c\/i\u003e examines the theory and practice of allegory by exploring a select group of medieval Japanese \u003ci\u003enoh\u003c\/i\u003e plays and treatises. Susan Blakeley Klein demonstrates how medieval esoteric commentaries on the tenth-century poem-tale \u003ci\u003eIse monogatari\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eTales of Ise\u003c\/i\u003e) and the first imperial \u003ci\u003ewaka\u003c\/i\u003e poetry anthology \u003ci\u003eKokin wakashū\u003c\/i\u003e influenced the plots, characters, imagery, and rhetorical structure of seven plays (\u003ci\u003eMaiguruma\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eKuzu no hakama\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eUnrin’in\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eOshio\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eKakitsubata\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eOminameshi\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eHaku Rakuten\u003c\/i\u003e) and two treatises (Zeami’s \u003ci\u003eRikugi\u003c\/i\u003e and Zenchiku’s \u003ci\u003eMeishukushū\u003c\/i\u003e). In so doing, she shows that it was precisely the allegorical mode—vital to medieval Japanese culture as a whole—that enabled the complex layering of character and poetic landscape we typically associate with \u003ci\u003enoh\u003c\/i\u003e. Klein argues that understanding \u003ci\u003enoh\u003c\/i\u003e’s allegorical structure and paying attention to the localized historical context for individual plays are key to recovering their original function as political and religious allegories. Now viewed in the context of contemporaneous beliefs and practices of the medieval period, \u003ci\u003enoh\u003c\/i\u003e plays take on a greater range and depth of meaning and offer new insights to readers today into medieval Japan.","brand":"Harvard University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54218035626328,"sku":"9780674247840","price":71.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780674247840.jpg?v=1749743149","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/dancing-the-dharma","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}