This anthology is the first to survey the full range of modern Japanese drama and make available Japan's best and most representative twentieth- and early-twenty-first-century works in one volume. Divided into six chronological sections: ?The Age of Taisho Drama"; The Tsukiji Tsukiji Little Theater and Its Aftermath"; ?Wartime and Postwar Drama"; ?The 1960's and Underground Theater"; ?The 1980's and Beyond"; and ? Popular Theater," the collection opens with a comprehensive introduction to Meiji period drama and provides an informal yet complete history of twentieth-century Japanese theater