Five Modern No Plays

Book excerpt: Five No plays—one of the great art forms that has fascinated people throughout the world—from one of Japan's outstanding post-war writers. • "Mishima's is a wonderful, astonishing, and frightening creative energy." —The New York Times Magazine The late Yukio Mishima infused new life into the form by using it for plays that preserve the style and inner spirit of No and are at the same time so modern, so direct, and intelligible that they could, as he suggested, be played on a bench in Central Park. Here are five of his No plays, stunning in their contemporary nature and relevance—and finally made available again for readers to enjoy.