Dear History Afficionados,
This isn't strictly samurai, but being Japanese theatre history it could be construed to be closely related as some samurai no doubt took part in or watched the proceedings described further herein. Certainly, as Noh was a theatre of the samurai elite, there was also Kyogen and Kabuki as a theatre of the people. I leave it to the Moderator to decide the relevance of this post to samurai history...
I was "just trawling" a link from one of my Nihonto links on sword swallowing
http://www.swordswallow.com/index.php
followed a link on that page
http://www.swordswallow.com/history.php
and found a link there to sword swallowing in Japan ca 750
http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/japan/DanceDrama/Japanese_Drama_Noh.html
where I found the following introduction:
"Welcome to Horace Mann's Webpage on
Drama in Medieval through 19th century Japan:
Kyogen, Noh, Kabuki, and Puppets (Bunraku)"
I'd never heard of Horace Mann, but it appears he was a great and famous American educator (1796-1859). Live and learn...
Regards,
Barry Thomas
(Melbourne, Australia)
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