Experimentation

Abstract

Yoritomo no Shi, with its implied repudiation of former attacks on Mayama’s historicity and its employment of kabuki techniques to highlight a single character’s inner anguish, marks both the end of one stage and the beginning of another in Mayama Seika’s career. For eight years, since Genboku to Chōei, Mayama had explored the dramatic possibilities of inner conflict with a number of different actors and in several different dramatic genres. The next few years do not see any diminution in the variety of plays written and produced or the types of production, but Mayama Seika now experiments more with subject matter. Most of the plays discussed in previous chapters have portrayed characters torn within themselves; several of those about to be discussed are known as representative Mayama Seika plays without having this characteristic.