Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Commentary (plays not included). Pages: 28. Chapters: Banch Sarayashiki, Benten Koz, Botan D r, Funa benkei, Iwashi Uri Koi Hikiami, Jiraiya, Kabuki J hachiban, Kanjinch, Shibaraku, Shinko engeki jisshu, Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami, The Battles of Coxinga, The Love Suicides at Amijima, Uwanari, Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura, Yotsuya Kaidan. Excerpt: Yoshitsune Senbon Zakura ( ), or Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees, is a Japanese play, one of the three most popular and famous in the Kabuki repertoire. Originally written in 1747 for the j ruri puppet theater by Takeda Izumo II, Miyoshi Sh raku and Namiki Senry I, it was adapted to kabuki the following year. Adapted to Kabuki, the play premiered in that mode in January 1748, in the city of Ise, in Mie Prefecture. Kataoka Nizaemon IV and Yamamoto Koheiji were two of the actors in this performance, playing Ginpei and Tadanobu/Genkur respectively. The premiere in Edo was held at the Nakamura-za in May the same year, and in Osaka at the Naka no Shibai just a few months later in August. The play is derived from the sekai of the Heike Monogatari, a classical epic which details the rise and fall of the Taira clan of samurai. The latter portions describe the eventual defeat of the Taira in the Genpei War (1180-85), at the hands of the Minamoto clan, led by Minamoto no Yoshitsune, the title character of this play. Yoshitsune takes place a few years after the end of the Genpei War. Minamoto no Yoshitsune, the famous general, is being pursued by agents of his brother, Minamoto no Yoritomo, who has recently established himself as Shogun. Yoshitsune travels with his mistress Shizuka and loyal retainer Benkei in search of three Taira generals who escaped justice at the end of the war, and who he believes may pose a threat to the shogunate. This aspect of the plot is...