High-Collar and Other Writings

What makes literature bright? What makes a performance come alive? In these sixteen writings, Kishida Kunio approaches such questions through argument, personal memory, travel sketches, and close observation of the stage.

His distinctive idea of “high-collar” style reaches beyond fashionable clothes into intelligence, independence, and artistic form. Memories of the Moscow Art Theater in Paris and rehearsals with Jacques Copeau stand beside accounts of a village amateur company, childhood mishaps, and faces encountered on ships and trains. Reviews and notices return to the expressive force of words spoken aloud.

The collection closes with a complete one-act play in which a young man argues with his mother about inheritance, affection, and freedom, then faces an unsettling encounter with his dead father. A central figure in modern Japanese theater, Kishida brings wit and discomfort to both criticism and drama. These complete English translations preserve the supplied order, sections, verse lines, and stage directions, with concise historical and textual notes.