The Roof Garden and Other Theater Writings

On a department store’s roof garden, two old friends meet after years apart. One has prospered; the other struggles to make a living. Their wives’ shopping, a proposed loan, and an invitation to dinner turn a polite conversation into a painful encounter with pride, friendship, and the inequalities of ordinary life.

Kishida Kunio’s one-act play The Roof Garden stands beside nine essays and sketches written during the 1920s. He considers the art of making characters speak, the relationship between playwrights and actors, school theater, and the need for a living modern stage. Accounts of Ibsen performances in Paris and a Japanese theatrical tour open questions about artistic exchange and cultural prejudice. Paris Sketches captures streets, gardens, cafés, theaters, and monuments in brief, sharply observed passages.

This complete selection preserves dialogue, stage directions, silences, physical verse and sketch lines, and the author’s uncompromising judgments. Concise notes explain names, period language, allusions, and textual uncertainties.