Kinoshita Junji, playwright and translator from Tokyo, graduated from Tokyo University where he studied Shakespeare. After World War II, he taught at Meiji University and wrote folk plays on the side. His most famous play, Yuzuru (1949; tr. Twilight Crane, 1952), was performed in 1949, followed shortly after by Furo (Wind and Waves). He was able to create a new style that fused together components of MODERN THEATER, kabuki, no, and kyogen and received the Yomiuri Prize for Shigosen no matsuri (1978; tr. Requiem on the Great Meridian, 2000).
See also THEATER REFORM.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.