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Performing Transgression
Crowds and Bodies in Heian Japan
Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs
Brief Description
What happens when performance defies social and political boundaries? Performing Transgression offers a new cultural history of non-elite spectacle in Heian Japan (794-1185), uncovering how performances on the margins—boisterous dengaku music and dance, daring sangaku acrobatics, and the infectious lyrics of imayō songs—challenged and fascinated the...
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See moreWhat happens when performance defies social and political boundaries? Performing Transgression offers a new cultural history of non-elite spectacle in Heian Japan (794–1185)—boisterous dengaku music and dance, daring sangaku acrobatics, and the infectious lyrics of imayō songs—that challenged and fascinated the aristocracy.
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Description
What happens when performance defies social and political boundaries? Performing Transgression offers a new cultural history of non-elite spectacle in Heian Japan (794-1185), uncovering how performances on the margins—boisterous dengaku music and dance, daring sangaku acrobatics, and the infectious lyrics of imayō songs—challenged and fascinated the aristocracy.
Ashton Lazarus reveals how these unruly arts were documented by the very elites they unsettled, appearing in historical chronicles, diaries, prose, poetry, and illustrated scrolls. More than mere precursors to later forms like noh and kyōgen, these performances formed a dynamic cultural force with real political impact. By tracing their influence through literary studies, performance studies, and historiography, Lazarus rethinks the interplay between politics, class, and culture in Heian Japan.
Performing Transgression illuminates how acts of defiance and creative expression resonate across time, offering fresh insights into the ways performance bridges the vanished past and the present.
Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780674303430
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 10 March 2026
Country: United States
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Illustration: 11 photos, 2 color photos, 5 tables
Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 152.0mm
Height: 229.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 324
About the Author
Ashton Lazarus is Assistant Professor of World Languages and Cultures at the University of Utah.
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