This volume provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of the history of kabuki, Japan's 'music-dance-drama'. It traces the development of the form from its ribald, burlesque beginnings in the early 1600s, through to the 21st century experimental fusions with pop culture that are on-going today and examines five popular works drawn from the 18th to the 20th centuries.

Along the way, it examines the development of star-driven commercial theatre with blockbuster plays; the 250 year running conflict with the ruling samurai regime; the invention of horror theatre; and classicization and Western influence in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Within this historical framework the author analyses in detail five of the most frequently performed kabuki plays, focusing on play writing and inter-textuality, stage presentation (costuming/direction /acting/stage effects), and audience reception from first performances until today, both in Japan and abroad. Drawing on his directorial experience, Kominz explores how fine acting and dance are used alongside exciting staging are used to facilitate intense audience engagement with both the story they are witnessing and the stage actors themselves.