America's Japan and Japan's Performing Arts: Cultural Mobility and Exchange in New York, 1952-2011 [Hardcover]

America’s Japan and Japan’s Performing Artsstudies the images and myths that have shaped the reception of Japan-related theater, music, and dance in the United States since the 1950s. Soon after World War II, visits by Japanese performing artists to the United States emerged as a significant category of American cultural-exchange initiatives aimed at helping establish and build friendly ties with Japan. Barbara E. Thornbury explores how “Japan” and “Japanese culture” have been constructed, reconstructed, and transformed in response to the hundreds of productions that have taken place over the past sixty years in New York, the main entry point and defining cultural nexus in the United States for the global touring market in the performing arts. The author’s transdisciplinary approach makes the book appealing to those in the performing arts studies, Japanese studies, and cultural studies.

Tracing Japanese art and culture as they begin arriving on American shores in the postwar period

Barbara E. Thornbury is Professor of Japanese at Temple University.

Though ostensibly about Japanese performing arts, Thornbury's book makes a statement about North America's myopic view of the world and how influential arts presenters in New York City have fostered it.
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[America’s Japan is a compelling read for anyone interested in cross/inter/trans cultural performance theory and practice."
--Asian Theatre Journal