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49-667: The Akutagawa Prize was established in 1935 by Kan Kikuchi , then-editor of Bungeishunjū magazine, in memory of author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa . It is sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature , and is awarded in January and July to the best serious literary story published in a newspaper or magazine by a new or rising author. The winner receives a pocket watch and a cash award of 1 million yen. The judges usually include contemporary writers, literary critics, and former winners of

98-475: A murder mystery play which is the longest-running West End show , it has by far the longest run of any play in the world, with its 29,500th performance having taken place as of February 2024. Contemporary playwrights in the United States are affected by recent declines in theatre attendance. No longer the only outlet for serious drama or entertaining comedies, theatrical productions must use ticket sales as

147-581: A conflict between a father and son. The eldest son, Ken'ichirō, despises his father, Sōtarō, for his cruel treatment of the family and for deserting them. As the play progresses, the audience learns that Ken'ichirō's hatred towards his father fueled his determination of surpassing his father by providing better support for his family in his absence. After Sōtarō returns one night, the family welcomes him but Ken'ichirō's confrontation with him ultimately drives Sōtarō to leave. The play concludes with Ken'ichirō's sudden change of heart towards Sōtarō and accepting him into

196-507: A form of playwright. Outside of the Western world there is Indian classical drama , with one of the oldest known playwrights being Śudraka , whose attributed plays can be dated to the second century BC. The Nāṭya Shāstra , a text on the performing arts from between 500BC-500AD, categorizes playwrights as being among the members of a theatre company, although playwrights were generally the highest in social status, with some being kings. In

245-966: A great interest in modern drama, particularly Irish modern drama. Dramatists Kan studied included J.M. Synge and Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany . After graduating from the University of Kyoto, Kan wrote detailed articles on Synge and Irish plays for Teikoku-Bungaku ( 帝国文学 , Imperial Literature) and New Current of Thought . In 1925, Kan also published a book with Shuji Yamamoto, Eikoku Airan Kindaigeki Seizui (Quintessence of Modern Plays in England and Ireland). Kan's interests in Irish drama and J.S. Synge were also inspirations to his future works. In his Han-jijo-den ( 半自叙伝 , Semi-Autobiography) , Kan writes about his great interest in Irish drama. Though Kikuchi Kan recognized distinct characteristics between Western and Japanese cultures, he used his Japanese roots as

294-448: A pearl while she gradually rose in power over men. As the story unravels, it encourages the audience to think about Ruriko's motivation to carry out her actions and find the "truth" behind her thinking. According to Michiko Suzuki, this play became popular among female audiences because it gave them strength and the opportunity fulfill "the fantasy of female liberation". Suzuki further argues that many audience members believed that Ruriko

343-553: A pejorative sense by Ben Jonson to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson uses the word in his Epigram 49, which is thought to refer to John Marston or Thomas Dekker : Jonson described himself as a poet, not a playwright, since plays during that time were written in meter and so were regarded as the province of poets. This view was held as late as the early 19th century. The term "playwright" later again lost this negative connotation. The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are

392-635: A playwright, winning awards for his play The Phoenix at both the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition in 2000. Today, theatre companies have new play development programs meant to develop new American voices in playwriting. Many regional theatres have hired dramaturges and literary managers in an effort to showcase various festivals for new work, or bring in playwrights for residencies. Funding through national organizations, such as

441-525: A source of income, which has caused many of them to reduce the number of new works being produced. For example, Playwrights Horizons produced only six plays in the 2002–03 seasons, compared with thirty-one in 1973–74. Playwrights commonly encounter difficulties in getting their shows produced and often cannot earn a living through their plays alone, leading them to take up other jobs to supplement their incomes. Many playwrights are also film makers . For instance, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock began his career as

490-558: A stricter interpretation of Aristotle, as this long-lost work came to light in the late 15th century. The neoclassical ideal, which was to reach its apogee in France during the 17th century, dwelled upon the unities , of action, place, and time. This meant that the playwright had to construct the play so that its "virtual" time would not exceed 24 hours, that it would be restricted to a single setting, and that there would be no subplots. Other terms, such as verisimilitude and decorum, circumscribed

539-460: A sudden heart attack . From then on, she wanted to overcome the male dominance in the society she lived in. For a period of time Ruriko tricked men and played with their emotions, which lead many of them to violent deaths. However, Ruriko eventually was killed by one of her suitors. The name Shinju fujin symbolizes Ruriko's purity and preservation of chastity throughout her encounters with different men. She remained pure in body, mind, and soul like

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588-506: A watch and a cash award of five hundred Japanese yen ( ¥ ). The Naoki Prize was created by Kikuchi Kan as tribute to literary author Sanjugo Naoki (直木 三十五) after his death in February 1934. The Naoki Prize was given to rising authors of popular literature. The Naoki prizes were published in Oru Yomimono ( オール讀物 ) issues. The process of choosing recipients of the two prizes is for

637-436: A woman named Karasawa Ruriko 唐沢瑠璃子 is a baron's daughter who is forced into an arranged marriage with the rich Shōda Katsuhei 荘田勝平 to save the family from bankruptcy . Before and after Ruriko's arranged marriage to Katsuhei, she remained faithful to her feelings for Sugino Naoya 杉野直也, her first love, and decided to preserve her virginity. Due to Ruriko's choosing to be sexually pure, Katsuhei attempted to rape Ruriko but died from

686-565: Is Hans Sachs (1494–1576) who wrote 198 dramatic works. In England, The Second Shepherds' Play of the Wakefield Cycle is the best known early farce. However, farce did not appear independently in England until the 16th century with the work of John Heywood (1497–1580). Playwright William Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Most playwrights of

735-438: Is an archaic English term for a craftsperson or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright ). The words combine to indicate a person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form—a play. (The homophone with "write" is coincidental.) The first recorded use of the term "playwright" is from 1605, 73 years before the first written record of the term "dramatist". It appears to have been first used in

784-534: Is still useful to playwrights today is the " French scene ", which is a scene in a play where the beginning and end are marked by a change in the makeup of the group of characters onstage rather than by the lights going up or down or the set being changed. Notable playwrights: Greek theater was alive and flourishing on the island of Crete. During the Cretan Renaissance two notable Greek playwrights Georgios Chortatzis and Vitsentzos Kornaros were present in

833-462: The Ancient Greeks . These early plays were for annual Athenian competitions among play writers held around the 5th century BC. Such notables as Aeschylus , Sophocles , Euripides , and Aristophanes established forms still relied on by their modern counterparts. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides . The origins of Athenian tragedy remain obscure, though by

882-600: The National Endowment for the Arts and the Theatre Communications Group , encouraged the partnerships of professional theatre companies and emerging playwrights. Playwrights will often have a cold reading of a script in an informal sitdown setting, which allows them to evaluate their own plays and the actors performing them. Cold reading means that the actors haven't rehearsed the work, or may be seeing it for

931-695: The Pen butai (lit. "Pen corps"), a government organisation which consisted of authors who travelled the front during the Second Sino-Japanese War to write favourably of Japan's war efforts in China, and became head of the group's navy branch. He was later affiliated with the Nihon bungaku hōkokukai ("Patriotic Association for Japanese Literature"), a subordinate of the Cabinet Intelligence Bureau . After

980-409: The 148th Akutagawa Prize at age 75, making her the oldest recipient in the history of the prize. In 1972, Akutagawa winner Akio Miyahara  [ ja ] was found to have committed plagiarism. In 2018, a similar controversy occurred when the candidate novel Utsukushii Kao by Yuko Hojo was found to have reused text from its nonfiction source material without attribution, but the Society for

1029-449: The 4th century BCE, Aristotle wrote his Poetics , in which he analyzed the principle of action or praxis as the basis for tragedy. He then considered elements of drama: plot ( μύθος mythos ), character ( ἔθος ethos ), thought ( dianoia ), diction ( lexis ), music ( melodia ), and spectacle ( opsis ). Since the myths on which Greek tragedy were based were widely known, plot had to do with

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1078-536: The 5th century it was institutionalised in competitions ( agon ) held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysos (the god of wine and fertility ). As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama), playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. For

1127-550: The Middle Ages, the earliest of which is The Play of the Greenwood by Adam de la Halle in 1276. It contains satirical scenes and folk material such as faeries and other supernatural occurrences. Farces also rose dramatically in popularity after the 13th century. The majority of these plays come from France and Germany and are similar in tone and form, emphasizing sex and bodily excretions. The best known playwright of farces

1176-678: The Naoki and Akutagawa Prizes, the Kikuchi Kan Prize is given to senior authors over age 45. The prize includes an award of one million yen and a table clock. This award was sponsored by the Association for the Promotion of Japanese Literature for six years before the cancellation of the prize. After Kikuchi Kan's death, the prize was brought back and is currently open to art, literature, film, and other genres. Recipients of this prize include Hakuchō Masamune and Yasushi Inoue . In 1938, Kikuchi joined

1225-468: The Promotion of Japanese Literature did not remove the book from the candidate list. Bungeishunjū maintains an official archive of current and past winners on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Literature. Kan Kikuchi Hiroshi Kikuchi ( 菊池 寛 , Kikuchi Hiroshi , December 26, 1888 – March 6, 1948) , also known as Kan Kikuchi (which uses the same kanji as his real name),

1274-605: The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn . As a reaction to the decadence of Charles II era productions, sentimental comedy grew in popularity. Playwrights like Colley Cibber and Richard Steele believed that humans were inherently good but capable of being led astray. The Italian Renaissance brought about

1323-420: The ancient Greeks, playwriting involved poïesis , "the act of making". This is the source of the English word poet . Despite Chinese Theatre having performers dated back to the 6th century BC with You Meng , their perspective of theatre was such that plays had no other role than "performer" or "actor", but given that the performers were also the ones who invented their performances, they could be considered

1372-404: The arrangement and selection of existing material. Character was determined by choice and by action. Tragedy is mimesis —"the imitation of an action that is serious". He developed his notion of hamartia , or tragic flaw, an error in judgment by the main character or protagonist , which provides the basis for the "conflict-driven" play. There were also a number of secular performances staged in

1421-439: The audience to the theatre seat," as opposed to stories that "the reader can put into his pocket." From 1914 to 1924, Kan wrote one-act plays for the leading coterie magazine at that time, New Tides of Thought (Shinshichō). New Tides of Thought magazine also contributed to the popularity of Taishō drama. In Kan's one-act plays, he focused on a single dramatic event and had the characters' actions revolve around that event to produce

1470-497: The award's youngest winners. The prize went to both Risa Wataya , 19, for her novel I Want to Kick You in the Back ( 蹴りたい背中 , Keritai Senaka ) and to Hitomi Kanehara , 20, for her debut novel Snakes and Earrings ( 蛇にピアス , Hebi ni Piasu ) . Previously the youngest Akutagawa winners were all males over 23 years old, among them the former Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara and novelist Kenzaburō Ōe . In 2013 Natsuko Kuroda won

1519-691: The committees to select already published manuscripts in Coterie and commercial magazines and newspapers. After producing the two prizes, Kikuchi Kan initially decided on having the prizes reflect the Kenshō shōsetsu type of award, in which submitted and unpublished manuscripts were selected by a committee. In brief, the Kenshō shōsetsu, the "prize-winning novels" are selected pieces of fiction novels published in newspapers and magazines that received considerable amounts of praise. The Akutagawa Prize committee in 1934 consisted of

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1568-486: The family. After Shinjirō, a younger brother, goes to bring Sōtarō back, the curtain closes before Sōtarō is found. The ending drove Takeda and Ennosuke to alter it to avoid ambiguity, but was changed back to the original to preserve the main message of the play. Shinju fujin ( 真珠夫人 , Madame Pearl) brought Kikuchi Kan to fame. This drama takes place in Japan and focuses on the theme of gender in society. The main character,

1617-699: The famous and classic works from the West, which include diaries and autobiographies, Japanese writers formulated a style of fictional writing that is eventually called shinkyo-shosetsu . Other major influences from Western countries in Europe in addition to works from India and China contributed to the creation of modern literature in Japan. In comparison to literature in European countries, new Japanese literature did not achieve as much popularity; few works of Japanese playwrights were translated into European languages. Kikuchi Kan saw

1666-544: The foundation of many of his works. This, in turn, resulted in Kikuchi Kan creating his style of writing in Japanese drama. One of his early works, Kayano Yane ( 茅の屋根 , Thatched Cottage) , represents one of Kikuchi Kan's portrayal of societal issues during his time, which increased his popularity in modern Japanese literature. Other themes of his dramas include issues of morality, money, class, and gender. Kikuchi Kan believes

1715-716: The goddess of revenge. Suzuki argues that, like the goddess of revenge, Ruriko wanted to avenge the women who have fallen victim to the "violence and self-centered desires of men." Kikuchi Kan dedicated the Akutagawa Prize to Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (芥川 龍之介) after his death in 1927. The Akutagawa Prize Committee was composed of the close friends of Bungei Shunjusha. The Akutagawa Prize was given every six months to rising authors of original literature (Sōsaku) that were published in any newspaper or magazine. The Akutagawa Prizes were published in Bungeishunjū issues. The prize included both

1764-538: The language barrier and inaccuracy of translation as part of the central cause for this. In 1924, shortly after Kaoru Osanai opened Tsukiji Little Theatre , Kikuchi Kan was the most celebrated playwright in Japan. Kan was widely claimed as "a playwright who transformed Irish plays into a Japanese context," including John Millington Synge 's Deirdre of the Sorrows . When studying at the University of Kyoto , Kikuchi Kan had

1813-486: The latter part of the 16th century. The plays of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Friedrich Schiller , and other Sturm und Drang playwrights inspired a growing faith in feeling and instinct as guides to moral behavior and were part of the German romanticism movement. Aleksandr Ostrovsky was Russia's first professional playwright). Author and playwright Agatha Christie wrote The Moustrap ,

1862-464: The members: Bungei Shunjusha, Yamamoto Yuzu, Haruo Satō , Jun'ichirō Tanizaki , Murō Saisei , Kōsaku Takii , Riichi Yokomitsu and Yasunari Kawabata . Kikuchi Kan, Masao Kume and Masajirō Kojima were in both Akutagawa and Naoki Prize Committees. In 1938, the Kikuchi Kan Prize (菊池寛賞 Kikuchi Kan Shō) was created by Kikuchi Kan himself that recognizes authors' achievements. However, unlike

1911-400: The most dramatic elements from all and has to effectively treat it within a limited time." With this short amount of time, Kikuchi Kan's portrays his message in a core event with meticulous use of exposition. One important element in his perspective is knowing the difference between writing stories as opposed to writing plays. In that limited time, the play must have the power to "physically bind

1960-406: The most tension and most "dramatic force," for one-act plays "should extract the most dramatic elements...within a limited time." One of his most famous works, Chichi Kaeru (Father Returns), is a one-act play that mainly portrays the struggles of a father-son relationship. Father Returns opened in 1920, after being published in the journal New Tides of Thought in 1917. The story revolves around

2009-467: The nature of modern theatre is to shed light upon the wrongs of modern society and liberate Japan from those customs. The heavy influence of common issues in Kikuchi Kan's works gained accolades from critics and dramatists. Elements of drama Kikuchi Kan considered to be the most effective are the one-act play and the use of a minimal number of characters. "The one-act play" he wrote, "is different from long plays – three-acts or five-acts. It should extract

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2058-407: The period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. In England, after the interregnum , and Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, there was a move toward neoclassical dramaturgy. Between

2107-414: The prize. Occasionally, when consensus cannot be reached between judges over disputes about the winning story or the quality of work for that half year, no prize is awarded. From 1945 through 1948 no prizes were awarded due to postwar instability. The prize has frequently been split between two authors. On January 15, 2004, the awarding of the 130th Akutagawa Prize made significant news when two women became

2156-553: The subject matter significantly. For example, verisimilitude limits of the unities. Decorum fitted proper protocols for behavior and language on stage. In France, contained too many events and actions, thus, violating the 24-hour restriction of the unity of time. Neoclassicism never had as much traction in England, and Shakespeare 's plays are directly opposed to these models, while in Italy, improvised and bawdy commedia dell'arte and opera were more popular forms. One structural unit that

2205-594: The term "playwright" and is the first person in English literature to refer to playwrights as separate from poets . The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are the Ancient Greeks . William Shakespeare is amongst the most famous playwrights in literature, both in England and across the world. The word "play" is from Middle English pleye , from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word wright

2254-468: The war, he was purged from public service positions as a wartime collaborator. Kan Kikuchi's published writings encompass 512 works in 683 publications in 7 languages and 2,341 library holdings. Playwrights A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays , which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading . Ben Jonson coined

2303-586: Was a Japanese author and publisher. He established the publishing company Bungeishunjū , the monthly magazine of the same name , the Japan Writer's Association and both the Akutagawa and Naoki Prize for popular literature. He came to prominence for the plays "Madame Pearl" and "Father Returns", but his ample support for the Imperial Japanese war effort led to his marginalization in the postwar period. He

2352-521: Was also the head of Daiei Motion Picture Company (currently Kadokawa Pictures ). He was known to have been an avid player of mahjong . Kikuchi was born on December 26, 1888, in Takamatsu , Kagawa Prefecture , Japan. In 1904–1905 after the Russo-Japanese War , literature in Japan grew more modern. French Realism was one of the first influences that immersed into Japan's literature. Building from

2401-449: Was inspired by Yanagihara Byakuren 柳原白蓮, who was widely known for her beauty, her talent in poetry, her relation to the emperor, and her marriage to coalmine magnate Itō Den'emon 伊藤傳右衞門. According to Suzuki, Byakuren herself asked Kikuchi Kan whether she played a role in creating Ruriko in Shinju fujin and Kikuchi confirmed that there was a connection. Suzuki also connects Ruriko to Nemesis ,

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