Biography

Kunio Kishida (岸田國士, Kishida Kunio, 2 November 1890 – 5 March 1954) was a Japanese playwright, dramatist, novelist, lecturer, acting coach, theatre critic, translator, and proponent of Shingeki ("New Theatre"/”New Drama"). Kishida spearheaded the modernization of Japanese dramaturgy and transformed Japanese theatre acting. He was a staunch advocate for the theatre to operate as a dual artistic and literary space.At the beginning of the Meiji era, efforts to modernize the Japanese theatre became a critical topic for Japanese playwrights, and these endeavors persisted well into the 1920s before Kishida wrote his first plays. However, his predecessors' attempts did not come to fruition, and Kishida is recognized as the first playwright to successfully reform the narrative, thematic, and performative trajectories of Japanese playwriting and acting through Shingeki.

Kishida was known for his vehement opposition to traditional Japanese kabuki, noh, and shimpa theatre. Following a temporary residency in France, Kishida became heavily inspired by European theatres, playwriting, and acting styles and believed these needed to be applied to Japanese theatre. While Kishida never intended his nation's theatrical scene to undergo a complete Westernization, he recognized that Japan's increasingly globalized presence meant it needed to adapt and engage with its Western counterparts' literary and theatrical practices.

From Kishida's perspective, the theatre was never intended to serve as a popular entertainment venue. He argued for the essentiality of the theatre as a serious performative and literary mode of creative expression.