James Brandon has written the book most scholars would like to have crafted at some point in their career—eminently readable, fascinatingly in-depth, chock-full of insightful commentary on a field rarely accessible to non-specialists. If I were to push a sports metaphor, I would have to say that he hits a grand slam on all fronts. According to Brandon, wartime kabuki not only reflected Japan's wartime aims, it glorified, supported, and sold the war as a product to be consumed. Brandon does not treat his topic lightly and thus, at times, the encyclopedic coverage of a stunning amount of research concerning all aspects of kabuki theater threatens to dislodge the interested reader from the main focus. The full treatment of both the history of kabuki during the early twentieth century and its role in the war suggests that there were almost two books here fused into one. At the same time,...

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