Japan
Japan.When the works of Shakespeare first became fully accessible to theatre audiences and readers in Japan, their author had been dead for almost two centuries and a half. When he was alive and active, Japan still retained its ties with other countries and so Shakespeare may have been known to some Japanese, but no record remains to prove this. From the early 16th century onwards, the Japanese government consistently tightened control over visitors from abroad and for more than two centuries Japan had virtually no contact with the rest of the world. When the country reopened its gate in 1854, it started to ‘modernize’ itself by importing every kind of product of Western civilization. Literature was no exception, and Shakespeare was eagerly received as the epitome of high culture.
This does not mean, however, that his plays were easily accessible to the general public. In order to make them accessible, the earliest translators of Shakespeare chose...
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