Joy, Despair, Illusion, Dreams: Twenty Plays from the Nō Tradition - Paperbackby Royall Tyler (Translator) N drama, which integrates speech, song, dance, music, mask, and costume into a distinctive art form, is among Japan's most revered cultural traditions. It gained popularity in the fourteenth century, when the actor and playwright Zeami (1363 1443) drew the favor of the shogun with his theatrical innovations. N's intricacies and highly stylized conventions continue to attract Japanese and Western appreciation, and a