The International Shakespeare Association meeting, held in Tokyo in August 1991, was regarded by many of the participating academics as a milestone in terms of the quality of the papers given and the extent to which the intercultural and cross-cultural study of Shakespeare had been developed.

This volume contains most of the principal contributions to the panel on Acting and Language in Shakespeare and Eastern Drama, specially edited for publication and presented in three sections: Playhouses and Performances, Literary History and Interpretation and Theoretical Issues.