The Struggle with Nature in Kubo Sakae’s Land of Volcanic Ash

It is said that no work has had ever greater impact than one of Kubo Sakae’s plays, Land of Volcanic Ash (Kazanbaichi) in modern Japanese drama. The play was published in the literary magazine, Shinchō, from 1937 to 1938 and first staged by the Shinkyō Gekidan, a Shingeki Troup in those days, in the year when it was completed. Kubo Sakae was born in Sapporo on 28 December 1900 and died in Tokyo on 15 March 1958. Land of Volcanic Ash describes people’s lives in an agricultural community in Obihiro, Hokkaido, where they have harsh and inhospitable climates in Japan. The climates could resemble more that of southern Canada or northern Europe, than that of the rest of Japan.
Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies