Ashton Lazarus, "Performing Transgression: Crowds and Bodies in Heian Japan" (Harvard UP, 2026)

What happens when performance defies social and political boundaries? Performing Transgression: Crowds and Bodies in Heian Japan (Harvard University Press, 2026) offers

a new cultural history of non-elite spectacle in Heian Japan

(794–1185), uncovering how performances on the margins—boisterous

dengaku music and dance, daring sangaku acrobatics, and the infectious

lyrics of imayō songs—challenged and fascinated the aristocracy.

Ashton Lazarus reveals how these unruly arts were documented by the

very elites they unsettled, appearing in historical chronicles, diaries,

prose, poetry, and illustrated scrolls. More than mere precursors to

later forms like noh and kyōgen, these performances formed a dynamic

cultural force with real political impact. By tracing their influence

through literary studies, performance studies, and historiography,

Lazarus rethinks the interplay between politics, class, and culture in