In Session One, noh scholars Michael Watson and Eike Grossmann presented on “bangai noh” and “Kurokawa noh” respectively. These two categories of noh are often considered as non-mainstream, and have received little attention amongst scholars and practitioners. Watson discussed the warrior plays within the bangai noh repertoire. Grossmann’s discussion of Kurokawa noh focuses on its identity as an amateur play and the roles of this identity in contemporary noh discourse. The third presenter Katherine Saltzman-Li took a macroscopic approach and examined the ways in which the Kabuki theater has been publicized and commented on through the ages. All three papers discuss the textual aspects of the traditional Japanese theater, a good reminder that traditional Japanese theater is a dynamic art form with as much diversity and contestation as its modern contemporaries.