However, his predecessors' attempts did not come to fruition, and Kishida is recognized as the first playwright to successfully reform the narrative, thematic, and performative trajectories of Japanese playwriting and acting through Shingeki.

Upon his arrival, he was employed as a translator at the Japanese Embassy in Paris and for the Secretariat of the League of Nations, which permitted him the financial resources to live in France for multiple years.

Copeau's instruction, combined with Kishida's attendance at numerous European theatrical performances, supplied him with an abundance of knowledge on the successful attributes of Western dramaturgy.

[2] Of these, the actors' ability to express subtle emotions and to convey natural dialogue that neither felt forced nor exaggerated were among the most lasting takeaways in Kishida's observations as a spectator.

[6] Copeau was a fervent supporter of this school of thought and applied the movement's tenets in his training for actors, which involved a consideration for performances to be open and naturalistic.

In addition to the French theatre, Kishida developed an infatuation for other European playwrights after he saw Copeau's staged productions of works by Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, and Johan August Strindberg.

[13] His recent illness, sudden departure from Europe, and grief over his father's passing caused great consternation for Kishida and manifested into uncertainty about his career future.

Kishida was initially concerned that Yamamoto's passion for German literature would negatively affect his perception of A Wan Smile's French undertones.

[19] The opening night's performances were Japanese-translated adaptations of Chekhov's Swan Song, Emile Mazaud's The Holiday, and Reinhard Goering's A Sea Battle.

Armed with a wealth of knowledge, experience, and creative inspiration accrued during his European residency, Kishida deemed it imperative for Japanese theatre to pursue more serious, psychological narratives and to strengthen performers' acting abilities.

Kishida attempted to remedy this issue through regular screenings of foreign film adaptations of Western plays; these supplemental resources were insufficient to properly educate students on modern acting and playwriting.

In partnership with the husband-and-wife actors Tomoda Kyosuke and Tamura Akiko, the theatre operated as Kishida's first venue whose productions were firmly rooted in the attributes of Western dramaturgy.

Although similar to the play selections of Osanai's Tsukiji Little Theatre, Kishida proceeded to stage productions that were thematically personal and individualized rather than social and political.

[24] Kishida's expertise in French drama was a major determinant in the theatre's selection of celebrated playwrights: Roger Martin du Gard, Jules Romains, Jean-Victor Pellerin, Simon Gantillon, and Marcel Pagnol.

Considered to be a “safe” literary figure by the increasingly oppressive Japanese government because of his introspective style and non-inflammatory political beliefs, Kishida detailed his travels in China in his book Jugun gojunichi (Following the Troops for Fifty Days).

[31] For Kishida, this meant he had to maintain the status quo through the continued staging of politically neutral plays that did not criticize the government nor espouse progressive ideas.

Soldiers preferred shingeki theatre for its Westernized performances, storylines, and settings, and the staging of American works such as Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Thornton Wilder's Our Town.

American forces did not favor kabuki and noh for their overt references to Japanese culture and history and were concerned these plays would regenerate nationalistic fervor.

This openness to highlight modern Japanese drama launched the careers of a multitude of late-20th and early-21st Century playwrights: Kishida's protege Tanaka Chikao from The New Theatre Research Institute, Yukio Mishima, and Michio Kato.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Kishida founded several new theatre publications to distribute articles, essays, and reviews in response to contemporary shifts in Japanese drama such as Tragedy and Comedy in 1928 and Gekisaku (Play Writing) in 1932.

Even after he described his powerfully moving experience and recounted the sense of joy that overcame him, Kishida acknowledged that dramatic modernization was still a necessity for Japan as he argued traditional theatre was too tied to the past and could not simultaneously look to the future.

Influenced by the European philosophical movements of Naturalism and Symbolism, works were meant to adopt Western-style theatre customs of naturalistic acting and deeply psychological narratives.

Kishida's decision to compose and feature plays centered around the lives of middle and upper-class characters was indicative of his preference to cater to educated, bourgeois audiences.

[45] Regarding scriptwriting, Kishida stressed the importance of dialogue as a major driving force in both narrative progression and character development and that it must be composed of beautiful, literary words.

[46] Although largely uninterested in proletarian drama, a few of Kishida's plays featured major characters of lower social standing, as seen in Roof Garden (1926) and Mount Asama (1931).

Copeau's directorial style and the influential Drama Purification Movement compelled Kishida to introduce natural and rhythmic dialogue to Japanese performers.

The creative decision to have his characters speak with simple, everyday phrases helped move performers and playwrights away from deferring to high-brow dialogue that could alienate certain audiences.

[50] The majority of Kishida's inspiration originates from his studies of European playwrights and directors: Jacques Copeau, Moliere, Jules Renard, William Shakespeare, Maurice Maeterlinck, Anton Chekhov, Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, Charles Vildrac, et al.

Despite his criticisms of Japanese theatre, Kishida cited three Japanese playwrights from the Taisho Era whom he believed made significant contributions to the modernization of Japanese dramaturgy:[51] 1926: Wire-Tapping by Kaneko Yobun at The New Theatre Society 1927: Hazakura (The Cherry Tree in Leaf), by Kunio Kishida at The New Theatre Society 1927: La paix chez soi (Peace at Home) by Georges Corteline at The New Theatre Society 1932:  La paix chez soi (Peace at Home) by Georges Corteline at The Teatro Comedie 1938: La paix chez soi (Peace at Home) by Georges Corteline at The Literary Theatre 1938: Monsieur Badin at The Teatro Comedie 1938: Fish Tribe by Yushi Koyama 1938: Akimizumine by Naoya Uchimura 1940: Gears by Naoya Uchimura 1948: Woman Who Eats Dreams by Akira Nogami 1950: Doen Karan by Kunio Kishida 1954: The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky 1940: Engeki no bonshitsu (The Essence of Drama) 1951: Engeki ippan kowa (General Talks on the Theatre) 1925: “Mikansei na gendai geki” (“The Incomplete Modern Theatre”) 1925: “Gikyoku izen no mono” (What Comes before the Play”) 1935: “Egekiron no ippoko” (“One Direction for Dramatic Theory”) 1935/1936: “New Movements on the Stage” “Bungaku ka gikyoku ka?” (“Literature or Drama?”) “Engeki honshitsuron no seiri” (“Some Amendments to the Essence of Dramatic Theory”) “Gekidan ankoku no ben” (“Some Words on the Gloomy State of the Theatre Companies”) “Gekido kyusai no hitsuyo” (“The Need to Reclaim the Art of the Theatre”) “Gekijo to kankyakuso” (“Theatres and Spectators”) “Gekisaku ni tsugu” (“Concerning Playwriting magazine”) “Gekiteki engekiron ni tsuite” (“Concerning Contemporary Dramatic Theory”) “Gikyoku izen no mono” (“Before the Play”) “Gikyoku no seimei to engekibi” (“The Life of the Drama and the Beauty of the Theatre”) “Gikyoku oyobi gikyoku sakka ni tsuite” (Concerning Drama and Dramatic Writers”) “Gikyokushu Asamayama ni tsuite” (Concerning the drama anthology Mount Asama”) “Gikyokushu fuzokujihyo ni tsuite” (“Concerning the drama anthology A Commentary on Manners”) “Gikyokushu saigetsu ni tsuite” (“Concerning the drama anthology A Space of Time”) “Kabuki geki no shorai” (“The Future of kabuki Drama”) “Kankyakuso to shingeki no shukumei” (“Audiences and the Destiny of the New Theatre”) “Kishida Kunio shu ni tsuite” (“Concerning a Collected Volume of My Work”) “Kore kara no gikyoku” (“The Drama from Now On”) “Mikansei na gendai geki” (“The Incomplete Modern Theatre”) “Osanai kun no gikyokuron” “The Dramatic Theory of Osanai”) “Pommes cuites o nageru” (“Throwing Cooked Apples”) “Sendosei banno” (“Almight Agitation”) “Serifu toshite no nihongo” (“The Japanese Language in Dramatic Dialogue”) “Shanhai de senshi shita Tomoda Kyosuke kun” (“The Death of Tomoda Kyosuke, fallen in battle in Shanghai”) “Shibai to boku” (“The Drama and Me”) “Shibai to kenbutsu” (“The Drama and Entertainment”) “Shibai to seikatsu” (“The Drama and Our Daily Life”) “Shimpa geki to shimpa haiyu” (“Shimpa drama and shimpa actors”) “Shingekikai no bunya” (“Types of New Theatre”) “Shingeki kyokai no butai keiko” (“A Rehearsal of the New Theatre Society”) “Shingeki no kankyaku shokun e” (“To my Friends, the New Theatre audiences”) “Shingeki no kara” (“The Husk of the New Theatre”) “Shingeki no shimatsu” (“The State of the New Theatre”) “Shingeki no tame ni” (“For the Sake of the New Theatre”) “Shingeki no undo no futatsu no michi” (“Two Roads for the New Theatre Movement”) “Shingeki to musume Kyoko” (“The New Theatre and my daughter Kyoko”) “Shingeki undo no ikkosatsu” (“One Consideration for the New Theatre Movement”) “Shinkokugeki no okujoteien o mite” (“Roof Garden in a Performance by the Shinkokugeki Troupe”) “Tsukiji shogekijo no hataage” (“The Launching of the Tsukiji Little Theatre”) “Tsukijiza no mama sensei (“Professor Mama at the Tsukijiza”) “Wakakushi no engekiron ni tsuite” (“Concerning My Dramatic Theory”) “Zoku kotoba kotoba kotoba” (“More Word, Words, Words”) 1936: "Shibai to seikatsu" ("Plays and Life") – Presented at Meiji University 1928 – 1929: Higeki kigeki (Tragedy and Comedy) 1932 – 1940:  Gekisaku (Play Writing) 1924: Furui Omocha (Old Toys) 1924: Chiroru no aki (Autumn in the Tyrols) 1925: Buranko (The Swing) 1925: Kamifusen (Paper Balloon) 1926: Shu-u (Sudden Shower) 1926: Hazakaru (The Cherry Tree in Leaf) 1926: Mure de ichi ban kuri no ki (The Tallest Chestnut in the Village) 1926: Okujoteien (Roof Garden) 1927: Ochiba nikki (Diary of Fallen Leaves) 1928: Ushiyama Hotel 1930: Mama sensei to sono otto (Professor Mama and her Husband) 1931: Asamayama (Mount Asama) 1931: It Will Be Fine Tomorrow 1935: Shokugyo (Vocation) 1935: Sawa-shi no futari musume (Mr. Sawa’s Two Daughters) 1935: Saigetsu (A Space of Time) 1936: Fuzoku jihyo (A Commentary on Manners) 1943: A Warm Current 1948: Hayamizu Juku (Hayamizu Girls School) 1949: Adoration Karai hakase no rinju (The Last Moments of Doctor Karai) Shiitake to yuben (Mushrooms and Eloquence) Koji-kun’s Visit Day Absence Rain Shower Year Doen Karan Face The World of Sound Women’s Thirsty 1933: Poil de carotte by Jules Renard 1938: Farewell is Fun by Jules Renard 1939: Group of Fallen People by Henri-Rene Lenormand 1940: Burning Fire Okuri by Paul Elview 1947: The Police Chief’s an Easygoing Guy by Georges Courteline