Donald Keene
In the post-war period, foreigners have participated in kyōgen as amateur performers. A notable early example was the 1956 performance by scholar and translator Donald Keene in the play with Tetsuji Takechi in the role of the sake shop owner, before an audience including such prominent authors as Tanizaki, Yasunari Kawabata and Yukio Mishima. This is featured in his series of essays, "Chronicles of My Life in the 20th Century", and inspired the title of his anthology "The Blue-Eyed Tarokaja: A Donald Keene Anthology." Today foreigners (resident in Japan, with sufficient Japanese skills) are able to practice with amateur troupes. In addition, since 1985, an intensive summer program (originally 6 weeks, now 3 weeks) in kyōgen for beginners has been run at the Kyoto Art Center, taught by Akira Shigeyama (of the Shigeyama family) and others, and organized by scholar of Japanese theater Jonah Salz.