This study examines the history of the Japanese period film and proposes that a powerful relationship exists between the past and present in Japan's narrative tradition. The first section of the book analyzes the form and function of the Japanese period film, describing the unique iconography and characteristics of films set in the past. The author also examines the ways in which the period film has allowed Japanese filmmakers to circumvent government censorship by serving as a rhetorical device with which they can explore contemporary concerns through a criticism of the past. Although the book is primarily focused on the Japanese period film, the final section of the book contains several stand-alone essays which focus on the narrative in Japanese epic, religion, theater, and modern popular literature.