Elements of noh theater and interpretive dance are the Japanese offerings at the 15th annual Lincoln Center Festival, which kicks off Wednesday with the respective North American and New York premieres of Musashi and Miroku.

Written by the late Hisashi Inoue—one of Japan’s most popular playwrights who passed away last April—and starring TV/film actor Tatsuya Fujiwara (Battle Royale, Death Note) and Ryo Katsuji (Aegis), Musashi sees the return of director Yukio Ninagawa to the stage after sell-out performances of Modern Noh Plays in 2005. Musashi is a noh-inspired play that depicts a ruthless hunt for revenge in the early 17th century between two samurai, brought to vivid life through intense drama and rowdy comedy.

The epic three-hour drama, presented in Japanese with English supertitles, begins with a showdown between warriors Musashi and Kojiro, after which Kojiro is fatally defeated (whether or not Kojiro survived is historically unknown). Although the legend ends there, Inoue continues to develop the plot. In this production, with its lush evocation of the countryside, the pair unexpectedly meets again six years later at a Zen temple and consents to a rematch.

Lincoln Center Festival 2010 will also present the New York premiere of dancer-choreographer Saburo Teshigawara’s newest solo work, Miroku. At Lincoln Center Festival 2006, Teshigawara’s solo dance Bones in Pages received glowing reviews, with the New York Times calling it “magical, one of the most striking examples of imagistic dance-theater, or dance-art installation, that I have ever seen.”

Miroku finds Teshigawara expanding his unique exploration of movement through pieces that reflect his sinuously singular vision. Miroku, for which he created the set, lighting and costume design, as well as the choreography, showcases his incredible range on all counts. Teshigawara began his professional career in 1981 in his native Tokyo after formal studies in fine arts, sculpture, and classical ballet. Since 1986, Teshigawara has created more than 25 dance works with his production company KARAS.

Miroku premiered in 2007 at the New National Theatre Tokyo (“He created a magnificent epic of dance of the soul,” beamed Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun) and subsequently was performed at the Montpellier Dance Festival among others. Earlier this year, Miroku was staged to similar praise in Canada, Minnesota’s Walker Art Center and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Ohio. Miroku is the next phase in Teshigawara’s plan to search for a “new form of beauty” by ignoring conventions and strict categorization in dance and to create a new language of expression fusing movement, visual arts and music.

Musashi runs from July 7-10, 7:30 p.m. at the David H. Koch Theater, Broadway and 63rd Street. Tickets are $35, $55, $75 and $100. Miroku runs July 9 and July 10, 8:30 p.m. at Frederick P. Rose Hall, 60th Street and Broadway. Tickets are $30, $40, $50 and $60.

For tickets, call CenterCharge at (212) 721-6500. Visit Lincoln Center’s Website at www.LincolnCenter.org (general) and www.LincolnCenterFestival.org (festival).

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