Yōji Sakate series. In 2010, these adapted plays were collected into "The Contemporary Nō Collection" (現代能楽集 "Gendai nōgakushū"). Although Chekhov and Ibsen were not part of the "nō" style, Sakate took these works and created them to fit the general view of "nō" and also making unique adaptations to create his own style. Plays of Chekhov he translated include "The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya", "The Cherry Orchard", and "Three Sisters". Through his plays, Sakate challenges a plethora of contemporary issues such as social and political issues, censorship, and sexuality. In "Epitaph for the Whales" (くじらの墓標 "Kujira no bohyō", 1993), he presents the issues
Uncle Vanya has grown, and how he feels bored with his life as a country doctor. Vanya enters, and complains about how all order has been disrupted since the professor and his wife, Yelena, arrived. As they’re talking, Serebryakov, Yelena, Sonya, and Telegin return from a walk. Out of the professor's earshot, Vanya calls him "a learned old dried mackerel," criticizing him for his pomposity and the smallness of his achievements. Vanya’s mother, Maria Vasilyevna, who idolizes Serebryakov, objects to her son’s derogatory comments. Vanya also praises the professor’s wife, Yelena, for her beauty, arguing that faithfulness to an old man like