Kishotenketsu: Japanese Narrative Structure

So I have read about this narrative form before, in brief, but have not really dug into it.  HERE is a really interesting article about the form.

In brief, the Western three act structure essentially has the following form (with many small variations):

             Act I                                                  Act II                                                         Act III
Introduce the characters           Protagonist tries to resolve conflict         Protagonist confronts problem
Introduce the problem               Complications ensue                                 Climax - success or failure
Incite conflict                              Conflict escalates                                      Resolution of story

Western narratives have for a couple centuries become more and more concerned with the motivation of the protagonist, and also the antagonist.  The conflicting motivations between antagonist and protagonist - who is going to ultimately get what they want - is what drives the story.

Kishotenketsu, on the other hand, has a four act structure, and the story is not driven so much by motivation of antagonist and protagonist, but rather from cause and effect.  It is not about what the characters want, but rather about what they do.  This according to the article, is rooted in the influence of Buddhism, which is all about eschewing desire.  The structure is thus:

Ki - introduction to characters and their situation
Sho - development of relationships between characters and events in the setting
Ten - the twist or complication which introduces new characters, events, or relationships to the story
Ketsu - the resolution in which the twist is explained in relation to the development and resolved

That shift in thinking about story - not what the characters want that conflicts, but what they do which leads to a consequence (good or bad).  This may very well leave some strong ambiguity to the characters, but by this Japanese paradigm, that is perfectly OK.  What is important, is the emphasis on the parable of the story.  In this regard, they much more resemble one of Aesop's Fables.  Why did the scorpion sting the fox who took it across the river?  Because that is what scorpions do.  The Ten is particularly interesting, as it takes the same story, but examines it from a different point of view.  It may almost be as if a whole new story has begun, with little or no explanation, with a new protagonist or point of view character (there may not be a protagonist in the traditional Western literary sense, since the POV character might not even be moving the story forward so much as reacting to events).  It is in the Ketsu that the connections are explained.

HERE is an interesting article talking about using this narrative form to provide structure to stories in games.  It has me thinking about aspects in fate that are all explicitly things that the characters do rather than something that tells us about their motivations or wants.