XVII.] 



THE JAPANESE THEATliE. 



6G5 



In few countries are dran;atic representations of all kinds so 

 much thought of as in Japan. Playhouses are found even in 

 small towns. The play is much frequented, and though the 

 representations last the whole day, they are followed by the 

 spectators with the liveliest interest. There are playbills as at 

 home, and numerous writings on subjects relating to the theatre. 

 Among the Japanese books which I bought, there was for 

 instance a thick one, Avith innumerable woodcuts, devoted to 

 showing how the first Japanese artists conceived the princi- 

 pal scenes in their roles, two volumes of playbills bound up 

 together, i^'c. 





ifi IfU-^s^ 











.J 



BCRDEN-BEARERS ON A JAPANESE BOAD. 



Japanese drawing. 



The Japanese pieces indeed strike a European as childi.sh and 

 monstrous, but one must admire many praiseworthy traits in 

 the plav itself, for instance the naturalness with which the 

 players often declaim monologues lasting for a quarter or half 

 an hour. The extravagances which here shock us are perhaps 

 on the whole not more absurd than the scenes of the opera of 

 to-day, or the buskins, masks, and peculiar dresses, which the 

 Greeks considered indispensable in the exhibition of their great 

 dramatic masterpieces. When the Japanese have been able to 

 appropriate what is good in European culture, the dramatic art 

 ou<dit to have a grand future before it among them, if the 



