OKI-CHIBAYA THEATRE. 333 



following day, accompanied by the mayor of Yeddo, 

 who had insisted upon doing the civil on this occasion 

 in person. It is situated in the Midsi quarter of the 

 town ; the building, of a circular form, is very lightly 

 constructed, entirely of wood, and is said to hold six to 

 eight thousand spectators when full, and the most 

 graphic description I can hit upon is by comparing its 

 interior arrangement with the Leicester sheep-market 

 on a fair-day. The whole of that vast parterre is 

 divided into pens, and by metamorphosing the sheep 

 into human fio-ures clothed in dark blue and brown 

 jackets, the picture is complete. Here they squat, 

 hour after hour, some the entire day, — Japanese 

 theatres perform from ten a.m. until six p.m., — having 

 brought their frugal meal with them, and listen with 

 perfect good humour to the continual repetition of low 

 jokes and love intrigues. A gallery runs i-ound the 

 inner space, some eight or ten feet above the ground ; 

 and here the aristocracy is installed, paying an entrance 

 fee of quarter of a dollar. On our arrival, the curtain, 

 representing a large fish on pale blue ground, intended, 

 I suppose, to reproduce its natural element, was just 

 rising, and presented the stage, ornamented in such a 

 manner as to suit exteriors and interiors alike, and in 

 the centre there was a circular platform or turn-table, 

 probably fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, divided into 



