Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/248

 of musical instruments—several kinds of flute, five kinds of drum, a species of pandean pipe, two kinds of flageolet, a species of harmonica, an oboe, a horizontal harp, a vertical harp, two kinds of guitar, and a cymbal, etc. Many of these became so famous for the beauty of their tone that special appellations were given to them, and although neither their sound nor the music produced with them would have delighted Occidental ears, the Japanese were wont to say that if a skilled performer with a perfectly pure heart played on one of these famous instruments, the very dust on the ceiling could not choose but dance.

It would be an interminable task to attempt any exhaustive description of the dances in vogue during the Heian epoch. Only eight varieties of genuine old Japanese dance existed, but these were supplemented by twenty-five Chinese, twelve of Indian origin transmitted by China, eighteen Korean, and eleven Japanese adaptations. When seventy-four varieties of dance are thus indicated, it must not be understood that there were a corresponding number of salient differences of style. It is true that the movements in every case were carefully trained, and that each combination constituting a particular dance could be distinguished by practised observers. But the main feature of variety had to be sought in the pantomime. Nearly all dances performed in