Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/43

Rh monkey mask and holding a sacred wand (gohei) on high, crosses the steeply arched bridge diagonally from the orchestra-room of the Shinza, and springing upon the high railing, spins round to the right, spins round to the left, leaps down and leaps up again, with such grace and agility as to seem more than mortal.

This is merely a refined exhibition of dancing and acrobatics, distinguished, however, from any previous performances by the fact that a regular stage was provided. Exactly how the Buddhist priests proceeded to introduce the innovations attributed to them, history and tradition alike are silent. But it was natural that after the union of Shintō and Buddhism, the representatives of the latter should pay some attention to dancing, for an essential part of Shintō worship had always been the Kagura, a dance derived, as already stated, from the mythical performance of the Celestial Deities before the cave of the Sun Goddess; and it was equally natural that while their shrewd eclecticism enabled the Buddhist monks to detect the dramatic and spectacular possibilities of the chaunts and recitative of the "white measure-marker," the Biwa-bozu and the Jōruriexperts, their literary ability should have helped them to work up these materials into a histrionic form. Perhaps the simplest explanation is that, seeing the passionate fondness of the Japanese people for dance and song, the Buddhist monks conceived the idea of enlisting those agents in the cause of religious propagandism.