Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/51

Rh at his suggestion, a new school was started by one of his protégés, and despite his personal disadvantages he took a place enthusiastically on the platform. When he attained the post of Regent, the highest office within reach of a subject, he repaired to the Court and himself performed a Nô dance in the presence of the Emperor.

The Nô as here described was solemn and stately, the postures and paces as well as the drama itself being purged of every comic element, and thus completely differentiated from the mimes out of which it had grown. But art demanded that the sombreness of such representations should be relieved by some lighter scenes, and to satisfy that requirement farces were compiled for independent acting between the Nô. These farces (Kyōgen) were essentially of a histrionic character, the dance being omitted altogether, or entirely subordinated to the action of the piece and the dialogue. Many of them showed not only humour but wit, and the skill of the actors was excellent. The chief and the first-assistant performers in the Nô and the Kyōgen alike received the title of taiyu, which conferred upon them the right to have the curtain of the green-room held up by two men for their exits or entries, and also rendered them eligible for admission to any society. The Kyōgen may be regarded as a revival of the Saru-gaku from which the Nô was originally evolved. History is silent as to the author or circumstances of the revival,