Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/71



HE Kyôgen, or farces, with which the solemnity of the Nô was relieved, are often very comical, but their humour does not always appeal to foreign readers. A great many were composed during the Military epoch, and it is notable that, like the Nô proper, not one of them contains anything opposed to the canons of propriety. The same cannot be said of early Japanese prose literature, for though the diction is graceful and the style refined, subjects are sometimes introduced that are distinctly indelicate. It must not be supposed, however, that early and medieval Japanese literature was worse in this respect than contemporary European writings. On the whole, it was better. Still freedom from the taint of immorality cannot be claimed for it; whereas in the realms of farce and of the drama a very strict rule seems to have been prescribed and observed. The experience of other nations would lead us to expect that in this branch of literature above all others realism would sometimes degenerate into immodesty and