Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/131

 the long and, at times, intimate intercourse that had existed with China. The mimetic dances already spoken of under the general name of no were, however, in wide vogue, and elaborate arrangements for their performance on occasions of festivals existed in several of the great temples. They served, in short, not merely as an aristocratic pastime, but also as a means of replenishing the coffers of the shrines. A little later than the middle of the sixteenth century, the national shrine of Izumo was found to be in need of costly repairs, and one of its vestals (miko), O-Kuni, an exceptionally skilled dancer, whose posturing in the kagura (sacred dance) at times of worship had become famous, undertook to visit Kyōtō for the purpose of enlisting assistance. She danced before the Shōgun Yoshiteru, and pleased him so much that he issued orders for the repair of the shrine. There the story might have ended and the evolution of the Japanese drama might have been indefinitely postponed had not a very old-fashioned element come upon the scene. Among the retainers of the Shōgun was one Nagoya Sanzaemon, whose duties consisted in superintending the arrangements for court festivities. Sanzaemon and O-Kuni fell in love with one another; their liaison was discovered, and they were dismissed from the Shōgun's service. The woman's wit suggested that they should earn a livelihood by practising in public the accomplishments they had acquired at the