Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/134

 teenth century, carrying with him a wardrobe of female finery and astounding his contemporaries by his perfect studies of feminine ways, the playing of women's parts by men has been carried to an extraordinary degree of excellence. It happens again and again that the deception is so perfect as to defy the closest scrutiny. Even to those fully cognisant that mixed acting has not yet been introduced, it is sometimes impossible to believe that an innovation of that kind has not been effected. All the indescribable graces and subtle refinements of feminine deportment are reproduced with absolute fidelity, and it becomes easy to credit an assertion often made by persons familiar with the "green room," that such results are obtained only by acting the woman till the simulation becomes unconscious, and is preserved as faithfully in every-day life as on the stage. It may be added here that although the old interdict no longer holds, the exclusive custom still prevails. Actresses there are,—two or three companies,—but their moral reputation is of the worst, and it is thought that their admission to the stage proper would sink it again to the low level from which it has barely begun to rise. Thus the onna-shibai (women's theatre) remains a thing apart, and until a new generation of artistes are specially educated, the ban of ostracism will continue in force. But these comments depart from the sequence of history. It is a con-