Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/136

 of the Japanese drama, and it is a noteworthy fact that their talent as playwrights was without precedent in its time, and has remained without peer ever since. The magnificent costumes of the marionettes were adopted by the actors; wigs took the place of the kerchiefs previously wrapped round the head; scenery was added, and at last the drama reached its present stage of development.

This skeleton record has a value not merely historical: it brings into prominence the two factors that have chiefly operated in the development of the Japanese drama, namely, that the performances took place originally in the open air, and that they had a choragic accompaniment. A necessary result of the former was that the dais where the acting had its focus did not constitute the limits of the stage. Instead of emerging from mysterious regions behind doors or partitions, the performers, throughout the whole course of their comings and goings, remained under the eyes of the audience. The very rudiments of art prescribed such a method in the case of dancing, for motion, to be perfectly musical, must be smooth and continuous: the dancer must enter the field of vision without any violent transition from rest to activity. Hence it was quickly understood that he must dance to the dais, and out of that canon grew the idea of making a route from the back of the auditorium to the stage. It was appropriately bounded by