Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/138

 back, and, to the right and left of the stage, there are elevated boxes for the chorus and the reciters, who are almost concealed from the audience by bamboo blinds. All these arrangements are simple and somewhat rude: the comfort of the spectator is little consulted. The stage revolves. How and when that excellent idea occurred to the Japanese, there is no evidence. They did not get it from China or India, and it can scarcely have come to them through ancient Grecian traditions. The element of naturalness and realism that it adds to the performance cannot be overestimated. It doubles the scope of the representation. The outside of a house is shown, and so is everything that passes outside by way of preliminary to what is about to occur within. Then the stage revolves, and the same actors appear in the indoor scene. Elaborations of such a facility are innumerable and will be easily conceived without detailed description. The "flower road" is an important adjunct. An underground passage enables the actor to get from the back of the stage to a point behind the auditorium, whence he emerges on the hana-michi, and makes his way through the audience to the stage. He is acting all the while—perhaps conferring with a companion as to the course to be pursued when they reach their destination, perhaps stealing along to effect a surprise, perhaps hesitating about the welcome that awaits him, perhaps