Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/144

 to prove that fortune favours him, though aristocrats are unkind. Thus the comings and goings of great actors partake of the nature of royal progresses. They never descend to the rôle of a humble citizen. Everywhere they carry the stage with them, and whether they visit a spa in the dog-days, or take an evening's outing on a river, or organise a picnic to view "snow flowers," or go on a fishing expedition, or stay at home, they are always acting the grand seigneur in fact as well as in fashion. The inimitable Danjuro, indeed, departs somewhat from these extravagances, and it is just to add that he is a conspicuous exception to the common rule of licentious living. But, on the whole, the actor and his art alike suffer from abuses which are, perhaps, the inevitable outgrowth of an unhonoured employment. The lessee of a theatre is at the mercy of a capitalist; the actor, at that of the property man. The lessee generally has no capital but his official license; the capitalist has a list of the theatre's liabilities, contracted some in the present some in the past, and usually aggregating a sum beyond all reasonable possibility of liquidation. The bulk of the theatrical wardrobe is owned by merciless monopolists who extort the last sen for the use of a costume. From the capitalist the lessee receives, at each representation, just enough money to defray current expenses, and for that accommodation he is required not merely to repay the advance, but also