Page:Japanese plays and playfellows (1901).djvu/111

Rh seem to be that pursued by Mr. Tsuboüchi and Mr. Fukuchi, who continue to write plays on episodes in their own history, but strive to avoid the extravagance and unreality of their predecessors. Mr. Tsuboüchi, who was well known as a critic and novelist before he turned playwright, invented the term mugengekki or "dream-play "in ridicule of such wildly improbable incidents as disfigure "The Tale of the Sapling of Ichi-no-tani." I have not seen his own drama, the "Maki no Kati" (1897), which deals with the turbulent thirteenth century, but Mr. Aston discerns in it "careful workmanship and gratifying freedom from extravagance," in spite of "several murders and two hara-kiri by women." Of Mr. Fukuchi's work I can write with some confidence, having been privileged on many occasions to discuss it with him. He is recognised as the leading Japanese playwright, and has produced about thirty plays during the last ten years. He has been engaged for some time on translations of "Hamlet" and "Othello," but has no idea of staging them, for reasons which will be presently explained. Though anxious to modernise the drama by introducing less bloodshed and more careful study of character, he finds modern Japan unsuited to dramatic treatment. The typical advocate of progress, who dresses and talks like a foreigner, takes little interest in his own arts and antiquities, being absorbed in politics or money-making. He has neither the picturesque nor heroic qualities which a dramatist postulates, and is therefore rejected by Mr. Fukuchi in his search for material. A serious obstacle to reform lies in the ignorance of actors and the indifference of the upper classes. While the former too often lack the erudition to appreciate and