Page:Japanese plays and playfellows (1901).djvu/301

Rh from night to night), or perhaps 60 per cent. of the takings. He may receive this sum from three or four yosé, since the hanashika form a corporation and have branch-houses in all the chief towns. Many of the more famous, like Hakuen and Encho, publish their stories after they have been delivered orally. I was not able to hear the English story-teller, Mr. Black, whose knowledge of Western literature and Japanese speech enables him to draw on a larger répertoire than his colleagues. Foreigners who desire to accustom their ears to the sound of the language will find the yosé infinitely more useful than the theatre, for the style is less literary and the diction less artificial.