Page:Sketches of Tokyo Life (1895).djvu/77

Rh prolonged rivalry which lasted till the Fukagawa quarters were closed fifty years ago, became the most prominent of all geisha homes in Yedo. Geisha, however, soon flocked together wherever people gathered, and their houses were to be seen near the principal public resorts and at the termini of the great highways running into the city. They also adapted themselves to the prevailing taste of their patrons. Thus at the present time, their manners and styles of dress in mercantile districts are distinct from those where Government officials are the chief patrons. In the latter case, musical accomplishments are not so necessary, as less interest is taken in them, and the dresses are gayer than in the former; but the geisha, in whatever quarters she may be, is expected to possess some knowledge of the samisen, which is indeed her only musical instrument, though young fledgelings play on the tsuzumi (a drum with a long body), or make fearful music on the common drum.

The samisen, the Japanese national musical instrument, came originally from the Loochoo Islands. It has been suggested that the instrument was introduced into the archipelago by the Spanish adventurers, the earliest of them being Magellan, who discovered the Philippines in 1520; but it is not likely that it is in any way connected with the Spanish guitar. Various accounts are given of the manner in which the samisen first came into Japan. The Loochooans, according to one of these accounts, whose islands are infested with snakes, used