Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/18

vi to select the essential points of these dramas, while omitting tedious details which have no important connection with the main plot. He has also endeavoured to give a brief account of such passages as are essential to the main plot, but are of little interest, and to reproduce, in their original form, as far as possible, those acts which are usually chanted or performed.

The author's best thanks are due to Mr. Masukichi Suishu, who gave him valuable assistance in the choice and condensation of the originals; to Professor A. W. Playfair, who revised the manuscript of one of these stories, and to Mr. Sakayé Okano for the preparation of the cover design. A.M.


 * March, 1915.