Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/28

2 were devised for the entertainment of the military dasses in the Muromachi Period (1392–1603), the Dark Age of Japan; and their performance was favoured and protected by the Shogun and other noblemen. Their chanted recitation is nowadays in much vogue among the upper classes.

The kyōgen or farces are even shorter and more primitive, and of slight construction. They are performed generally on the same stage as the nō, in the intervals between the more serious pieces. The nō and the kyōgen, therefore, may be called sister dramas for the upper classes.

The kyaku-hon, which are nearly the same as the European drama, were mostly written in the middle and the latter days of the Yedo Period. They were, and are much used for the theatre. But most of their authors were minor writers; and therefore the kyaku-hon, as a whole, do not contain much work of a literary value, although they are incomparably superior as dramas to the nō and the kyōgen.

On the other hand, the jōruri or epical dramas, which were also written in the Yedo Period, are such valuable literature, that they are generally