Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/48

18 poem on the morning-glory, and a folklore story in the Konjaku Monogatari. In 1850, another author adapted this kyaku-hon and wrote the famous Shō-utsushi Asagao Banashi. This is represented in the present volume as "The Sufferings of Miss Deep-Snow." Strangely enough, the author of this drama, which has made myriads of our countrymen weep and rejoice over the sorrows and joys of its heroine Miyuki, is unknown, although we have his pseudonym "Yamada Kagashi."

Chikamatsu Yanagi, who flourished at the end of the eighteenth century, wrote the Yehon Taikō Ki, and five other pieces. The Taikō Ki, which is reproduced by the present author under the title of "The Treason of Mitsuhidé," is another favourite drama with our countrymen. Its tenth act, which is retold in Chapter V of the story in this volume, at nearly the same length as in the original, is familiar to any adult person. This piece was performed at a small marionette theatre in Osaka in 1799.

Both the Takemoto Za and the Toyotaké Za reached the zenith of their prosperity at the middle of the eighteenth century, when Izumo and Sōsuké