Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/52

22 Kumo Sakura no Akebono, by Toyoshima Gyokuwaken and a collaborator, which appeared in 1853, were the last epical dramas ever written. These two dramas were performed in Yedo for the first time.

At present, marionette performances are now and then given in Tokyo, at Asakusa Park, by two skilful puppet players named Yoki Magosaburō and Yoshida Kunigorō; but they attract few spectators. There are in Ōsaka two marionette theatres called respectively the Bunraku Za and the Chikamatsu Za. The former was established about a hundred years ago by an amateur chanter named Uyemura Bimraku Ken. The latter was established in 1911. These two theatres, where some skilful chanters and puppet players are giving their performances, are among the great attractions of the city.

The decline of the marionette theatre and the cessation of the composition of new epical dramas are attributable chiefly to the fact that the kabuki shibai, or the popular theatre which was as old as the marionette theatre, had found its way by degrees into general favour and at last deprived the marionette theatre of its audiences.