Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/64

28 chanters. Indeed in every town, every village, and every hamlet, there are found some people who make it their chief pastime to chant the dramas. It is no exaggeration to say that some passages of the Asagao Banashi and of the Taikō-ki are as familiar to any adult person as the national anthem.

In connection with the general prevalence of the chanting of the epical dramas, there is another noteworthy fact which must not be lost sight of. That is to say, the paramount position they have occupied in social education. It will be remembered that higher education in feudal Japan was confined to a portion of the community, i. e., the samurai and the priests. The common education carried on in the terakoya, primitive elementary schools, was far from satisfactory. Yet, in spite of such poor means of education, the people at large were alive with patriotic sentiments, and fully understood the duties of loyalty and filial piety, and the other moral principles of bushidō. All this was due to some special educational organs which made up for the imperfections of school education. That is to say, the theatres, story-tellers, and gidayū chanters were so many