Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/68

30 a unique form of elocution was developed in Japan as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Satsuma Jōun the chanter was at the height of his popularity.

Thus the epical dramas, as pieces to be chanted, and to be used for theatres, and as literature to be read, have an everlasting future before them.