Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/125

Rh mentioned by travellers, is a later profane invention,—apparently an adaptation of the Genroku Odori, a dance that may still occasionally be witnessed on the stage.

The Bon Odori, a popular dance which takes place on certain days in summer all over provincial Japan, is believed to have a Buddhist origin, though its meaning is far from clear. The details vary from village to village; but the general feature of this dance is a large circle or wheel of posturing peasants, who revolve to the notes of the song sung and the flute and drum played by a few of their number in the middle. Kyōto and Tōkyō, being too civilised for such rustic exercises in which all share, do their dancing by proxy. There, and in the other large towns, the dancing-girls (geisha) form a class apart. While one or more of the girls dance, others play the shamisen and sing the story; for Japanese dances almost always represent some story, they are not mere arabesques. Herein the intimate connection that has always subsisted between dancing and the drama finds its explanation, as will be better understood by reference to the Article on the Things Japanese/Theatre. The Kappore and the Shishi-mai, or Lion Dance, are among those most often executed in the streets by strolling performers.

The very newest of all forms of dancing in Japan is of course that borrowed from Europe a few years ago. Its want of dignity, together with certain disagreeable rumours to which the unwonted meeting of the two sexes has given rise from time to time, have caused the innovation to be looked at askance by many who are otherwise favourable to European manners and customs. A plainspoken writer in an excellent illustrated periodical entitled Fūzoku Gwahō says that, whereas his imagination had painted a civilised ball-room as a vision of fairy-land, its reality reminded him of nothing so much as lampreys wriggling up to the surface of the water, and (passez-lui le mot) fleas hopping out of a bed. 

Decorations. The heraldry of feudal Japan did not include orders of knighthood, or decorations for military and other service.