Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/477

Rh Takeda Izumo, the most celebrated of Japanese dramatists, divided their attention equally between the two styles. It may be worth mentioning that both these authors belonged to the eighteenth century, and that both of them dramatised the vendetta of the "Forty-seven Rōnins." But Chikamatsu's most famous piece is one founded on the piratical adventures of Kokusen-ya, who expelled the Dutch from Formosa in 1661. The Japanese Kabuki theatres are amply provided with scenery and stage properties of every description. One excellent arrangement is a revolving centre to the stage, which allows of a second scene being set up behind while the first is in course of acting. On the conclusion of the first, the stage revolves, carrying away with it actors, scenery, and all; something entirely different greets the spectators eyes without a moment's waiting.

The Nō actors were honoured under the old regime, whilst the Kabuki actors were despised. The very theatres in which they appeared were looked down on as places too vile for any gentleman to enter. Such outcasts were actors at that period that, when a census was taken, they were denoted by the numerals used in counting animals, thus ip-piki, ni-hiki, not hitori, futari. Those to whom Japanese is familiar will appreciate the terrible sting of the insult. But these actors formed the delight of the shopkeeping and artisan classes, and they supplied to whole generations of artists their favourite objects of study. Most of the lovely old colour-prints representing frail beauties and other heroines were taken, not from the women themselves, but from the impersonation of them on the boards by actors of the male sex.

With the revolution of 1868, customs changed and class prejudices were much softened. Actors are ostracised no longer. Since 1886, there has been a movement among some of the leaders of Japanese thought towards the reform of the stage, Europe being of course looked to for models. No tangible result