Part 15 (1/2)
”At dawn, how cold the waiting moon doth s.h.i.+ne On remnants of snow beneath the pine!”
BY MEIJI TENNO.
_Translated by Mrs. Douglas Adams._
That the poetry of j.a.pan is not without its humour is shown by the following comic song, which deals with a subject of universal interest:
”In the shadow of the mountain What is it that s.h.i.+nes so?
Moon is it? or star? or is it the firefly insect?
Neither is it moon, Nor yet star....
It is the old woman's eye--it is the eye Of my mother-in-law that s.h.i.+nes!”
Modern poetry is read by every one, and composed by every one. Poems are written on tablets and hung or suspended in the houses; they are everywhere, printed on all useful and household articles. I quote a poem called ”The Beyond,” which was published in a recent issue of the _j.a.pan Magazine_. It shows not only a change of form, but of theme as well.
”Thou standest at the brink. Behind thy back Stretch the fair, flower-decked meadows, full of light, And pleasant change of wooded hill and dale With tangled scrub of thorn and bramble bush, Which men call life. Lo! now thy travelled foot Stands by the margin of the silent pool; And, as thou standest, thou fearest, lest some hand Come from behind, and push thee suddenly Into its cold, dark depths.
”Thou needst not fear; The hidden depths have their own fragrance too, And he that loves the gra.s.ses of the field, With fragrant lilies decks the still pool's face, With weeds the dark recesses of the deep; March boldly on, nor fear the sudden plunge, Nor ask where ends life's meadow-land.
E'en the dark pool hath its own fragrant flowers.”
The two young poets, Horos.h.i.+ Yosano and his wife Akiko, are known as the Brownings of j.a.pan. Yosano was editing a small magazine of verse not long ago when the poetess Akiko sent him one of her maiden efforts for publication. A meeting followed, and in spite of poverty--for poets are poor in j.a.pan as elsewhere--they fell in love and were presently married. They went to France, and were made much of by the young poets of Paris. Yosano is something of a radical, impatient of poetic conventions and thoroughly in harmony with the new spirit of j.a.pan. The power of Akiko's work is suggested in a poem of hers called ”The Priest.”
”Soft is thy skin: Thou hast never touched blood, O teacher of ways Higher than mortal: How lonely thou art!”
The j.a.panese drama has not held so high a place as have the other forms of literature, for the stage was regarded for many years as nothing more than a rather common and even vulgar means of amus.e.m.e.nt. The cla.s.sic drama, represented by the _No_ dances, was partly religious and had more prestige, but there have been few good dramatists. The stage is of interest, however, because it is the only place left where one may study the manners and customs of long ago.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A j.a.pANESE STAGE.]
To give a brief summary of this art--the j.a.panese drama, like the ancient Greek, and the English also, had its origin in religion. In the very earliest days there were crude religious dances and songs. Later, popular tales of history and legend, mixed with poetry, were dramatized.
Minstrels often recited these to the accompaniment of the lute.
Marionette dances accompanied by songs were also popular. Since these performances were regarded as beneath the consideration of the n.o.bility, the _No_ performance with a chorus came into existence for their benefit. After the earlier form had become debased and vulgarized the _No_ dances kept their ancient ceremonial character, and continued to be performed before Shogun and _samurai_, and even before the Imperial family. They developed into something very like the cla.s.sic drama of Greece. The actors were masked, the plays were held in the open air with no scenery but with elaborate costumes, and had a religious quality which they have retained to the present day. As the _No_ is very long, comedy pieces were introduced, like the ”interludes” of the pre-Elizabethan stage, to offset the cla.s.sical severity. The actors have always been of a better cla.s.s than the _kabuti_, or players for the common people.
Takeda Izuma is one of the most celebrated play writers, having dramatized the story of the Forty-Seven Ronins, as well as other historic tales. Chikamatsu is sometimes called the Shakespeare of j.a.pan; his best work is a play in which the expulsion of the Dutch from Formosa is used as a theme. He was a prolific writer of rather a sensational order. Samba, who has taken the name of Ikku, is one of the best dramatists of the present time, and is renowned throughout j.a.pan.
Hitherto myths, legends--religious or secular--and folklore, as well as pa.s.sages from j.a.panese history, have been the material used for plays.
To-day, however, novels are dramatized as with us, and many plays are translated. Western dramas are having a great vogue at present.
Whether the plays are original or not, the author's name frequently does not appear at all. When Miss Scidmore, the author of ”Jinrikisha Days,”
asked a great tragedian who wrote the play in which he was appearing, the star was puzzled and said that he did not understand. A bystander explained that it was based on newspaper accounts of various catastrophies, made into some sort of scenario by a hack-writer, with the stage-effects planned by the manager and the dialogue written by the actors--each of whom composed his own lines! No wonder the tragedian was puzzled by the question. As a rule, however, the dramatic author has entire charge of the production--he writes the play, arranges the scenes, and consults with the leading actor and proprietor.
CHAPTER XI
AMUs.e.m.e.nTS
As the traveller's first idea on reaching land after a long voyage is to enjoy himself, I am going to suggest several forms of amus.e.m.e.nt. Perhaps I had better begin by trying to answer what is sure to be his first question--”Where is the best tea-house with the prettiest _geisha_ girls?”
We found that the most celebrated _geishas_ were in Kyoto, where the dancing is cla.s.sic, a model for the rest of the country. Here were also the best-trained _maikos_, or little dancers. The Ichiriki, or One-Power, Tea-house, which we visited, is one of the most famous in the country, for here in the long-ago Ois.h.i.+, leader of the Forty-Seven Ronins, resorted in order to mislead the emissaries sent out to watch him by pretending dissipation and cowardliness. There is a shrine in the tea-house to the revered hero.