a resurrected _taiyu_, wearing the robes and insignia of her
order. Assent being given, three blows were struck on a huge gong
at the gate to summon the siren, who had never been subjected to
the ignominious exposure of a cage, but came in state to meet her
suitors at the Tsumi-ya. Alas! the state had been sadly curtailed!
We saw no attendant henchmen, no ministering children, but three
rosy-cheeked peasant-girls rather suddenly irradiated the gloom
of that historic chamber, bearing without dignity the weight of a
bygone royalty. The costumes were, in truth, splendid enough, and
the crowns of heavy hairpins quite impressive. On the trailing robe
of the first was represented a cloud cleft by lightning above a
golden dragon; on that of the second, a rock with peonies; on that
of the third, a tiger chasing a butterfly. All three designs were
lavishly embroidered with gold. Sweeping her cumbrous skirt aside
with one hand, the _taiyu_ held in the other a wide _saké_-cup,
which she slowly waved in air, repeating an old Japanese formula,
which neither the artist nor the red-aproned _nakauri_ could
interpret. For nearly five hundred years the room of fans had seen
the _taiyu_ wave her _saké_-cup, had heard her use those words,
but we could not evoke from its shadowy depths the ghost of an
explanation. We must take the spectacle for what it was, the pale
survival and ineffectual remnant of dying custom. Somehow, the
awkward mummery of the girls and the bleak discomfort of the old
tea-house seemed strangely appropriate. It was as though we were
fitly rewarded for copying Dr. Faustus’ impious trick of calling
up fair phantoms from the past, not realising that communion is
impossible between living and dead....
The Scarlet Lady has not yet lost her hold on new Japan. The
“unruly wills and affections of sinful men” are too strong for
that. But she has lost her glamour. Poets do not sing of her,
painters withhold their homage, though she is represented by a
barrister in the Lower House of the Diet. For now she has become a
thing more sacrosanct than any vestal virgin--a vested interest.
She is exploited by numerous joint-stock companies, in which
shares are held by quite important people. Their aggregate capital
is enormous, their ability to block all reform, which might tend
to reduce profits, correspondingly great. The law is at once her
protector and her gaoler. If invoked to check cruelty, it must also
enforce the observance of contracts. All one can hope is that, so
long as custom shall recognise and government control her, at least
her outlook may not darken from red to black.
INDEX
I
PLAYS
Aoi No Uye, 46, 50, 57
Bataille de Dames, 82
L’Enfant Prodigue, 65
The Fisher-boy of Urashima, 75
Fukuro Yamabusshi, 46, 56
Funa Benkei, 46, 54
The Geisha, 61
The Geisha and the Knight, 70
Gompachi and Komurasaki, 282
The Green-eyed Monster, 266
Hamlet, 85
Ichi-no-tani Futaba-gunki, 76
Jiraiya, 264
Kagamiyama-Kokyo-no-nishiki, 81
Kajima Takanori (The Loyalist), 68
Kajincho, 265
Kasuga no Tsubone, 86
Kitsune-Tsuki, 46, 48
Koi no Omoni, 46, 49
Madame Butterfly, 64
Maki no Kata, 85
The Merry Wives of Windsor, 188
The Mikado, 61
Miracle Plays, 57
Le Monde où l’on s’ennuie, 84
Monte Cristo, 84
The Moonlight Blossom, 63
The Nabeshima Cat, 81
Nakamitsu, 76
Niobe, 68
Othello, 85
Our Boys, 80
Pistorigoto, 117
La Poupée, 68
Roku Jizō, 46, 52
Round the World in Eighty Days, 67, 84
Shimazomasa, 116
Shunkwan, 46
Sweet Lavender, 80
The Tongue-cut Sparrow, 75
Les Trois Mousquetaires, 84
Tsuchigumo, 46, 55
Zaza, 64
Zingoro, an Earnest Statue Carver, 68
II
PERSONS
Adams (Will), 18
Alcock (Sir Rutherford), 18
Archer (William), 206
Asada (Lieutenant), 79
Aston (W. G.), 14, 85, 144
Belasco (David), 64
Benkei, 54, 265
Bernhardt (Madame Sara), 93
Binzura, 226
Browning (Robert), 127, 140
Bruant (Aristide), 123
Buddha and Buddhism, 23, 25, 35, 42, 52, 57, 71, 78, 82, 112, 114,
116, 139, 155, 160, 175, 184, 190, 195, 225
Campbell (Mrs. Patrick), 93
Chamberlain (B. H.), 8, 12, 25, 121, 127
Chevalier (Albert), 123
Chikamatsu, 58, 72
Confucius, 80, 154, 240, 279
Danjuro (Ichikawa), 66, 73, 82, 93
Diosy (Arthur), 62
Fenollosa (Ernest), 237
Fernald (A.), 64
France (Anatole), 228
Fukai (T.), 4
Fukuchi (Mr.), 85, 97, 263
Fukuzawa (Y.), 13
Gautier (Théophile), 122, 237
Gilbert (W. S.), 61
Godaijo (Emperor), 69
Greene (Robert), 72
Guilbert (Mademoiselle Yvette), 123
Hall (Owen), 61
Hayashi (Mr.), 27
Hearn (Lafcadio), 7, 18, 189
Hidari Jingoro, 68, 111
Hideyoshi (Taikō), 43, 72, 86, 109, 243
Hiroshigi, 105, 228
Hokusai, 140, 143, 198, 228, 255
Ibsen (Henrik), 46, 88
Ikkiu, 42
Inari (goddess), 48, 52, 71, 162, 276, 288
Inonyé (Count), 270
Ito (Marquis), 12, 29
Iyeyasu, 43, 75, 86, 110, 279, 284, 300
Jishō, 280
Jizō, 52, 162, 167
Kawakami (Otojiro), 65, 84
Keiki (Tokugawa), 44
Keion, 220
Kent (Horace Robert), 33
Kesiki, 280
Kintaro, 56
Kidōen, 280
Kitsune, 46, 48, 249
Kiyomori, 46
Kiyotsugu, 41
Kogyo (Mr.), 43
Komatsu Tenno (Emperor), 277
Konosuke Koyama, M.P., 34
Kōrin, 210, 300
Kuroda (Marquis), 66
Kwannon (goddess), 52, 185, 257
Loti (Pierre), 3, 48, 64, 211
Marlowe (Christopher), 72
Millard (Miss Evelyn), 65
Mitford (A. B.), ii, 81
Matsumoto Keichi, 43
Mori (Viscount), 79
Motokiyo, 41, 49
Motoöri, 105, 126
Nagoya Sanza, 72
Okuma (Count), 27, 29, 79
Okuni, 72
Osada (Mr.), 84, 266
Ota Nobunaga, 42
Ransome (Stafford), 9
Saikaku, 280
Schroeder (F.), 32
Scott (Clement), 88, 269
Shakespeare, 4, 58, 73, 74, 88
Shaw (George Bernard), 206
Shiuran, 42
Shizuka, 54
Shoji Jinzemon, 285
Shotoku Taishi, 190
Soga, 278
Swinburne (A. C.), 122, 129
Takao, 278
Takeda Izumo, 73
Tanabata (The Weaver), 173, 290
Tennyson (Lord), 122, 129, 139
Tora Gozen, 278
Tosa, 299
Toyomatsu (Umeseko), 33
Tsuboüchi (Yūzō), 85
Ukiyoye (Painters), 140, 284
Umewaka (Mr.), 44
Utamaro, 143, 284
Verhaeren (Emile), 210, 275
Watazumi-no-Mikoto, 223
Yacco (Madame Sada), 65, 267
Yano (Fumiō), 156
Yoritomo, 54, 278
Yoshitsune, 54, 154
Yuko Hatakeyama, 79
III
PLACES
Akakura, 180
Asama-yama, 179, 222
Ashikaga, 238
Blackfriars, 72
Chester, 57
Dango-zaka, 258
Dan-no-ura, 55, 277
Dōgō, 200
Dōshisha, 15
Fuji-yama, 3, 70, 141
Gōjō Bridge (Kyōto), 54, 265
Haruna, 165
Hiei-zan, 42
Hiroshima, 195, 245, 277
Hommonji, 164
Ikao, 149
In and Sea, 191
Ishinomaki, 213
Izumo, 72, 242
Kamakura, 54
Karuizawa, 179
Kikai-gashima, 46
Kinkwa-zan, 215
Kintaikyō (Bridge), 200
Kiyomizu, 257
Kōbe, 5, 12, 77, 206
Kose, 222
Kure, 194
Kyōtō, 35, 47, 50, 72, 93, 104, 106, 237, 279
Liaotung (Peninsula), 80
Matsuë, 243
Matsushima, 212
Matsuyama, 204
Meguro, 283
Mi Hashi (Nikkō), 188
Miyajima, 195
Moscow, 110, 115, 237
Mukōjima, 104, 287
Naoetsu, 185
Nara, 40, 168, 278
Nogiri (Lake), 183
Notting Hill, 66
Omuro Gosho, 114
Onomichi, 193
Ōsaka, 26, 73, 109, 189, 245, 268
Sendai, 211, 278
Sengakuji, 78
Sen-yūji, 188
Shiba, 104, 147
Shimabara, 299
Shimonoseki, 44, 278
Shinagawa, 285
Shiogama, 278
Sugamo, 13, 35
Suruga-dai, 13
Takata, 183
Tōkyō, 67, 76, 83, 93, 168
Tsuruga, 116
Uji Bridge, 113
Yokohama, 8, 12, 32, 35
Yoshino, 105
Yoshiwara, 70, 283, 291
Yume no Uki-hashi, 188
Zenkōi (Nagano), 224
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,
and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. For example,
lay preacher, lay-preacher; lifelong, life-long; plaistered; lotos;
anecdotic; engraven; whirr; lakelet; lupinar; choregraphic.
Pg 18: ‘not a all sure’ replaced by ‘not at all sure’.
Pg 23: ‘seem to English’ replaced by ‘seems to English’.
Pg 48: ‘like the weir-wolf’ replaced by ‘like the werewolf’.
Pg 51: ‘Princess Rokijo, who’ replaced by ‘Princess Rokujo, who’.
Pg 225: ‘upto the main’ replaced by ‘up to the main’.
Pg 265: ‘patriotism. Perhap’ replaced by ‘patriotism. Perhaps’.
Index:
Hiroshige replaced by Hiroshigi.
Inouye replaced by Inonyé.
Kagamigama- replaced by Kagamiyama-.
Kiyomidzu replaced by Kiyomizu.
O Kuni replaced by Okuni.
Schröder replaced by Schroeder.
Shotuku replaced by Shotoku.
Takaba replaced by Takata.
Wazumi- replaced by Watazumi-.
End of Project Gutenberg's Japanese Plays and Playfellows, by Osman Edwards