Plays are again divided into two classes according to their form. One is the ordinary prose drama; and the other is the gidayu, a kind of musical or ballad drama. The latter was brought into vogue two centuries ago by Gidayu, a singer, who gave his name to this form of drama. It was originally sung at puppet-shows; but as the librettos were written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, the greatest of Japanese dramatists, they are highly valued as literature. The standard set by Chikamatsu was kept up by his immediate successors; but no gidayu of note has appeared since the third quarter of the eighteenth century. In Osaka, where Gidayu lived and sang, puppet-shows still draw large houses; and no gidayu-singer of the present day is considered a regular professional unless he has gone through the mill at the Bunrakuza, the great puppet-theatre of Osaka. In Tokyo gidayu puppet-shows do not enjoy much favour; gidayu are in the capital sung at the story-tellers’ hall or performed on the stage. The gidayu contains the ordinary prose dialogue; the singing part describes the feelings and movements of the puppets. But these explanations which do very well in a puppet-show, are too lengthy on the stage; while the singing is going on, the acting is apt to become wooden, and the interest in the play is saved from flagging only by the beauty of the language and the skill of the singer.
There has of late been a great change in the histrionic art in Japan. Until about twenty years ago, the theatrical profession was mostly hereditary, and such as did not come of a theatrical family entered the stage as pupils of some well-known actor. None could practically become an actor without the countenance of the whole profession; and if a pupil showed extraordinary talent, he was not unfrequently made his master’s successor. For great histrionic names are handed down from generation to generation; thus, the late Ichikawa Danjuro, the greatest actor of Japan since the Restoration, was the ninth of his name, and his rival, Onoye Kikugoro, was the fifth. The third great actor at the time was Sadanji, a pupil of the fourth Kodanji; the present head of the Actors’ Guild is Shikan the Sixth; and the most promising actor of the day is Uzaemon the Thirteenth. Not one of these names has been invariably handed down from father to son; but it is vested in the family, whose consent is necessary for its assumption by a pupil.
Some twenty years ago, a new school of actors sprang into being; they were called student-actors as they came mostly from the student class. They formed companies and gave performances by themselves. At first they were looked upon with disdain by the professionals; but they soon became popular and, not being fettered like the latter by the traditions of their profession, they were more natural in their acting and had freer scope. It was during the war with China and immediately after that their strong points came into prominence; for when they acted scenes from that war, their representations were absolutely free from the conventionalities of the old school, and it was acknowledged that in the modern realistic drama the new school was decidedly superior to the old. In course of time the former began to learn the tricks of the trade as practised by the other, while the younger actors of the old school threw off the trammels of tradition in plays of contemporary life, so that there is now far less difference between the two schools. And in some theatres actors of both schools play together.
In most theatres actors take female parts as well as male. Many actors have made their mark in female roles, and such characters are often specialised, some actors excelling in depiction of ladies of rank and others in representing women of the people and of the demi-monde. There are also actresses in Tokyo, but they seldom perform with actors; for the instances which have hitherto occurred of such performances were not very successful. One theatre in Tokyo is occupied entirely by women, who play male parts as well as those of their own sex. The best actress of the day is Kumehachi, who has few peers in her line even among actors; but it cannot be said that actresses as a whole enjoy high favour in Japan.
Another public amusement which vies with the stage in popularity is wrestling. Though there are often wrestling bouts in different parts of the city, the great matches to which all lovers of the art look forward every year are those which take place in January and May in the temple-grounds of Ekoin on the south side of the River Sumida; for as they decide the combatants’ position in the profession, they are fought in grim earnest.
There are some five hundred wrestlers in the Tokyo Wrestlers’ Guild, which comprises all the professionals of the city. In the wrestlers’ list they are divided into two sets, east and west. In each set there are some score of wrestlers of the first grade, and there are corresponding grades in both sets down to the lowest. When wrestlers of the first grade retire through age or disease from the active list, so to speak, they become, unless they leave the guild altogether and take up other callings, elders of the guild. The elders are partners in the getting up of the Ekoin matches; they also take in pupils, for no one can become a professional wrestler except under the aegis of an elder. For the young wrestler this is convenient, because he is always under the protection of his elder and naturally profits if, when he goes touring in the provinces, he is in the company of a wrestler of a higher grade from the same elder. When a wrestler is without a peer, he becomes what may be called the invincible champion. There have been less than a score of such champions since the first of them took that title two and a half centuries ago; but at present there are two invincible champions at the same time.
A WRESTLING-MATCH.
Wrestling takes place in an arena of sand bounded by a ring, some twenty feet in diameter, formed of empty rice-bags and covered by a four-pillared wooden roof. It is surrounded by tiers of seats for the spectators. At the foot of each of these pillars sits an elder watching the match and acting as referee in case of dispute. At two opposite pillars are a bucket of water, a basket of salt, and a bundle of paper-slips, the salt to purify the body for the contest which may end fatally and the slips for wiping the hands.
The wrestler appears in the arena without clothing. He has over his loin-cloth a wide, wadded cotton-belt adorned with twine tassels when he wrestles; but if he is a first-grade wrestler, he makes a formal appearance in the arena with others of the same grade before they commence their bouts, when he wears in addition an apron of heavy material richly embroidered with his professional name or some other distinguishing mark stitched in gold.