Reviewed by H. W. Boynton
+ Bookm 51:683 Jl ’20 290w
“The book is an adventure tale of good quality: and if the reader will overlook its lack of plausibility it will hold his attention to the end.”
+ N Y Times 25:134 Mr 21 ’20 300w
“The tale is exciting and adventurous.”
+ Outlook 124:563 Mr 31 ’20 20w Springf’d Republican p13a My 2 ’20 200w
OZAKI, YEI THEODORA. Romances of old Japan. *$8.50 Brentano’s 895
“Madame Ozaki’s ‘romances’ are for the most part stories dealt with by the popular drama of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They are of two types, the sanguinary and the supernatural. The first corresponds to the earlier period of the Yedo popular stage and to the careers of the first three Danjūrōs, famous for their impersonations of ferocious warriors. In the present work ‘The quest of the sword,’ ‘The tragedy of Kesa’ and ‘The Sugawara tragedy’ belong to this type. The second type, represented in this book by ‘The spirit of the lantern,’ ‘The reincarnation of Tama,’ ‘The badger-haunted temple,’ etc., corresponds to the popularity of the great ghost-impersonator Matsusuke, who died c.1820.”—Ath
“These characteristic native idylls are charmingly translated.”