OBSERVANCES AND PASTIMES
have held the stage for much more than a century. There would be a parallel in the West if English theatres had confined themselves to Shakespeare ever since the publication of his works. The Japanese generally knows beforehand exactly what he is to see at the theatre, and knows that his father and his grandfather saw the same piece. New dramatists are now beginning to make their appearance, but the old may be said to occupy the field still. Thus the value that attaches to the skill of the actors cannot be overestimated. There are farces, of course,—"gossip-plays" (sewa-kyogen), as they are called,—but they serve chiefly to relieve the tension of the drama, and are usually played between the acts of the latter. It must be confessed that until modern times Japanese comedy was distinctly broad. It sometimes employed materials that are banished from the daylight of Western decorum, and derived inspiration from incidents that would shock fastidious delicacy in Europe. But these blemishes were usually softened by an atmosphere of naturalness and simplicity. They did not indicate moral debasement such as would accompany similar absence of reserve in a Western country. To interpret them in that manner would have been to mistake artlessness for obscenity. As reasonably might one confound the undisguised diction of the Pentateuch with the prurient coarseness of "Love in a Wood" or "The Country Wife." If Japanese comedy had
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