. Nine years in Nipon. Sketches of Japanese life and manners. on the wallwhere the young lady was awaiting him, still surroundedby her bevy of handmaids ; but on arriving there, hefound, to his infinite chagrin, that the beauty and her at-tendants were simply a set of wooden puppets which hadbeen dressed up for the occasion, and were worked by aconcealed arrangement of strings. Overcome with rageand mortification, he instantly startedin pursuit of the flying Emperor, who,however, succeeded in making good hisescape —having, of course, no Manchu-rian pig-tail, like poor CommissionerYeh in after
. Nine years in Nipon. Sketches of Japanese life and manners. on the wallwhere the young lady was awaiting him, still surroundedby her bevy of handmaids ; but on arriving there, hefound, to his infinite chagrin, that the beauty and her at-tendants were simply a set of wooden puppets which hadbeen dressed up for the occasion, and were worked by aconcealed arrangement of strings. Overcome with rageand mortification, he instantly startedin pursuit of the flying Emperor, who,however, succeeded in making good hisescape —having, of course, no Manchu-rian pig-tail, like poor CommissionerYeh in after years. From that time till the present daymarionette exhibitions have been aspopular in China as in Italy, where theyseem to have amused Charles Dickensintensely. In China people of public spirit pro-A Character Dance. ^^\^Q the entertainment for the village {From ail aiicieii t Japanese ) communlty, and the show, like that of our own venerable Punch and Judy, is set forth in the open air. Restrictions are placed in China on the representation. 2/8 Nine Years in Nipon. of royal characters or great public officers, even of the re-mote past; but there Is no intention, the law declares, toprohibit the exhibition upon the stage of fictitious charac-ters of just and upright men, of chaste wives, and piousand obedient children, all which may tend to dispose theminds of the spectators to the practice of virtue. The introduction of the drama proper into Japan wasvery late. The first public performances are said to havetaken place in Kioto, the old inland capital, in the 1467-8. Very much earlier than this certain religiousmummeries were performed. Instead of having a stage,those performances took place under a shed on a carpetof grass, and so the Japanese word for theatre is stillShibaya, or turf-house. I do not think that the sacred Shinto dances are in anyway related to the drama, although some dramatic ele-ments may have accidentally become mingled with them,an
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