Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/582

of the shape of a romance, so that they may be called ‘romantic histories.’ Several of them are well written, with more spirit than the Heian literature, and one of them—i.e., ‘Heike’—is even tuned to the biwa (a kind of four-stringed lute), and sung by professional blind singers, reminding one of Homer. These historical works still exercise significant influence over the minds of our youth, in no less degree than the heroic stories of the later dates to be spoken of presently. The famous ‘Jinkō-seitōki,’ which is also an historical work, but differs very much in style from those above described, was written about the middle of this epoch, when Japan, unfortunately, had two Imperial Courts. It is a sober political and philosophical vindication of the Imperial cause which the writer had espoused. Apart from its mythical commixture, it has exercised, and still exercises, a considerable influence over the minds of the Japanese, which must be somewhat inexplicable to outsiders. The ‘Tsuredzure-Gusa’ is also a production of about the same date. It is a collection of occasional notes. It contains much of philosophical, religious, and humorous reflection, and has much literary value. It is written in pure phonetical Japanese, as the Heian romances, but in much more concise and smart language. Notwithstanding all this, taken as a whole, the Heian culture was a thing lost to these periods. Poems were composed, but in them, too, the force of the Muse of Nara was no more; and they did not even reach the standard of the Heian verses. In fact, for the greater part of these three periods the monks of the Buddhist temples became almost the sole repositories of literary knowledge.

It was under the Tokugawa period that a great revival of literary culture took place, and expanded itself to a degree unknown before.

But before proceeding to this latter period we must note one thing which has no small merit and interest: I mean the ‘No.’ It grew about the middle part of the Ashikaga period, derived to some extent from another kind of a singing dance which was much more antique and simple. It passed through the Oda-Toyotomi period, and was kept up with lively interest even to our own day. It is a kind of dramatic play, which is like an opera on a very limited scale. The written texts are sung by the people acting; there is a principal and a secondary character and a sufficient chorus in each piece. I once saw a Greek play acted by the undergraduates at Cambridge in imitation of the ancient Greeks, and I have read some Greek dramas, and I noticed some similarity between them and our ‘No,’ though, of course, the scale of our ‘No’ is only a miniature compared with the dramas of the Greeks. The texts of the ‘No’ are called ‘Yokioku’ or ‘Utai.’ They are studied