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and sung by its admirers even without action. They have been popular with the upper classes, and of late years their practice has revived among the gentry extensively. The plots and actions are not complicated, but they are refined, and some passages of the texts are superb, though not classical. Their tone is elegant and elevated, and therefore fit to be associated with the upper classes; hence ‘No’ was performed even on great occasions at the Courts of the Shogun. Closely connected with, and having grown and developed similarly to, the No, there is a series of farcical performances called the ‘Kiogen.’ The word ‘Kiogen’ literally means ‘mad utterances.’ The texts of the Kiogen are comical dialogues, satirical without vulgarity, and have no poetical element. They are meant to be laughing-stocks, and therefore their merits lie in the condensed form of their comical elements. They are never sung; they are only adapted for action, and played after the ‘No’ drama, though occasionally the ‘Kiogen’ alone are acted without the ‘No’; there is, however, a good deal of credit to be given to them. They often represent great feudal lords as their chief characters, and in many of them the plots are made so that such lords are made fools of by the other characters; they were acted in a period when feudal discipline was most rigid, and yet this merry-making was acquiesced in. This will show how cunningly the comical parts were displayed, so that even the very feudal lords before whom they were played could not take offence. These are the essential points of their unquestionable merit.

In the Tokugawa period, as I said above, literature and the study of books spread itself in all directions, and philosophical dissertations played no small part in men’s lives, whilst previously to this period Japanese literature had very little of philosophy. Histories were written, classical annotations were composed, ethical expositions and moral teachings were also produced, all in immense numbers. Works of fiction also made their appearance in astonishing numbers; but I think it would be better for me to describe this progress in a concise manner, even if I only give an outline of it.

After the establishment of the Tokugawa Government at Yedo, now Tokyo, the country enjoyed a long period of peace, extending over 270 years. During that time both art and literature made great progress, as has already been shown. Schools were established, not only in Yedo, but at almost every seat of the provincial governments of the feudal lords, besides many private schools which were established by renowned scholars on their own account. In these schools began the tutoring of the Samurai families, and many of the Samurai themselves, whose business and inclination in former days were