ABSTRACT
THE Secretary to the Chief of Police, a young Viscount who spoke English well, and who had conducted us on our first visit to the august jail, took us to the theatre one morning, and we spent the day there. We went often after that, and on the west coast brought criticism on our youthful heads by the keenness we displayed in studying the stage. The influence of Count Inouye’s garden party, at which the Mikado was present and saw Danjuro and other great actors, had not reached Etchiu. But we persisted in our researches and found out several things. One of the first of our impressions was that a man needs gymnastic eyes and a laminated throat to be an actor in Japan. The eyes count for more, however. A good eye-wriggler need not want for a position, nor need the owner of an indiarubber face, for “making faces” is an art with the Japanese stage-folk.
