Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-04-07

Whereas, in our country, rage, hate and
scorn, in fact all the evil passions OF
u natures. are being used as material
for authors and dramatists. the Japan
ese stife these expressions, and yield
to them only in violence of deed, rarely
in words or dialogue.
A crime in Japan Is an act of despica-
BILE impulse, and it's punishment is as
silent and irrevocable as the crime it
self. The highest aid of Japanese art
reflects the life of this eriou people
tragedy.
During a short visit to Japan it was
my privilege to attend their theaters.
and l found that the underlying mo
tive of all their plays vas a lesson to
the people. sustaining the virtues Of
patriotism. national loyalty. filial re-
spect, ceremony of rank and chastity
of woman
The dramatist in Japan is not con-
lronted with the psychological com
fusion of sentiment and morals which
ms brother author encounters in the
WesteFp Hemisphere.
When | concluded to present my Jap
ahese play. Madam Butterfly" to am
American audience l realized the diff
cullv or securing a reverent appracia-
tnon from 1t for the morale of Japanese
art. To fill the theater with eastern
incense, to build an interior scene repre-
Senting a tea house. would merely be a
repetition of what we know superfic-
lally. pictorially. of Japan. 1 acknowl-
edge that I approached the purpose of
rshe story with a supreme respect for the
social conditions of the land in which it
COOK place. l ealized that behind the
simple tragedy there We're doctrines
sacred to a nation of four hundred mill
ions OF people. and that our so-called
civilized morality was without soul in
comparison to these social laws of
Japan.
After much study and reminiscent
observation Of the Japanese character,
l concluded that an American audience
must be purged of it's maetrial concep-
ton of life and love before it could en-
ter into true spirit of Japanese ideals.
An ideal is more or less visionary to
the popular mind, SO 1 concluded to
transport my audience, by easy stages,
into a land of high ideals. for Japan
today is h ~cleanest spot ON the map.
| accomplished this by appealing to the
imagination with tender music and soft
lights, and l foretold the stolid ex-
preston of the Japanese nature by the
presence of two men made up like
sitting before the curtain in
native fashion.
so, before the play began. I had filled
the theater with an atmosphere of mys-
tic purpose l had impressed the minds
OF the audience with the serene calm of.
the Buddhist faith, and my story, like
the real lives of the Japanese. glided
in and out of the atmosphere. incidental
figures. describing their universal law
of virtue and moral doctrine.
The most difficult matter was to train
the actors and actresses to understand
the Japanese nature. In our country
we are all for expression; we express a
great deal more than we feel. and fire..
quently a great deal we do not feel at
all. In Japan sincerity always pre-
expression, but expression usually
comes after the deed.
In our heaters we f~oretell by ex-
preston what we are going to do: in
Japan motion invariably follows the
So 1T was necessary to discard modern
of acting and delivery, and
particularly of facial expression, before
we could correctly interpret the stolid
and unspoken emotions of this
serious and sincere people.
How we'll We all succeeded is al
ready told by the approval of the pub
lie,
I have only ~endeavored in this short
articlef to describe The difference be-
tween Japanese stage art and our own.
In Japan it is an art born of universal
sentiment. which ours is not. Tt is an
ever lifting the faults and failings
Of human nature to high ideals. While
are proud of our realism, they are
proud of their ideals.
In this comparison it seems to me
there is a great deal of misleading
humbug in u attempt to express what
have almost forgotten to feel.
Civilization in it's highest sense
should mean sincedity of soul and i'm
pulse, not extravagantly expressed, but
accurately understood, in our hearts,.