Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-03-24

signed to the lowest place, ranking
next to the outcast, or Eta class. I'm
der the Shogunate of the Tokugawa
family the fortunes of the actors took
a turn for the better, and in recent
years the dramtic profession has been
fully recognized as thoroughly re-
spectacle occupation, and the drama
has won due recognition. The Engei
| Kyokai association in Toxic devotes
itself to the improvement of the drama
and histrionic art. Lately Hamlet, -
King Lear" and Macbeth have been
translated and adapted to the Japan
csc stage.
| Few foreigners ever learn to appre-
, ciate Japanese dancing, because they
| approach it with lack of sympathy
and prejudiced minds Japanese
dancing is not at all a musical, gym
nastic or spectacular display, but is
mimetic in purpose. A dance may
represent some historical or mythical
legend Volumes might be written
descriptive of the different dances
taught to the dancing girl from her
earliest youth upward. These dane
ing girls begin as tiny things of six
years. They must be dressed in
strict conformity to the traditional
model. The dancing girl is usually a
vision of refinement in all her ways
and movements. Her costume must
% no
arch. Her manners are restful and
self-contained, sunny and winsome
She is not pretty. The geisha has no
counterpart out of Japan, her con-
versational powers are fully develop
ed, and her light accomplishments in
exhaustible. She never forgets to
be lady, though mistress of the Sc
ductive arts. She is the evolution
from the dancing child, the odoriko.
In her childhood she was intrusted to
a geisha-ya, or geisha house. This
career once enterd upon is hard to
leave unless Dame Fortune brings a
lover, who is willing to buy the geisha
There is capitation tax of 81 a month
on the singing girl, or geisha, and
half the sum on the little apprentices.
In these geisha schools the children
are taught reading, writing, sewing,
music, dancing, conversation and all
the mplishments necessary for
their success in their profession. The
parents of these children receive
sum of money equal to a purchase
price, and when they are qualified
their earnings are equally divided be-
tween their employers and themselves.
The parents receive from about 10 to
25 yen for their daughters from six to
10 years old. The employers are
educational facilities. First, as young
girls. they dance, then they become
geishas, or singing girls, who throw
glamour of grace and sunshine over en-
tertainments. The ain. of these girls
is Always to find rich lovers devoted
enough to remove them from their pro-
fessional career into private life. This
frequently happens, and the geisha
girl becomes respectable citizen.
The Japanese license prostitution and
Danish these priestesses and their
paraphernalia of vice to the remotest
parts of their cities. The girls really
are sold for this trade by their par
ents: the sum paid to the family is
guarantee that she must serve out a
number of years To have once been
a geisha, or yu-jo, is not a disquali-
fication for a respectable marriage. but
no one adopts this career if any pcs
sible alternative offers itself.
Europeans dance with their legs and
feet. not so the japanese, they dance
mainly with their arms and by means
of certain bodily postures. The un-
dress of our corps de ballet would
take ANY the breath of the least pru-
dish oriental. They dance through
gesture, and by facial expression por-
tray the motives attributed to them by
the chorus of singers, but the dancer is
ever mute. The dance and the drama