The Hawaiian gazette., 1915-11-16

ID day afternoon time of mirth. sue
ceeding the more formal and solemn OBJ.
serVance of the coronation of the En-
perOr Yoshihito Wednesday morning.
Seven thousand daughters and sons Of
Nippon, IL was estimated, thronged the
grounds yesterday
One moved $500 miles overseas and
unknown centuries into the historic
past by the mere act Of entering the
grounds Of the consulate Nothing more
picturesque, colorful and exotic could
be imagined than that scene. Here, the
booth of the fencers, where split BAN
boo crashed against bamboo, or thud-
ded on leather guards; there, the jack,
eted iiu-j itsu men; beyond, the wrest'
lers, 1.-THE brown bodies a-sweat in the
hot sun, ringcd in by the attentive;
elsewhere, the stage where the geishR
girls danced and the black clad aikata
girls played and the medieval seeming,
old-time play Of the sunrise and the
birth of the first son of the sun was
given. .l...
TO the Occidental the stage was tho
crown of the day. IL We'd with the
wrestlers for the largest throng Of Jap.
anese, and across the stately, fantastic
and lively scenes on il there drifted the
quick applause Of those clustered about
the wrestlers of the cries of the fencers,
showing that Nippon loves his sports as
well as his dances
Famous Old Dance Given
Early in the afternoon the first
corners saw curious spectacle on the
stage. 1t was the Tsurn kane dance,
very old; tsuru means crane and kane
the turtle of the sea, and thus land anil
water entered in. On the left one saw
two little, lavendar clad girls, who had
he fiat tsuZumi or japanese drums,
and the long, hOur-glass shaped tsuzu-
mis- and on the right man who intoned
words from n great music-boo in n
shrill voice, almost monotOnOus; and at
his side a woman who lhrummed upon
samisen, the queer Japanese guitar.
Petween the little lavcndar ones and
and the man and woman there was a
betrousered little girl in white, and she
bore a red -and.white bow and a golden
arrow.
There sat in front of these four more
girls. in trousers of goId and green and
TUNES of blue, red-strircd and head
dresses. strangely shaped, worn high
and jauntily,' red-plumed and with
quickly moving gilt ornaments, and
each girl bore two red tufted sticks.
They moved upon the stage and the
lavender ones joined in the intonnd
words of the man, and the four moved
throw a slow dance carrying them
selves with an immense s6lemnity and
YET with no abashmPnt ut, the, Epeeta.
tors--a state altogether impossible to
imagine Of lttIgAhericAns speaking
their pieces at the Christmas exercises
at the church. Two'girls to the left
and two to the right engaged in n dia
lOgue, each pair speaking together. and
then danced slowly to the sides of tn"
stage, where they knelt and in.0ned
their words. IL
Land and Sea Dance
Then came two other little girls, one
having upon her back the likeness of a
turtle shell, and she was for the sea
and the other bearing white wings, and
she was for the land, and they were
green and whitehall. They danced
slowly to the chant of the man; theil
movement became liyeliers and they
Joined in the words; the four came tC
them, then the huntress, and. the birc
climbed rock andpoised FOR flight anC
huttered her wings.
ThereupOn the curtain swept across
and that was all OF the Tsuru-kam'
dance. ~.
After time the curtain opened NJ
again, and there were seen seated eigh
aikata girls, who played on their sami
sen. There entered upon the stage fou
little girls, two bearing green rice. Re,
and white were their colors, and tw
wore red trousers of an amazing length
which followed them. trainlike, upOl
the floor. Another drop was seen a
the back; it was a representation of
rice-feld, and eight geisha girls cam
in and picked up clusters of rice frOI
the floor, and danced to the chants an
strummin2s of the aikata girls. Agai
there was a change of drop, and tn
peetators say KyOtO and the KiyomiZ
temple. Cnrysanthemums lay on tn
floors, for Japan is ChrysanthemuT
land, and each geisha girl carried
royal golden flower. This was neN
coronation dance, written by X, Ia,
ina; it represented portions of tn
ceremonies. There were eight of tn
geishas, and each was Hawaiian -bOrI
They were robed brilliantly in dazzlin
eOlors.
Then, too, there was q harvest SOM
of Thanksgiving for an abundant crol
the Honen OdOri, and each geisha ca
ried two flags, one the red,and-w
Sun flag, the merchant emblem, and ii
other the rayed Sun flag, And a dane
much like that of the cherry blossom
came, each geisha bearing a pinl
""dswhite cluster that typifed tn
flower.
,. Honolulu the Beautiful
Now comes G. Komdtsu, a Japane'
actor of Honolulu, whose. artistry mar
the impossibly beautiful live upon I'll
stage. He wrote the dance Honolulu
= Meisho, Beautiful Honolulu, a splendi
thing. and one that, were it staged ;
the Metropolitan opera. house or Il
! auditorium, would make some one
fortune. 1t was quite the finest sigl
= D: the whole day
There was "A great clatteT of drum
and the curtain, removed. disclosed
drop of mountains and white-cappC
) sea. Six aikata girls played, and the
!. entered five gel ha girls on each sid
Of the ten eight were Hawaiian hOT