Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-03-21

TOKYO, Japan, March 13.-Japan's
greatest love- tragedy of modern
tines, destined to stand in song and
legend among the romances Of ancient
Nippon, has just been contaminated
here.
Ky controversy which has rocked
the nation AMI even affected political
parties of the realm, it has been de
cded that the ashes of Sumako
Matsui, great Japanese actress and
the Sarah Bernhard of the island
kingdom, will rest in the burial plot
Of her lover, Prof. Shimamura, fol-
lowing whose death she committed
suicide.
At the same time, Shimamura's
widow declares that her own body,
when she dies, shall not rest beside
her husband, but in another burial
r1ot. In death as in life, she relin-
Guishes the wife's classic rights to
the tragediennC whom her husband
loved.
The nation is split into two fac
-5CnS. One faction declares that the
actress ashes should have been per-
nitted to rest, not only in the same
pot bu. in the same grave with those
Of Shimamura: while the other argues
that in permitting even the compro-
mise plan, the widow has struck a
blow at morality.
Sumako Matsui was at the height
Of her career. No actress in the his
tory of Japan has had her tragic
poWer. EVor-increaSing crowds were
being moved to tears at her interpre-
tat;on of the great role of Carmen
Whlch she was playing at the Yuru-
lIula theater in the weeks before her
suicide.
She took nor own life two months
| to the day after the death of her low
Ell. The act was performed with the
ceremony, fervor and attention to
beauty characteristic of the medieval
| traditions OF he Samurai.
- She hanged herself in a rich Grim
son scarf, at the Tokyo actresses
! clue, timing the act for exactly 5
O'clock in the morning-the hour at
which Shimamura had died. She
wore her costume for Carmen" She
had made up for the part with I'M
usual care, saying to her friends, Il
must die beautifully"
III three letters written to her
hrothe. and Two friends, she made
the request trat her ashes be buried
III ShimamurG'S grave. 1t was this
! reques. that started the famous con-
tTOyersy.
1t was liz the role of Maslova,
heroine of Tolstoi's grim tragedy of
Resurrection" that Matsui first rose
to fame. In that role she placed her
SeI, according 10 DOln japanese ana
| European critics, upon the plane Of
Bernhard, Duse, Rachael, Siddons
and Rejane. She acted their roles,
ard with each successive triumph
| her FAM grew She was but thirty
| three years olo, and at the height of
her career, Wien she ended her life.
lrof. Shimamura was a teacher at
! WasadL university. He had studied
| the dramatic art at the school of
Prot. TsuboUchi Japan's greatest
! dramatic critic.
1t was here that he met Sumako
! Matsui, then II student, who was al
/ ready beginning to show the fire,
depth and emotional power that later
! overwhelmed the theatergoing public.
The two became lovers from the
/ start. Shimamura had a wife and
/ children and occupied a highly re-
| spectacle position. No secret was
/ mace of theiV relations.
! Prof. Shimamura died OF All III
! ness. Immediately the actress as
! sociates marked a change in her AZ
rogant and impetuouS character. She
spoke of her great loneliness. fre-
| puently said that death was to be
| preferred to a loveleSs life, and
scorned the "cowarGIce' of those who