The Washington herald., 1922-06-23
JAZZ CRAZE GRIPS
JAPAN AND RAISES
STORM OF PROTEST
Age Old Customs Are
Shattered as Youth
Flocks to Halls.

TOXIC, June Japan has
broken out with the Jazz fever in a
virulent form A year ago the
sight OF a kimonoed maiden upon
q ballroom floor was sensation;
today the big cities are supporting
hundreds Of dance halls for Japan
csc, amongst whom the sight OF a
foreigner Is unusual, while the sub
urbs are seeing the opening up of
road houses and terpsichorean pa
vilions to which the gilded youths
and literally powdered Japanese
fappers crowd many nights
week.
Gone are the days when the male
portion of the community did their
dancing by proxy and squstted
around their foot-high dining
tables while slowly weaving. grace
full geisha trod the stately meas
ures of old Japan. Into the limbo
or the discard has gone the old
convention that no japanese girl
should ever appear in a hall for
public entertainment, the conven-
ton that gave the bride her first
glimpse of her husband when she
bowed, to him before the marriage
shrine and which gave her never
an opportunity of meeting in a So
cial way even the intimate friends
of her spouse.
Dancing Kept Secret.
Up until about a year ago a Jap
anese maid who had Travelled
abroad and learned to dance could
indulge in this form of amusement
only through being a guest at aome
foreign" home. and her lapses
were kept as close a secret as nos
siole. lest she lose caste among her
Japanese friends. Despite this.
many young Japanese learned &c
dance and few began to dare the
shocked comments of the older
ladies' and the headwagging of the
older men and attend the hons"
given at the larger foreign stvle
hotels for their tourist and foreign
resident guests. Then the whisper
went around that one of the impe-
RAJ princesses was taking lessons
IN the waltz and that the crown
prince himself was becoming inter-
ested, and the floodGates were let
down. Dancing had become not
only nice but proper. and Japan
went on a jazz debauch.
| Within the last month the danr-
Ing craze has grown most rapidly
given its impetus by the visit OF
the Prince of Wales and by the as
founding fact that the prince
regent strolled around amongst the
guests at the ball given by the
British embassy and openly en-
! joyed the spectacle of the whirlInx
men and women.
Must stop at Midnight.
But old customs do not DIE with
out struggle. nor are century,
entrenched vested rights willing to
see themselves jostled without a
| protest. The police, those guar
dams Of all the outgoings and in
comings OF japanese life, are re-
senting this new form OF social
gathering. There are no rules of
precedent to go by. which worries
law and order officialdom. while the
sword-swinging guardians of the
public morals. whose faces are in
variably set against change, feel
mat their conservatism is being
severely jolted. In lack of any
thing else set forth in the law.
they have notified all hotels and
| dance-hall proprietors that for
trots and one steps come under the
rule that no public entertainment
can be held later than midnight
and that Home. Sweet Home"
must be heard before the clock
chimes the end of the day.
The main and best organized on
position to the dancing wave. how
ever, comes from the geisha. that
sisterhood of trained women whose
education has been wholly devoted
to the art of entertaining the tired
business man. The role OF the
geisha is to give the feminine touch
to all male social affairs. The place