Plays were divided into acts and scenes, and occasionally were prefixed
by a prologue. Performances took sometimes a single day, and favourite
plays oftentimes longer.

The Japanese type of drama seems to have originally evolved itself from
that of the Chinese, though its singing, dancing, historical, and
Pantomimical displays are, of course, purely native.

A native of Japan, though of Chinese descent, Hadu Kawatsa, at the
close of the 6th century (A.D.) gave dramatic entertainments in Japan.
The Japanese claim for the Pantomimical dance Sambâso as a preventative
of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions; and this dance, it is said, that
within recent years, is used as a prelude to dramatic entertainments.

Isono Zenji is thought to have been the originator of the Japanese
Drama, but her performances were more those of the _Mima_--dancing and
posturing.

In the seventeenth century Saruwaka Kanzaburô introduced the drama
proper into Japan by the erection, in 1624, of a theatre, and nearly
fifty years later than the first permanent theatre that was erected
(1576) in England.

Popular historical subjects were chosen for the plays, though the names
of the characters were transformed. Fancy plays, operas, ballets, which
in the latter women appeared, became also very popular.

Within sight of the closing years of the last century (the nineteenth),
Japanese actors were more or less under a ban when the same was happily