PREFACE.
In preparing this volume neither labour nor expense has been spared; and I send it out to the public feeling confident that no such gallery of photographs, giving the exact picture of every day life of the Japanese, has ever been presented before in one volume. Being printed by the collotype process, which has of late become very popular, the pictures herein contained are true to nature and free from any retouches by the artist. Moreover, unlike ordinary photographs, these collotype pictures are really permanent, in the sense that they will not fade in any length of time.
I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to Messrs. K. Tamamura and S. Kajima, as well as to Prof. Burton, for several of the plates in this volume.
K. OGAWA |
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THE “SUWARI-ODORI.” (A DANCING).
Dancing performed in the sitting posture is known, in the vernacular, as the Suwariodori.
Impressive attitudes, quaint motions of hands and arms, and strange facial expressions are characteristic of this mode of dancing, whose attraction is not in the grace of motion but mainly in comicality.
Professional story-tellers often give the pantomime of this kind, not always in conformity, however, with the ideal of refined taste. |
