the scandalous way in which here and elsewhere the great names of Japanese history are dragged by him through the mire. Its humour, however, is undeniable.
A somewhat less objectionable work is the Oyaji Katagi or "Types of Elderly Men," by Jishō and Kiseki. It is a series of racy, lifelike sketches of "The Gourmand," "The Devotee," "The Valetudinarian," "The Patron of Wrestlers," with others which need not be specified.
This was followed by a number of similar works, such as Musuko Katagi ("Types of Youths"), Tedai Katagi ("Types of Merchants' Assistants"), Musume Katagi ("Types of Girlhood"). The last-named work has a preface, which makes what I have no doubt is a sincere profession of the most unexceptionable moral aims.
The Kokusenya Minchō Taiheiki, by Kiseki, is a version, with variations, of Chikamatsu's well-known play. The practice of novelising dramas is more common in Japan than the reverse process. As has been already explained, there is far less difference between these two forms of composition than in European literature.
The Fūriu Gumpai Uchiwa is a romance of the olden time, related in the Hachimonjiya manner. Other romances are the Shōnin Gumpai Uchiwa (Kiseki, n. d.), Fūriu Saikai Suzuri, and Fūriu Tōkai Suzuri.
It is not easy to discover in the works of these writers passages which are suitable for quotation in these pages. The following is an outline of a story from the Zen-aku Mimochi Ōgi, or "Good and Evil Conduct Fan," a series of moral tales, signed by Jishō and Kiseki:—
There was once an ink-maker of Nara, named Kurosuke (Blackie), tolerably well off, but not rich. He was
