The
spectators bring their food with them; so that eating, drinking, and
smoking are going on all the while during the performance. At some of
these theatres women only perform, at others only men, but in no
instance do the two sexes mingle in these public exhibitions. The
mechanical arrangements are of the most primitive character, such as
would not satisfy children in America, but the pantomime is very good.
As to speaking characters, they are very seldom attempted. The price of
admission is about five cents of our currency, and from six hundred to a
thousand persons often gather at these theatres. Music (it is called by
that name) and posturing fill up the intervals. To an American observer
the whole exhibition seems cruder than a Comanche wardance.

Singing and posturing girls are here let out in groups, as in other
Japanese cities, to entertain foreigners or natives at their meals; but
the performances and the purpose are highly objectionable, morality in
this latitude being much like that of the average European capitals,
that is, at a very low ebb, as viewed from our stand-point. There are
also public exhibitions of acrobats in wrestling, fencing, and the like,
while others are devoted entirely to sleight-of-hand tricks, very good
of their kind.

The porcelain manufactories of Kioto were found interesting,--everything
being done, however, by the patient and slow process of hand labor, with
the crudest of tools. The same remark applies to the silk manufactories,
where the weaving is performed in a laborious manner, each small
hand-loom requiring two persons to operate it. The goods thus produced
are really fine, but could not be sold in the present markets of the
world except that Japanese labor is held at starvation prices. The
average pay of the weavers is less than thirty cents per day, and the
boy helpers, who work the shuttles, receive but twelve. The various
manufactories of paper here and elsewhere in the country form one of its
most extended industries, the basis of the material being the bark of
certain trees; indeed, one is on this account designated as the
paper-tree, and, being a species of the mulberry, it serves a double
purpose,--its leaves feeding the little insect which is so important a
factor in Japanese products. It must not be supposed that the large
amount of paper which is produced indicates its consumption for printing
purposes: the demand for that species of the article is very limited,