JAPAN TODAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 60, 8 September 1937, Page 17

JAPAN TODAY

STRANGE THEATRE CUSTOMS

VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS

Strange 'customs in the theatre world in Japan were related during1 an interview with Mrs. Marcus, who is at present visiting Sydney with her show, states the "Sydney Morning Herald."

"Japan is a land of quaint people and strange customs," Mrs. Marcus said. "We were overwhelmed by kindness, but seemed to be bound hand and foot by customs which were often beyond our comprehension. "We knew, of course, that the show would have to bo modified in some respects to conform with certain Oriental concepts.''

The Americans were welcomed on their arrival in Japan by 300 Geisha girls, who waved miniature American flags and cheered in Oriental fashion, whilst a band endeavoured, with admirable enthusiasm, but indifferept success, to produce jazz from apparently unwilling instruments. The gala atmosphere was then transferred to a modern hotel where East met West in a common impulse of good fellowship and celebration. Meanwhile, the elements howled an obbligato outside as a gale worked itself with Bolero-like rhythm into a typhoon—of welcome.

"We suddenly became aware of the typhoon," Mrs. Marcus recalled, "when the steel structure of a nearby building crashed to the ground, and the hurricane lashed itself into fury all around us. Roofs and walls flew through the air in mad profusion, and huge buildings crumpled up and crashed to the i ground." Fortunately our building was ! one of the few typhoon-proof edifices in Tokip. "We learned later that the gale exceded 135 miles an hour. The wind gauge broke after registering this velocity, which was. apparently its capacity.' Not onf! member of the company was injured." ■ 660 THEATRE ATTENDANTS. »irs. Marcus said the Nippon Gekijo Theatre in which the show was presented is one of the best equipped and most lavishly appointed theatres in the world. The promoters ran out of funds before it was completed, and it would have remained a forlorn skeleton had not the Emperor seen it and considered it an offence to the eye, and ordered its completion. The auditorium seats 3300 people, and the theatre has 650 attendants, including 70 stage hands and 40 young ladies who check and guard the shoes of the audience; "According to the dictates of custom one removes one's shoes in Japan before entering a building," she continued. "Nothing but a regrettable lapse of memory on the part of a foreigner could justify the abuse of this custom. But the reaction to any violation of this and other customs can usually be dissipated by a spate of apologies and a succession of ostentatious bows, which are invariably sufficient'to justify the most execrable behaviour." Mrs. Marcus v/as amused to observe that the theatre seats were much too small adequately to acebmodate a foreigner, particularly some of the stouter tourists who abound in the, Orient. "PRINCE A BOOTMAKER." . "Our backstage visitors," Mrs. Marcus continued, "included the estimable Prince Kuni, who wished to meet members of the company. Just as he arrived one of the girls rushed out from her dressing-room in a tre» joendous hurry, and asked him per : emptorily if he- wasthe .bootmaker for

whom she had sent. Imagine her consternation when she found that he was a prince of royal blood.

"Our ignorance of the native language was often a source of amusement, too. We went into one glorious cafe to have noddles and duck, a procedure which is reasonable enough, even in China. The waiter could not speak English. We could not speak Japanese. We quacked and performed any sort of movement which appeared to be reminiscent of duck deportment. The waiter did not understand. At last, in desperation, I drew what I thought at the lime to be a duck on the menu. He1 seemed to understand. But that was, not all. When we returned to the hotel I discovered that the hieroglyphic on the . menu had four legs. Ws have never been able to decide with any certainty what wi s ate! ■ ■ .

"But quite the most amusing experience of all befell a picture poster of our adagio dancer, which disappeared from the front of the theatre. The picture revealed so much of the dancer's leg that a policeman's sense of propriety was outraged. He forthwith arrested the poster and took it to the police station, where- it was tried and found guilty, on the grounds of indecency.

"You can imagine our amusement and" incredulity," Mrs. Marcus said, "when we visited the police station and found the poster securely gaoled! It had been tried according to Japanese custom."