GREATEST JAPANESE ACTRESS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16448, 31 May 1919, Page 5

GREATEST JAPANESE ACTRESS.

GRIEF CAUSES SUICIDE. At 5 o’clock on a bitter morning recently Miss Sumako Matsui, the greatest tragic actress of Japan, hanged herself with her scarlet silk sash out of grief for the death of her lover, Professor Shimamura (says the Tokio correspondent of the Daily Express). It had been a grand passion. Both were ultra-modern. Sumako was famous for her interpretation of such parts as Salome, KStusha, Magda. Shimainurn, who had studied 1 in England, was infatuated by the drama, and bad written plays. Their mutual interest in the theatre brought them together. Shimamura left his wife and children and gave up his chair at Waseda University to follow Sumako. When he died in early winter Suvnako’s world was empty. Her - suicide was planned and carried out in full tide of the most successful season she had ever had. Her company noted the change. “Sumako the actress, so proud and arrogant, died when the body of her lover was laid in the grave,” says one of them, “and a new Sumako, ten-der-hearted and lovely, appeared.” On the night before the suicide she made up with unusual care. She went home late and wrote letters to Professor Tsubouchi, the adapter of Shakespeare for the Japanese stage, to a leading critic, and to her brother. To the last-named she sent a request to bo buried in Shimamura ! s grave. At 4in the morning she awoke her nephew and sent him to the post with the letters. An hour later —the hour at which her lover had died—she hanged herself in her scarlet silk sash.

Seven hundred persons attended the funeral, which was according to Buddhist rites. All classes of Tokio society wore represented. . Young Marquis Kowura, of the Foreign Office, attended as a friend and admirer. The most remarkable speech was made.by an unknown policeman, who dilated on the power of the drama. He appeared in full uniform, sword and all, and stated that he had been officially forbidden to wear uniform, though no objection was made to his speaking. ALL JAPAN EXCITED. A fierce public controversy took place whether effect should be given to Sumako’s desire that she might be buried in the same grave us her lover. Deputations of students waited on the widow to urge that she should withhold! consent, because the “awakening moral sense of Japan” demanded that such illicit unions bo condemned by;, society. The actors’ society demanded that the dying wishes of the actress be respected. Mrs. Shimamura replied that personally she was indifferent, but that she would take no step that would offend the “awakening moral sense” of the people. Ultimately Dr. Tsubouchi proposed, as a compromise, that the ashes of Snmnlco, awaiting burial in the temple of Tamou In, should be interred alongside those of her lover, but not in the same grave.

To this Sirs. Shimamura consented, announcing at the same time that she herself would be buried with her own people when her time came. “Having chosen Sumako in life, my. husband must share his grave with her,” said tho widow. “1 shall not permit my ashes to mingle with those of this woman.”. STAGE TRIBUTE. 'Hie members of tho dead actress’s company have announced their intention of erecting over the grave a lover’s mound, such as Japanese sentiment raises to mark tho graves of lovers who have perished together. Public opinion disapproves this. The authorities will not interfere. “Artists are abnormal beings,” gays a high official in the Home Office, “and they cannot be judged 1 from the standpoint of ordinary mortals. If the actors think a mound over the grave of Sumako and Professor Shimamura is justifiable, let them erect it, but as a man of common sense and common morality I oppose the project’.” “Love is holy; it shall bo free,” says the Tokio Asahi, “but the freedom should exist only when it does not interfere with public welfare. There are greater and more important things than love between a man and a woman. We should sacrifice our individual love for the greater love of the community. In this respect the love between Sumako and Dr, Shimamura cannot bo approved.”