“An Actor" by Mortimer Menpes, R. I., from “Japan, A Record in Colour” by Dorothy Menpes

Watching the Play

Mortimer Menpes

1901

Watercolor

Source: Japan, A Record in Colour, facing p. 4

People of all ages seem enraptured by a story-telling performance in one of the small wooden structures in the precincts of a shrine or temple. [Commentary continues below.]

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Menpes is keen to illustrate the entirely natural way in which art pervades Japanese people's lives. Dorothy Menpes writes:

nothing so well indicates national character or so keenly accentuates the difference between individuals and nations as the way in which they spend their leisure hours.... It would be utterly impossible for the Japanese to keep art out of their lives. It creeps into everything, and is as the very air they breathe. [3]

The commentary makes no mention of this kind of al fresco theatre, but there are many references to temples, temple gardens and grounds, and sometimes to children playing in them. — Jacqueline Banerjee

Bibliography

Menpes, Dorothy. Japan: A Record in Colour. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1901. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California Libraries. Web. 20 June 2019.

Created 19 June 2019