Plays are again divided into two classes according to their form. One is the ordinary prose drama; and the other is the _gidayu_, a kind of musical or ballad drama. The latter was brought into vogue two centuries ago by Gidayu, a singer, who gave his name to this form of drama. It was originally sung at puppet-shows; but as the librettos were written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, the greatest of Japanese dramatists, they are highly valued as literature. The standard set by Chikamatsu was kept up by his immediate successors; but no _gidayu_ of note has appeared since the third quarter of the eighteenth century. In Osaka, where Gidayu lived and sang, puppet-shows still draw large houses; and no _gidayu_-singer of the present day is considered a regular professional unless he has gone through the mill at the Bunrakuza, the great puppet-theatre of Osaka. In Tokyo _gidayu_ puppet-shows do not enjoy much favour; _gidayu_ are in the capital sung at the story-tellers’ hall or performed on the stage. The _gidayu_ contains the ordinary prose dialogue; the singing part describes the feelings and movements of the puppets. But these explanations which do very well in a puppet-show, are too lengthy on the stage; while the singing is going on, the acting is apt to become wooden, and the interest in the play is saved from flagging only by the beauty of the language and the skill of the singer. There has of late been a great change in the histrionic art in Japan. Until about twenty years ago, the theatrical profession was mostly hereditary, and such as did not come of a theatrical family entered the stage as pupils of some well-known actor. None could practically become an actor without the countenance of the whole profession; and if a pupil showed extraordinary talent, he was not unfrequently made his master’s successor. For great histrionic names are handed down from generation to generation; thus, the late Ichikawa Danjuro, the greatest actor of Japan since the Restoration, was the ninth of his name, and his rival, Onoye Kikugoro, was the fifth. The third great actor at the time was Sadanji, a pupil of the fourth Kodanji; the present head of the Actors’ Guild is Shikan the Sixth; and the most promising actor of the day is Uzaemon the Thirteenth. Not one of these names has been invariably handed down from father to son; but it is vested in the family, whose consent is necessary for its assumption by a pupil.