“The gallery ... is hung with curtains as bright as the rainbow in the departing clouds. The place soon becomes so crowded that the heads of the spectators are like the scales on a dragon’s back. When the play begins, if the subject be tragic, the spectators are so affected that they weep till they have to wring their sleeves dry. If the piece be comic they laugh till their chins are out of joint. The tricks and stratagems of the drama baffle description, and the actors are as graceful as the flight of the swallows. The triumph of persecuted virtue and the punishment of wickedness invariably crown the story. When a favourite actor makes his appearance his entry is hailed with cheers. Fun and diversion are the order of the day, and rich and poor alike forget the cares which they have left behind them at home; and yet it is not all idle amusement, for there is a moral included and a practical sermon in every play.” As a testimonial to the respect the actors felt for their high calling, and a link with the ceremonial traditions of theatricals in Japan, it was the custom for a comic dance, or Sambasso, to precede the regular performances, and this was given before the sun had risen. Originally Sambasso was a mirth-provoking dance performed in the courtyards of Shinto shrines to give pleasure to the gods. Sambasso is the masked figure of a jovial old man clad in ample robes bearing designs of large white storks, pine branches, tortoises and other emblems of good luck. He moves to the slow measures of flute and drum, postures with a fan, or shakes a bunch of bells used in the kagura, or Shinto dances. This ancient performance long ago passed into the possession of the Nō stage, became one of its most treasured ceremonies, is given on auspicious occasions, the secrets jealously guarded and handed down from father to son, the actors fasting and cleansing themselves before taking part in it. Both the Doll-theatre and Kabuki appropriated Sambasso, modifying it to suit their own requirements. As to its outer appearance, the figure was a venerable old personage, but in fact it was believed to be the personification of one of the great deities worshipped at a chief Shinto shrine. This top-heavy, humoresque dancer, one of the most ancient theatrical figures extant in the world, that is faithfully preserved to-day and has a thousand years behind it, was looked upon by the theatre-folk with the deepest reverence and awe, since the performance of this dance meant the purification of the stage. It is well to recall this, when the yakusha of Old Japan are stigmatised as vicious, plebeian, loose, and immoral. A picture of the stage in the early hours of the day, before the sun had made its appearance, is found in the old record of shibai, _Kokon Yakusha Taizen_, or Ancient and Modern Actors.