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gateway of this new type of play. That it has thus served to reveal such possibilities of the play; that it has produced some effect upon the methods and policies of the com¬ mercial theatres; that it has brought about an awakening among the generality of theatre patrons — these, in short, are facts which should not be overlooked.
Unable as it had been to achieve the essential nature of Western plays, the Sfiingeki, due to the technical deficiencies and the vain snobbism of its actors, offered an in¬ exhaustible number of “samples” indicative of the pioneering trend after the World War, but the stage itself, aside from conveying mere “literature”, produced hardly any playwrights. Because its plays lacked charm or appeal, the movement could not establish itself as a profitable enterprise, so that this experimental group which had barely risen above the capacity of amateurs, was hard put to it in making both ends meet.
Meanwhile, a few rising authors not connected with the stage, who decided to write for the “future theatre”, at last arrived upon the scene. They attacked the “essence of drama”, mastered “stage dialogue”, and produced works which neither Kabuki nor Shimpa actors could possibly handle. Still less could the meagre experience of the Shingeki actors which had been derived from performances in translated Western plays, be ex¬ pected to effect a satisfactory presentment of these works. But by virtue of the appearance of this type of drama, the Shingeki, which had slipped into the mould of snobbism, finally began, in a measure, to display the characteristics of a play that is attuned to modern life and literature. There is still something inevitably lacking, however, in the performance of this new drama when enacted with the present technique of the Shingeki.
The advent of such a drama has at last supplied the hope that the Shingeki would become the nucleus for the establishment of a culture in common with the rest of the world.
When the silent film of the West rid itself of its borrowings from the stage play and perfected its own intrinsic characteristics, the “talkie” made its appearance; and the “talkie” was in turn beset, from the outset, with a great confusion. Of the foreign ele¬ ments which brought about this confusion, the most pronounced was the stage play. In order to make talking pictures, it became necessary first of all to secure actors who were proficient in elocution. The same was true in Japan. The first time that the people of Japan witnessed a “talkie” was in September, 1902; but the subsequent projects along this line were, for the most part, of an impermanent nature, so that it was not until the end of 1926 that the first sound film studio of this country was established and Kaoru Osanai — who had entrenched himself at the Tsukiji Theatre since 1923 and introduced post-War pioneering stage plays — produced the sound picture “Reimei” (Dawn).
“Reimei” marked the first participation of the Shingeki which was anything at all like a new movement, in the production of motion pictures. Today no one comments on the worth of “Reimei.” Since the regular production of sound films in Japan was begun
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