Hard by Asakusa is the theatre street.  The theatres are called Shiba-i,[35] “turf places,” from the fact that the first theatrical performances were held on a turf plot.  The origin of the drama in Japan, as elsewhere, was religious.  In the reign of the Emperor Heijo (A.D. 805), there was a sudden volcanic depression of the earth close by a pond called Sarusawa, or the Monkey’s Marsh, at Nara, in the province of Yamato, and a poisonous smoke issuing from the cavity struck down with sickness all those who came within its baneful influence; so the people brought quantities of firewood, which they burnt in order that the poisonous vapour might be dispelled.  The fire, being the male influence, would assimilate with and act as an antidote upon the mephitic smoke, which was a female influence.[36] Besides this, as a further charm to exorcise the portent, the dance called Sambaso, which is still performed as a prelude to theatrical exhibitions by an actor dressed up as a venerable old man, emblematic of long life and felicity, was danced on a plot of turf in front of the Temple Kofukuji.  By these means the smoke was dispelled, and the drama was originated.  The story is to be found in the Zoku Nihon Ki, or supplementary history of Japan.

[Footnote 35:  In Dr. Hepburn’s Dictionary of the Japanese language, the Chinese characters given for the word Shiba-i are chi chang (keih chang, Morrison’s Dictionary), “theatrical arena.”  The characters which are usually written, and which are etymologically correct, are chih chue (che keu, Morrison), “the place of plants or turf plot.”]

[Footnote 36:  This refers to the Chinese doctrine of the Yang and Yin, the male and female influences pervading all creation.]

Three centuries later, during the reign of the Emperor Toba (A.D. 1108), there lived a woman called Iso no Zenji, who is looked upon as the mother of the Japanese drama.  Her performances, however, seem only to have consisted in dancing or posturing dressed up in the costume of the nobles of the Court, from which fact her dance was called Otoko-mai, or the man’s dance.  Her name is only worth mentioning on account of the respect in which her memory is held by actors.

It was not until the year A.D. 1624 that a man named Saruwaka Kanzaburo, at the command of the Shogun, opened the first theatre in Yedo in the Nakabashi, or Middle Bridge Street, where it remained until eight years later, when it was removed to the Ningiyo, or Doll Street.  The company of this theatre was formed by two families named Miako and Ichimura, who did not long enjoy their monopoly, for in the year 1644 we find a third family, that of Yamamura, setting up a rival theatre in the Kobiki, or Sawyer Street.

In the year 1651, the Asiatic prejudice in favour of keeping persons of one calling in one place exhibited itself by the removal of the playhouses to their present site, and the street was called the Saruwaka Street, after Saruwaka Kanzaburo, the founder of the drama in Yedo.