The all-conquering hand _of Americanization has stretched forward and initiated changes in Japanese geisha-dom, one of the biggest symbols of conservatism in Japan, Many other things were compelled to become Americanized, but geisha-dom resisted, until today, it is forced, both because of the' necessity of keeping up with the times and for its own self-to accept some form Which shows how the times are jccanging. The mania for jazz has seized hold of all Japanese, young Jand old, and where new songs, of semi-patriotic nature,—failed ly, these, vamped up' and sct iting rag-time or jazz tunes, have caught on wonderfully; 30 much so in fact, that, in some streets of 'Tokyo' and Yokohama, the evenings are rendered horrid with loud speakers blaring away at these new Japanese songs the melody of which is not merely American jazz rhythm, but is often fall American music. For instanc Get Out and Get Under the Moo played with Japanese words and the same applies to "The Gay Caballero," or "The Show Boat." And not the least interesting part fof all this is that if you ask the average Japanese, he will tell you chat these tunes were composed in, span, but that the Americans liked them so much that the Japan-jose saw no harm in letting them have it! It is an innocent form of self-delusion, but self-delusion is such a characteristic in a certain type of Japanese that it can be a positive danger, for instance, when it is claimed that the Japanese! Invented the street car (a mission-Jary told your correspondent. that, till recently, this was actually to bbe found inthe text books used in primary school But this is not all, The geisha are also hard at work learning how te waltz and foxtrot. This has been found to be absolutely indispensable if the recognized enter. tainers of Japan were to hold their Jown against the—bobbed-haired flappers of the _silk-stockinged variety, and last Sunday 82 geisha in exquisite kimono, participated 'a dancing marathon—the first ever held in Japan. This dancing bee had all the earmarks of a dancing marathon conducted in the United States. Three clectrolas were installed in case one or other should break down; nurses were in attend: lance to render first-aid, if necesry; and the contestants had "rooters" galore.
The marathon got under way at one in the afternoon to the tune lof: "The Wedding of the Little [Painted Doll" and at seven the same evening i¢ was called off, after the girls had been five hours on the floor. That the geisha should have thad to take up modern ball-room ricing is one of the hardest pills they have had to swallow. Almost without exception,—they ridiculed ball-room dancing, mocked Jat it, composed little jeering ditties, jand the like. And now Nemesis has descended on them. That which they affected to detest and dislike has conquered them, and the fiat hag gone forth from Geisha associ tions that, if the geisha a retain their po: entertainers, they must keep up with the times and, above all, be fable to dance in' American' or! Buropean style when a guest asks Jone of them to. In this modern lage of jazz and fox-trot, the "Tt"
and cocktails, necking. and petting, the all type of geisha with their sickeningly slow, albeit gracefal, movements, their painted ex. pression less, features and - shrill, falsetto voices, do not appeal to the younger generation. And it was when the decreasing trend in their incomes became more and more pronounced that the geisha decided that the old. pride and prestige must £0, or else they would lose out. They were faced with two alternatives: one, to kick against ithe pricks and refuse to do anything that would: affect their pres-lo, ige; the other to yield to the times. The former would have meant narrower and narrower in-joomes and finally ruination; the latter, a new opportunity to refhabilitate themselves as publi entertainers and at the same Jéraw more customers. They wisely, jehose' the latter. The inexorable
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.