Excerpt from Ten Kiogen in English

Our literature (how little it is known to the world!) would be a grey waste as far as comedy is concerned, if the 'Kiogen,' (farce, the word meaning crazy language) did not rescue us. It developed fully in the Middle Age simultaneously with the growth of 'No' (operatic performance) which was based invariably on Tragedy. The number of Kiogen on record is said to be over two hundred. Alas! their authors are not known. The themes were freely taken from folk-lore and old stories. The dramatic characters are an ignorant lord, forgetful servants, boorish farmers, a coward, fakirs, or such like. Their aim was laughter. The Kiogen may be regarded as a comical outburst of the national temperament. Many a humorist of later centuries adopted them, completely losing, however, the innocent irresistibleness if the original.

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