3-021-537 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Imperial Japanese Troupe at the Lyceum Theatre, 1868. London stage show. 'The grotesque and very audacious performances of the Imperial Japanese company, at the Lyceum Theatre, have been noticed in this Journal on a former occasion. The Illustration represents one of their queerest, and seemingly most hazardous, feats of strength or skill. Here is Hamaikiri Denkichi lying on his back, upon a couch or ottoman, while the boy, who has been perched upon the top of a lofty pile of small tubs, resting on the upturned soles of this man's naked feet, suddenly falls down, as the lowest tubs are kicked away, and is caught in safety by the feet of Hamaikiri Denkichi, whose hands are coolly using a fan. In other cases, a long ladder, or even a pair of ladders, are balanced on the man's feet instead of the pile of tubs, and the boy climbs to a height of 30 ft., where he passes along another ladder projecting laterally 10 ft. or 12 ft., the whole being kept in equilibrium by the skill of the man below. The scene in the background, painted by Mr. Grieve, is a landscape near Yokohama, with the snowy mountain Fusiyama [Fujiyama] in the distance'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.