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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN:
Illustrations and Essays.
COLLECTED BY
S.^BING.
VOLUME VI.
LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY,
LIMITED,
it. SuRtftan'ï %anu,
FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1891.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN:
Illustrations and Essays.
COLLECTED BT
S.'^BING.
VOLUME VJ.
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LONDON :
PttlNTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, UHITED,
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Û
CONTENTS
SIXTH VOLUME.
A Japanese Drama. By A. Lequeux 395
Description of Plates 404
SEPARATE PLATES.
CAD. The Rest în the Rice-fields. By Toyokuni.
AJD. Jay on a Branch of Magnolia.
Bli. Studies of Leaves.
BJD. Eighteenth Century Stuff.
GAE. The Cat's Dream. By Utamaro.
BHJ. Bronze Bowl.
ADB. Peonies and Lianas. (Decorative Design.)
BHJ. Vase, Kioto Ware.
BAE. Mask from the Temple of Nara. {Eighth Century.)
BFJ. Statuette of Dharma in Pottery.
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XXXII.
Japanese Landscape Painters. I. By Gustave Geffroy 407
Description of Plates 416
SEPARATE PLATES.
CAB. The Snow, Landscape. By Utamaro.
BHH. Iron Kettle.
CAA. Lovers. By Habunobu._
BDG. Little Designs for Ornament.
CBJ. Three Scenes, By Hokusai.
OAF. Iris.
CBE. Temptation of Buddha. By Hokusai.
AGD. Seventeenth Century Stuff.
BBD. Study of Flowers.
BEI. Perfume Burner. (Ceramic Ware.)
XXXIII.
Japanese Landscape Painters. II. By Gustave Geffroy 419.
Description of Plates 428
SEPARATE PLATES.
BEA. Embarking. By Utamaro.
CAI. Three Scenes — Landscape, Pilgrim, Gardeners. By Hokusai.
OBF. Birds )
„ Î Rapid Sketches. By Kitao Keisai Massayoshi.
OBH. Figures ) ^ '
OD. Three Decorative Designs.
OAO. A Night Reverie. By Toyok-uni.
OBA. Three Scenes — Umbrella Maker, Women Dressing, A Daimio's Retinue.
By Hokusai.
AAG. Two Birds.
CAH. Three Scenes— Travellers, Picking Kaki, In the Rain. By Hokusai. '
CBI, The Suicide. By Kuniyoshi.
XXXIV.
The Industrial Arts in Japan. By A. Lasenby Liberty. 431
Description of Plates -444
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CCH,
SEPARATE PLATES.
ODJ. Portrait of Hidéyoshi. (Carved Wood.) By Katakiri.
CCB. Rapid Sketches. By Kitao Keisai Massayoshi.
CDA. Various Scenes. By Hokusai.
CAG. Deer, Kakémono. By Sosen. (Double Plate.)
AED. Decorative Design.
I A Stuff Shop. By Hokusai.
The Game of Ken. By Shokosai.
AIE. Study of Lilies.
CCJ. Birds. By Kitao Keisai Massayoshi.
COE. Statuette. (Carved Wood.)
XXXV.
Hints on Collecting. By Marcus B. Huish 447
Description of Plates 456
SEPARATE PLATES.
CCI. Kakémono. By Kano Massanobu.
BDA. Decorative Designs.
CCA. Geese and Ducks. By Kitao Keisai Massayoshi.
CCG. Sea Eagle. Bizen Pottery. (Burty Collection.)
CBC. Familiar Scenes. By Hokusai.
CBB. Birds. By Hokusai.
CBD. The Monster Fish, Episode in the Life of Buddha. By Hokusai.
AGO. Silk Brocade.
OOF. Five Sword-guards. (From the Burty Collection.)
CBG. Rapid Sketches. By Kitao Keisai Massayoshi.
XXXVL
On the Role and Influence of the Arts of the Far East and of
Japan 45g
Description of Plates 467
SEPARATE PLATES.
BIF. Two Women. By Hokusai,
CJI. Flute-player, Cartwright, Traveller, &c. By Hokusai.
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OJF. Embroiderer, Women Winding Silk. By Hokusai.
CAJ. Soldiers, Women, &c. By Hokusai.
OJG. Hell. By .Hokusai.
BHB. Lovers. By Koriusai.
CCD. Kakémono. By Sesson.
EC Decorative Design.
CCC. Rapid Sketches. By Kitag Keisai Massayoshi.
AGH. Brocade. (Eighteenth Century.)
End of ARTISTIC JAPAN.
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C JAPAN.
ady described.* The
remark which we
have already made
about the want of
unity on the Japanese
must be borne in mind.
nust not be surprised
the points of contact
D.t>e. in ii«ü,«u.,hrSheko»i (>&»). utivvcen the four first acts
and the last two are almost
imperceptible. The reader must, however, be informed that Gorozo,
a former keraï (vassal) of the daïmyo Asama, makes his wife Satsuki
so unhappy that, availing herself of a right recognized in Japan, she leaves
him for another man. Gorozo, who is still fond of his wife, swears to be
revenged.
We find him in a street of Kioto. In the for^jround is one of those piles of
buckets which in Japanese towns are placed every here and there in case of a
fire. At a corner of a house bums a lantern. Gorozo enters with a naked
sword in one hand. He knows that his wife must pass by this spot on her way
to a rendezvous. The street is empty, which just suits his purpose. He cHmbs
up a paling to put out the street lamp. The stage remains in complete
darkness. He hides himself behind the buckets. A woman arrives; it is Oju,
a friend of Satsuki, whose lantern she has borrowed.f Gorozo mistakes her for
his wife, leaps upon her, and kills her. Then he coolly cuts off her head and
wraps it up in a bit of stufFJ which he cuts with his sword off the dress of his
victim. He conceals the corpse in the hiding-place where he himself had lain
concealed a few minutes before, and ties on his back the bundle containing the
head, so as to leave his hands free. There are throughout the scene of the
* I must, however, meniioo a procession in tbe Iburth act, in order lo explün what this procession is. It It the
proceswon of ihe misiress or Ihe «laïmyo Asami. This is what tourists rarely fail in thdr note» of travel to call " The
Procetsion of the Empress " — a curioas mistake, but one which shows with bow much pomp and ceremonial the life of the
dtmi-Motide was surrounded in old Japan.
Most Japanese pieces contain a scene similar lo this one The remark has therefore been often made by Eoiopean
writers that the Empress is an almost indispensable personage of the Japanese stage ; and then, of course, the writer
goes on to draw ha own conclusions about the manners and customs of tbe country. .Such a mistake can only be
explained by utter and unpardonable ignorance of the sacredness amongst Oriental nations of the sovereign power and
every thin g connected with it.
t The reader must know that Oja is at this moment the mistress of the daïmyo Asama, who has come from Kioto to
do homage to the Mikado. It is during this journey of Asama's that tbe murder related in our last number has been
perpetrated.
\ This piece is one of the big sleeves of \ht kiraetiB, which in the women's dress are particularly long. As this part
of the robe Ibnn* a pocket, or even a bag, it is peculiarly suitable for the purpose for which Gorozo oses it here.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
murder and the cutting oif of the head a hundred realistic details which we
cannot dwell on here. Nothing is left to the spectator's imagination. One
cannot help admiring the illusion of this scene of bloodshed.
Act VI. — One tableau throughout. The interior of Gorozo's house. It is
nearly midday.
Gorozo, tired after his exploit of the previous night, has not yet appeared.
■His servants, who are waiting for him, manifest their surprise.
At last Gorozo appears. He has just got up ; he is not quite wide-awake,
and shows this by certain contractions of the miiscles which, being natural, are
common to all countries. He hears his servants speaking of the murder of Oju
by some unknown assassin. An account of the crime has already been printed,
and is being sold in the streets. Amazement of Gorozo, who wonders whether
he is dreaming or whether he is in the midst of madmen. That there has been
a miu-der he is well aware, since he is himself the murderer ; but the victim is
not Oju ; it is his own wife, Satsuki, whom he has killed. He, however, keeps
these reflections to himself, not wishing to betray his secret : he makes his
servants talk, wishing to see how far their blunder will carry them. One of
them passes him the booklet with the story of the crime : he bought it, he says,
because he took an interest in Oju ; it cost him five rin, including a poem
already composed about this dramatic subject. Observe the care which the
servant takes to tell the price he has paid for these leaflets. This smallness
brings out by contrast the moral situation of the old keraï.
Gorozo reads, and gradually his surprise increases. Still no doubt crosses
his mind, so sure is he. He believes there has been a mistake on the part of
the police and the public : the head having been carried off, it has been
impossible, thinks he, to identify the victim ; hence the mistake. He fears,
however, that this false news spreading through the
town may prove damaging t
thus incur the wrath of
this woman's lover, who is
his liege-lord, and whose
dependant he still is,
although he has been dis-
missed by him. He
b^;ins to wonder if it
would not be better to
clear up the mistake. ,
S«M «r a tikr, by SUkoMt (iSoc4-
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He requires to reflect, and sends away his servants. While he is turning the
matter over, his old blind mother feels her way in. Then follows a touching
scene between these two, destined to prepare a fresh contrast arising from a
different order of ideas. A little before we saw a smallness of mind brought
" to contrast with a great moral agitation ; now we see this moral agitation
contrasted with the pure and holy tenderness of a mother's love, and with a
bitter backward glance over a life full of sorrows. The poor woman relates
her unhappy existence ; her sorrows have robbed her of her eyes, she has
cried so much in her life ! But now that she is with her son she is happy.
"I wish," says she, in conclusion, "that this happiness may last, and that no
ill-luck may befall thee." She goes away, muttering her prayers. Her last
words, however, have produced an extraordinary effect on Gorozo. A doubt
seizes him ; * he casts a glance round at all the issues to make sure that he is
quite alone, and that there are no prying eyes watching him ; he walks up
to, and opens feverishly, a little press in which he has hidden the bundle
containing the head ; he undoes the wrappings, looks, and staggers back
* Superstitious naiions dislike wishes of good luck ; they seem always to be of ill omen. Ad evidence of this is
the cusloiD prevalent in certain countries of maEing the sign of the cross oi of holding out two fingers to simulate
horns when receiving congratalatiuas on past luck or good wishes for the future.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
overwhelmed as he recognises the features of Oju. Three times he returns
to look, unable to believe his eyes, and each time his terror is more clearly
expressed. The acting in this scene is admirably done by the actor — the
same, by the bye, who in the third act played with so much skill the part
of the daimyo's mother-în-law.
Gorozo is overcome with grief, and still endeavours to explain his
mistake. The lantern was really his wife's lantern ; the clothes his victim
wore were his wife's clothes. The piece of stuff in which the head was
wrapped is there as a proof. Finally he decides that the only course left to
him is to die as becomes a brave samurai'. He owes the sacrifice of his
life to the manes of Oju, the mistress of his lord. According to the ancient
code of honour there is no room for hesitation. He was free to kill his
wife ; no one would have had anything to say. By a mistake it is the concu-
bine of his master who ha<; fallen bv his hand :
he will be di
open his enti
paint-brushes
Satsuki,
is happening
and moaning
that she too
die," says sh
speak to Gor
will not liste
" I have not
upon he thn
falls in the r
woman, who
domestic alte
and asks I
what is the
"Nothing," n
She insists.
whose impat
gradually
increasing,
forgets all
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
filial respect, and instead of answering, pushes his poor old mother out into
the street as cavalierly as he did his wife a few minutes before. She falls
down not far from Satsuki. Gorozo shuts the door and barricades himself
from the inside ; he does not wish to be disturbed any more. Having
finished writing his will, he brings a little table of offerings into the middle
Pormiti of maon, bf ShMuuJ (i&w).
of the room. On it he places the head of Oju, with the face towards the
public ; he goes to the little family shrine to take some candlesticks and some
vases of artificial flowers, which he places on each side of the head : he lights
the tapers. All these preparations are carried out without the faintest show of
emotion. It is at the moment of death that a samuraï is especially bound to be
calm.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
This done, he draws his-sword from its sheath, makes sure that the blade
and point are in thoroughly good order, and then sits down facing the funeral
altar set up in honour of his victim's head,
A seated posture, with the legs crossed, is that prescribed for karakiri, or
suicide by opening the entrails. Gorozo begins the operation according to the
ritual : there is a ritual for everything. Contrary to a preconceived idea very
generally entertained in Europe» it was not the custom to disembowel oneself at
a single blow. Suicide from passion or grief was at that time but little known
in Japan, perhaps because the other kind of suicide played such a large part in
the life of the nation. Suicide was not an act of despair, but an affair of honour.
Now honour required that this self-inflicted death should be a slow one, because
more courage is required to bear pain and watch the approach of death than to
die. So deep was this feeling, and so highly did the samurai' cherish their
honour, that even when they disembowelled themselves in the strictest privacy,
they did so as calmly as before an audience. Sometimes a brave samurai' would
cut through his skin and hack his
abdomen about for more than an
hour before he expired. He fell
exhausted, but still breathing:
often some kind friend would
at this moment give him the
finishing stroke. His honour
did not suffer thereby.
While Gorozo is thus tor-
turing himself, his wife, who has
never stirred' from the spot
where she had fallen in the
street, plunges a dagger into
her right breast. This was,
according to the ritual, the
proper way for a woman to
commit suicide. Each in turn
declare that they thus sacrifice
themselves to the manes of Oju.
The old blind mother, who lies
prostrate on the ground near
Satsuki, is utterly bewildered.
Ponniu otuton, br SUkoni Ittva).
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
She implores an explanation. Her daughter-
in-law, mastering her pain, relates how she
has been guilty of the crime of high treason,
having inadvertently caused the death of
her mistress. She did not, it is true, kill
her herself, but it was with her lantern in
her hand, and disguised in lier dress, that
Oju fell. Satsuki feels, therefore, that she
on the flUfe, Hed fiov the ud&wiagi..— Odc of the kctots,
enBN^i>iioi)iii.g«him«]fiB.ini.rar, n,.ke.ü.eg«ture. Qwcs hcr Ufc to Oju, and thls dcbt shc pays.
gh the BtnwoCa DUO hidden in Iheittmw. By Shtkoui (IB»). '■' *■ *
The old woman, passing her hands over
Satsuki, feels the dagger sticking in her breast. She would fain pull it
out. A struggle ensues between the wounded woman and her blind mother-
in-law : it is a struggle of desperate grief on the one side and determined
resolution on the other.
But the death-rattle is ringing in Gorozo's throat. His mother hears it,
and understands that he too is killing himself She calls. No answer. He
has, however, not fainted, for we see him still Ijusy at his terrible task. The
blind woman, with pitiful shrieks, endeavours to enter the house. She goes
wrong, and comes back again. At last she has her hands on the door; she
calls again ; still her ion remains silent. Making a desperate effort, she bursts
in the panel, and tumbles into the middle of the room. She must have broken
some limb, but she does not think of that : she is a mother, and her son is
dying ! He explains to her the reason why he must die. His arguments are
so conclusive that the blind woman becopies calm. Mother
of a samurai', she knows the rules of honour. She knows
too that no arguments of hers could make her son change his
resolution. Meanwhile Satsuki has dragged herself into the
room.
Two servants of Gorozo rush in breathless. They bring
a piece of good news which, despite their emotion at their
master's condition, they ddRver. A brigand has been arrested ;
he is accused of having murdered Oju : sentence is about
to be pronounced. This news is welcomed joyfully by the
dying man and woman.- — " It is a farewell present." *
* Id Japan, when a ttavellet has lemBtncd even Tor a fev houis only, either in an
inn or a private house, il is customary for him lu receive fiiini his hosts " a parting presenl."
What a louchirg idea is this of th« two ày\r\g people accepting a piece cf good neuü
as a farewell present on iheîr journey to the next world !
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
The mother, understanding that at the bottom of all this there is a quarrel
between the pair, endeavours to reconcile them in exlremts. Her part is deeply
pathetic. Her children will not at first yield to her entreaties ; but they hold one
last conversation : their thoughts return to the time when they loved each other,
and used to sing and play together. One air in particular — an air of their happy
days — haunts their memory : they decide to die playing it. The wife's wound
is bandaged up ; the mangled body of the husband is raised up, the gaping
wound stopped up as well as may be, and a linen cloth tied round the body. His
flute is brought to him ; to her her koio. They play — he held up by a servant,
she by her mother-in-law. Between them is the little funeral altar, with the head
on it seeming to listen to them. The way in which this scene is played is
perfect ; the actors succeed in combining most skilfully the horrible and the
pathetic. Now and again Gorozo's breath fails him, and his flute halts, quavering
in the middle of a note ; but, by an effort of will, he continues. At last the wave
of death sweeps over both at once ; the flute falls ; the koto ceases to vibrate.
The poor blind mother gropes for the hands of the husband and wife : she gets
hold of them, and places them one within the other. They exchange one last
glance of mutual pardon and die united.
A. LEQUEUX.
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DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
Plate CAD is taken from a work by Toyokunî, entitled " Customs of the Day," two volumes,
published in Yeddo in 1802. It represents the hour of rest of the people engaged in gathering
the rice. Rice is, as everyone knows, the staple food of the Far East It is gathered very much
as in Europe, but it is chiefly women who are employed to cut the ears, which the men carry-
away in baskets ; heavy work in the damp heat across a swamp of rice-üelds. It may easily be
imagined how great an importance the harvest of this essential element of their food takes in -
the mind of the people, and that artists should have frequently treated it To them it affords
a pretext for landscapes with far-spreading horizons shut in by the blue outline of lofty-
mountains. In this composition Toyokuni has skilfully made the most of the tall stalks, giving
just a glimpse of the landscape over the ears, thus throwing back the distance a long way
behind this solid foreground.
Two women have stopped working, and are taking a' rest on a mat stretched out on the
ground on account of the damp. Another brings them their meal, which she carries on her head
in one of those trays shaped like a shallow bucket, which the Japanese are so clever at making.
She has, besides, a big teapot in one hand containing perhaps only pure water. The artist has
curiously obliged himself to keep his composition in a yellow tone, which recalls the general aspect
of. the country at this moment of the year. It must be observed that the ears of rice when
quite ripe are not green but of a beautiful golden yellow.
Plate AJD represents the Japanese jay {garrulus japomcus) perched on a branch of magnolia
in âower. In the whole series of Japanese birds which we have reproduced it may be noticed that
the winged fauna of Japan differs but little from that of Europe. There are few of our birds
which are not found in Japan. There are, however, certain kinds there which we do not possess
in the wild state. Our readers have had ample occasions of observing that the Japanese went
in for the realistic study of animal life, particularly of birds, long before the Western World had
opened its eyes to the fact that Nature« even in her tiniest creatures is always well worth close
observation. __^
Plate BII is a reproduction of two studies of foliage' taken from a botanical treatise in seven
volumes, the illustrations in which are confined to leaves. The broad simple modelling of these
allows us to recc^nise the plant at a glance. On the left we have the Kamschatka plantain, the
Sagittarius and the Asiatic plantain ; on the right the Japanese acuba.
Plate CAE is a composition by Utamaro. This page speaks for itself, and requires no
description. In Japan dreams come, not from the brain, but from the heart This is why the
smoke, in which the subject of the dream is wrapped, always comes out of the throat.* The
painter of women used to take a rest from his usual work by improvising these humorous scenes,
which were certain to raise a laugh. There is no need to be Japanese to be amused both by the
* Or rather, u M. Edmond de Goncourt has observed In a recent study on Utanuuo, trom the stomach. The Japanese had
probably obserred the correlation which exists between dreams and the stale of the stomach.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
scene itself and the grumpy face of the good man whose cat has stolen the fish cooked for his
supper. Everything, even the size of the bamboo destined to chastise Puss, enlists our sympathy
on the side of the thief. Happily all this is only the dream of a cat fast asleep.
Plate BJD is a reproduction of a piece of brocaded silk ornamented with peacock's feathers,
considerably toned down by time. Faded though the colours be, we can still form some idea from
what remains visible of the design, of the splendour, and good taste which the upper classes in
feudal times displayed in their dress. The huge size of these ornamental designs was eminently
conducive to a serious and majestic dignity, to a striking grandeur of attitude in all official
ceremonies in days which are still comparatively near us.
Plate EFJ is a representation (about two-thirds of the real size) of a statuette in pottery of
the hermit Dharma. The material employed is a brown earth with a compact and rugged grain,
but lending itself easily to modelling purposes, and at the same time rendering the rough appear-
ance which the skin of the holy hermit must have presented. The robe in which Dharma is
draped is covered with a beautiful brown enamel.
We have told (No. XXVII., p. 46*) the legend of Dharma. No one will therefore be
surprised to see him represented in this attitude, the saint having finished by losing his legs from
having remained squatting down for so many years without ever once getting up.
This piece has a seal impressed in the paste underneath, the meaning of which is KoraWou-yen.
Plate BHJ. A Chinese bronze vase. The reproduction is four-fifths of the real size. It rests
on three feet, and has on each side an elephant's head, the trunk of which bends round to form a
handle. The ornamentation is composed of lines representing a fantastic bird, all the intervals
between these lines are filled by a Greek pattern, and round the edge runs a band of Chinese
characters. The patina is a dark brown, and the massive casting gives this piece a comparatively
great weight.
It is apparently a temple vase used in the sacrifices which used to be performed three or four
hundred years ago.
Plate BHI represents a piece of Kioto ware of the i8th century, modelled by the potter with
great suppleness into the shape of a little bag tied with a girdle. The groundwork of the enamel
is.a kind of grey crackle, the leaves are in green enamel, the iris flowers in blue ; little curved lines
of gold represent the ripples of the water by the side of which these irises grow. The girdle is a
dull red, and the general effect is very pleasing and soft in tone.
This object cannot have been of any great practical use ; it could, however, be used as a
pot, for the portion above the girdle can be iakea off and forms a cover.
Plate BAE is a reproduction of an ancient mask from the temple of Nara, which dates from
the 8th or 9th century. We observe in this piece all the strengfth, all the sincerity of feeling which
characterises the early artists. The knife was driven sharply, almost fiercely, into the wood,
without any tenderness, but with a strong sure touch only equalled by the powerful imagination
which conjured up these strange faces, impressive by reason of their expressive, lifelike character.
These wonderful sculptors undertook to give intensely human expressions to types which seem to
belong to some realms outside our earthly globe.
In Plate ADB peony leaves and flowers are intertwined with the windings of a liana, which
covers all the ground with a kind of irregular arabesque.
* See aUo No. XXVII., p. 353, a sketch representing, in a bristling fierce guise, the same personage.
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Contents of Number 31.
A JAPANESE DRAMA. II. By A. Leqoeux 395
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 404.
SEPARATE PLATES.
CAD. A Rest in the Rice-fields. ByToyokuni.
AJD. Jay on a branch of Magnolia.
Bli. Studies of Foliage.
BJD. Piece of Eighteenth Century StufF.
CAE. The Cat's Dream. ByUtamaro.
BHJ. Bronze Bowl.
ADB. Peonies and Lianas — Ornamental Design.
BHi. Vase of Kioto Ware.
BAR . IMasl< from the Temple of Nara— Eighth Century.
BFj. statuette of Dharma.
Number XXXII. will contain an article by M. Gustave Geffrey, on " Japanese
Landscape Painting."
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JAPANESE
LANDSCAPE
PAINTERS.
In the garden, in
the valley, the
Japanese gathers to-
gether all the aspects
of Nature, and sets
up scenery of infinite
variety. He applies
himself to reduce the
immensity of creation
to habitable and tan-
gible proportions. It
would seem as if, here,
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ARTISTIC JAPAN
in- the seclusion of this little nook, the owner
of this patch of ground, penetrated with a
sense of relative proportions, took pleasure
in a summary and found satis-
faction in the possible. Within
this narrow space, which can
be so quickly gone over in a
short stroll of a few steps,
everything is represented.
There is that strong and all-pervading
element, the earth. This earth, hollowed
here, levelled there by the hand of man,
reproduces in miniature the rhythmic undulations of the soil, the slopes of
mountain ranges, the level sweep of plains, Tliere is that liquid magic
element water, leaping, babbling, brawling. The tiny streamlet meanders
like a river flowing down a winding bed, runs over a slope of ground, and
falls in a cascade all foam and spray ; leaps up again, then sinks to rest and
deepens in a miniature expanse which imitates the peaceful lake and the
calm bay. In the beds and on the slopes grow a thousand trees, shrubs,
and plants, a wealth of flowers. Side by side with Nature, the artificial
triumphs. In order to possess every component part and to create an
ima^nary forest, the fanciful and patient gardener has done violence to
Nature, constrained the sap and forced into a dwarf existence trees with
lofty trunks and wide-spreading branches. He has preserved their
physiognomy, but this physiognomy, complete and characteristic as it is, is
reduced to miniature dimensions. All these dwarf shoots, from the cherry-
tree in blossom to the oak in its many-coloured autumn tints, grow in pots
which a man can carry about, put in, and take out at will. His eye is
amused by this dwarfing of the free forces of vegetation ; but his imagination
revels in these images which call up others, in this artistic transposition
which by a kind of child's play gives him the changeful spectacle of the
universe. He continues to lay out his scenery, plants rushes on the banks of
his miniature river, bids the marsh flowers bloom, and sets up in the midst
of the water a stone clad with mosses such as clothe the cliffs, ^yhether he
looks near or far he is in the midst of Nature. This miniature garden is
wrapped in luminous atmosphere. Over it pass the breezes of summer and
the storms of winter, slanting showers of rain, stinging storms of hail, silent
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
falls of snow. In spring, the peach and the plum-tree put forth their myriad
blossoms like swarms of pink and white butterflies, and tangled chrysanthe-
mums glow like gold under the autumn sunshine. In the distance there is
the horizon of the mountains, or the horizon of the sea.
How could a people with such a taste for the earth and its adornments
of green things and of flowers fail to be fond of landscape in its art ? This
passion for landscape gardening, handed down for generations from father to
son, was surely bound to gain in refinement and strength amongst those who
fixed on paper or in lacquer the sights familiar to their eyes. To tell the
story of Japanese landscape-painting would be to tell that of Japanese Art
itself. The life in the open air mingles man and nature together In the
Far East, and sets humanity against a background of earth, sky, and
water. All Japanese artists have therefore been landscape painters, whether
they dedicated themselves to figures or studied flowers, fish, insects, birds,
beasts. Beyond the flowers we get a peep of garden, a stretch of country.
The fish lives in the still water, in the eddy, in the wave, swims up a rapid,
is surrounded by stones, grass, sea-weed ; sometimes the surfaee of the water
,is indicated, ' the bank of the river, the horizon, the sky. Through the
branches of the tree round which a snake twines itself, in which a bird
perches, or a monkey swings, we see one above the other, fields, woods, and
mountain-tops. The slim-limbed deer wanders through woodlands where
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
the ground is strewn with leaves and pine-needles. The royal tiger, denizen
of the ravines and monarch of the solitude, glides with lithesome body or
frowns fiercely in rocky valleys, whose dark gullies afford him ambush. Man
marching to war, travelling, walking, working or amusing himself, gives
occasion to the artist to reproduce the whole panorama of Japan. He
ploughs the fields, goes up and down rivers, 'climbs a mountain, fills some
quarter of a town with the noise of his craft, steers his boat over the sea,
steps across the flowery threshold of a temple, amuses himself in the humour
and in the sights of the streets, presses round the gate of the Yoshiwara,
giving access to that gaily lighted pleasure-quarter. So marked is this tendency,
so strong is this preoccupation, that it is no rare thing to find landscape
introduced into the treatment of interiors. The round bow-window of the
apartment affords a permanent frame to be filled up by views over towns,
many-coloured orchards, fields, mountains, lakes, the sea, the seasons.
A complete classification is therefore out of the question, or we would
have to bring together all the objects, all the books, all the engravings in
which there are a few strokes of land-
scape, a network of boughs, a drift
of passing clouds. We shall therefore
limit ourselves to citing the names of
those who have more particularly dis-
tinguished themselves as landscape
painters, and to a brief mention of their
works. It seemed to us necessary, how-
ever, before noting individual details
and thé aspects of certain talents, to go
over the surroundings in the midst of
which this art saw the light, and to
endeavour to enter, without erudite pre-
occupations, into the subtle souls of the
islanders of Japan, A minute and in-
cessant study of the productions of that
country is the best way to place our-
selves in communication ' with these
great artists. Their existence, and the
workings of their brains are revealed to
Aii>utiikmc>«*a,b7Bobuiu those who spend a large part of their
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
lives in the contemplation of the memorials and
legacies which they have left in decided lines
on loose sheets, whereon they have fixed broad
perspectives and essential details. It is this
impression which will be scattered through the
following rapid lines. There is, however, one
means of estimation and comparison which can
be given, and this I shall take care not to
neglect.
These landscapes, drawn and coloured by
the painters of Japan, were seen by the poets
too, and set forth in short pieces of verse,
distiches, or quatrains, in which they convey
their impressions. All — and here we have
already one point common to both — all, both
painters and poets, are brief in the means
they employ, most anxious to avoid saying
too much, eager to catch the rapid and exact
effect of the synthesis, and leave to the
imagination the task of finishing some tract to be traversed. When the
poets wish to render some emotion of the soul, to awaken some memory,
a regret for some lost joy, a pang of sorrow, they seldom fail to introduce
a landscape into their verses, or else some metaphor taken from nature to ■
explain the state of mind and heart. They invoke the cloud drifting over
the mountain top veiling the moon, the fisherman's bark, the reeds on the
river's bank, the noise of a ship borne along on the crest of a wave, banks
of clouds, the glory of the setting sun. A garment watered with tears is
compared to " a rock in the open sea," or to " a buoy in the harbour of
Naniva."* In some verses of good wishes for the New Year, we find this
expression : —
" May your happiness be as inexhaustible as the snow that falls on this day
of awakening spring-time."
Another piece of good wishes and happiness expresses fear by the
following figure : —
* Theae a.[id the tbUowing quotations ire liken bom the Japuwse Anthology, poenu, tmcient and modern,
tnuulated into French and published with the original text by Léoa de Rosay, profetsor ia the college of Oriental
languages (Pant Maitooneuve et €",1871).
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ARTISTIC JAPAN,
"I dare not believe that my happiness will last eternally,
Like that white mist which always hangs over the mountain of Mifuné, above
the waterfall."
When the Empress Dzî-tô, who reigned from 690-96, composed a piece of
poetry in honour of the Emperor Ten-bu, she invoked the evenings and the morn-
ings in which her deceased husband used to stand and gaze at the maple trees : —
"O my great liege lord, master of the world, at eve thou wouldst turn thy
looks towards the trees with the reddening leaves on the hill of the Spirits, and
ere the break of day thine eyes sought them. To-day, thine eyes will seek them
again ; to-morrow,
thou wilt gaze at
them î^aîn."
In the collection
of the Hundred
Poets, the man
who has just left
his home thinks of
the next burst of
ssom: —
'Though my palace be
longer inhabited by its
i, forget not, O plum
:s, to blossom in the
ing-time under the
es of its roof."
' The injustice of
this world " is
set forth in the
following strik-
ing manner : —
" I think of
hiding myself in
the depths of the
mountains ; and
even there the stag
weeps."
Abe-no Naka-
marOjwhoin 716,
was one of an
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
embassy sent to China, watches the moon rising during the farewell banquet
offered to him. He is about to return to his own country, he thinks of the
dear familar spots whence he used to watch the same silent uprising of
the planet, and composes these verses : —
" In the vault of the heavens at this moment when I gaze at it, is it not over
the mountain of Mikasa in the land of Kasuga that the moon is rising ? "
In the poem of the Pine-trees, love is breathed thus : —
"When I have left thee, if I leam that thou awaitest me on the top of the moun-
tain of the land of Inaba, where the pine-trees grow, then I will return at once."
And in the Leaves of Wakana^-
" For you, O my mistress, I have been to cull in spring-time in the meadows
the leaf of Wakana; snow fell on my robe."
Old age is portrayed under the following figure: —
" The snow which falls is not that of the blossoms scattered by the storm ; it is
that of my years." j
There are poems entitled, While Watching ike Moon, Footprints in the
Snow. To express the different characters of three Imperial lieutenants,
the poet seeks a comparison in the depth of the woods, and puts the following
expressive words into the mouths
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
courtesan, as in the popular song of The Study of Flowers at YosHwara^
all nature is taxed to furnish comparisons, the snow, the mist, the leaves of
the willow, the blossoms of the fruit trees. If the poet moralizes, the most
philosophic declaration is inseparable from the praise of nature. This double
sentiment breathes in Autumn Thoughts: —
" If you would know the spot where rational nature is acquired.
Go seek it in feelings of humanity and wisdom.
The air is pure, the hills and the brooks are fair;
The wind is high, nature is sweet with scents ;
The swallows' nests have lost their summer tint ;
The wild geese in their pool raise their autumn chaunt
Inspired by Nature, those who love the forests of bamboo
Care nothing for the world's esteem nor for the world's Contempt."
The npLi, bj üskDuL
Lastly, if we would find in a poet a painter's vision, here are two lines
on the wild geese : —
"The wild geese, winging their flight through the mist of the clouds.
Seem to me like letters traced in flowing ink,"
We have said enough to give a foretaste ot the poetry of Japanese
landscape painters, of the pleasure which may be derived from the con-
templation of their extraordinary works. It was necessary to show the
characteristics of the Japanese, their common qualities, th»r kindred pre-
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
occupations. The quality of
vision, the pleasure of the eyes '^i^-t^'Ü^TI^il^^^'^i'''' '" '"*<-*'^
and of the mind, are carried to '•''■' •'•"'^ "*'; ^^
the highest point and proved
with a transcendent mastery by the painters. But they will be more easily
perceived and better understood after having heard them expressed by the
poets, after having seen them mingled with the existence of the peacefiil
and refined man whom we portrayed in the opening lines of this article in
his garden, amid babbling waters and the scent of flowers.
GUSTAVE GEFFROY,
a«*diig k find, ^ Ednl TdKD.
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DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
Plate CAB is taken from a volume of poetry, the outcome of an essentially Japanese
custom. At certain periods of the year poetical competitions were opened on a given subject
When the competition was over these poems were published in a volume, illustrated by the
best artbts of the day. This one was illustrated by Utamaro with six plates, all on the same
subject as that given to the competing poets : the snow.
Utamaro has here taken for his subject a dyke, the elevation of which hides the plain
beyond, and only allows the tops of a torii and of some trees to peep above it. The country
is entirely covered with snow, and even two fishermen in their boat have their hats and their
rough straw cloaks covered with white flakes. Utamaro has taken care to put in the sky a
long flight of wild geese, which only make their appearance when the winter cold sets in. In
the mind of a Japanese, these birds of passage winging their way through the sky would raise
a whole world of sweet and melancholy sentiments.
Plate CAA is a print by Harunobu, the painter of young girls and tender passions. In
this case it is no longer as before (Plate BHE, No. 27), a spring idyl on the flowery banks
of a stream. Love, however, belongs to every season, and amidst the snow falling in big
flakes advances a couple of young lovers clinging close to each other under the shelter of the same
umbrella. The artist has carefully sought the contrast between the white robe — so delicately
ornamented with a pattern of cherry-blossom — of the girl and the black mantle worn by the
young man. The contrast is striking, although free from violence or hardness, on the grey
ground dotted with falling snowflakes. The [gracefulness of this composition, free from all
accessory details, shows in the people which could appreciate such delicate work a vein of tender
poetic feeling which remained intact side by side with that love of the ludicrous which we
have often pointed out as characteristic of the character of the Japanese.
The three subjects of Plate CBJ are taken from an illustrated work in three volumes, by
Hokusai, the Tenkin oraT. The first of these three fragments shows us an essentially feminine
occupation — the weaving of stuffs. The weather has allowed of the looms being set up in the
garden, and the housewives are busy in the bosom of their families, while the children play
under their eyes, and the fowls peck. The second subject introduces us to a calling unknown
in our county — that of story-teller. The story-teller keeps a shop to which admittance is
obtained by payment, and there he relates adventures wonderful or ludicrous to an attentive
audience. Lastly, in the third fragment, boatmen are punting a boat full of travellers up a
river swollen by winter rain.
Plate CBE is taken from the Shaka go itchidai dzuyé, a work in six volumes, illustrated
by Hokusai, which narrates the life of Buddha Sakya Muni (in Japanese Shaka). This page
represents the temptation of Buddha by the devil The Evil Spirit assailed Buddha just as
Satan did our Lord, on a mountain where he was in meditation. The Divinity is not to be
416
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
touched by all the offers, all the promises of the Enemy, and remains serene, motionless. It
is interesting to compare this representation of the Evil One with the Western conceptions of
the same subject. It will be remarked that the Japanese have not allowed themselves to be
left behind in the matter of the physical ugliness which they give to thé Wicked One. They
give him claws everywhere, right up to the knees, and even in the middle of the leg.
Plate CAF. The iris is a favourite plant with the Japanese. The elegance of its lanci-
form leaves, the chaste and graceful droop of its petals, supply material for numberl^
studies and decorative designs. Though we have in Europe certain varieties which grow on
comparatively dry soil, we never find the Japanese iris represented otherwise than on damp
ground. It springs up on marshy land, and little zigzag bridges are built, whither noblemen
and ladies of rank betake themselves in splendid gala robes to get a nearer view of all the
delicate white and purple hues of the flower.
Plate BBD is a closer study of flowers with the details more worked out, of a more anatomical
character than That of which we have just spoken. It is easy to see that the artist who made these
sketches wished to steep both hand and eye in all the subtle lacework, in every tiny curl of the
petals, in all the graceful curves of the delicate stems. On the left we have an oleander, on the
right a poppy. ^
Plate AGD represents a piece of brocaded silk of the seventeenth century. The design is
composed of a trellis of dull gold on which dark green leaves stand out.
Plate BBH. A kettle in wrought-iron dating from the beginning of this century. The shape
is modelled on that of a lotus leaf covering the body of the vessel. Even for objects of the most
ordinary use the Japanese always take their shapes from Nature, a fact which cannot be too often
repeated. At the same time, they delight in employing a substance the working of which offers in
itself a great difficulty to be overcome. Iron, so difficult to work, has always been held in great
esteem by them, and the perfection which they have attained in dealing with this metal is well
known.
Plate BEX is a perfume burner of Iwami pottery ; the paste is brown and covered with an
enamel of the same colour but of a somewhat darker shade. Thb piece represents the legendary
tortoise with a long tail, which we find sp frequently employed as the symbol of longevity. The
Japanese really seem to have believed in its existence. The origin of this appendice must
probably be attributed to the fact that the shell of old tortoises becomes covered with grassy
filaments which the creature drags behind it This one carries on its back a Buddhist Saint, a
sennin, with his eyes raised in ecstasy towards the vault of heaven. The under side of the tortoise
bears the signature Nagami Iwao. This piece may date from the end of the seventeenth century.
In Plate BDG we have collected together several little ornamental designs. In the middle is
a medallion formed of two fish counterposed, and around we have birds flying in the rain, storks
rising out of the reeds, little designs representing personages with their heads covered with
enormous masks, bats amid branches, geometrical patterns, rabbits among bamboo shoots.
4'7
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Contents of Number 32.
JAPANESE LANDSCAPE PAINTERS. By Gustave Geffroy . . 407
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 416
SEPARATE PLATES.
CAR The Snow Landscape. ByUtamaro.
BKH. Iron Kettle.
CAA. Lovers. By Harunobu.
BDG. Small Ornamental Designs.
CBJ. Three Scenes. By Hokusai.
CAF. Iris.
CBE. Temptation of Buddha. By Hokusai.
AGD. Seventeenth Century Stuff.
BED. Study of Flowers.
BEI. Perfume-Burner — Ceramic Ware.
Number XXXIÎI. will cimtain the conclusion 0/ M. Gustave Geffray^s article on
" Japanese Landscape Painters."
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such is the similarity of technique which we Bnd both in the writers and the
painters, poets of the same kind. Doubtless, the poets who deal with words
can more easily, express the depth and the shade of a feeling, and the
poets who have to do with lines and forms are better equipped for setting
forth the material aspect of things. Verses only admit the phenomena and
aspects of landscapes in the shape of ingenious metaphors to set some
emotion in relief, while the works of the landscape painters only allow their
ways of feeling to be seen through individual constructions and harmonies.
■ It would be impossible to name here the painters and draughtsmen whose
landscapes we know. To do so would be to write an enormous list of names,
a dictionary of individuals, a catalogue of works. Suffice it, to point out
this perpetual tendency of the best artists, to sum up Nature in broad
line.s, in decisive lights. They express the highest pitch of sensation, they
subordinate all the details to the line which represents them, to the light
which pervades them, to the shadow which enfolds them. They know how
to give magnitude to the tiny space in which they inscribe their visions,
and on this sheet of paper suddenly heightened or widened, they show
with the smallest possible number of strokes, the interval between the
foreground and the distant horizon, which is made to recede in the most
prodigious manner. Often there is nothing, or next to nothing, in this wide
interval ; but the two distant appearances are in such exact relation to each
other that everything is revealed. It is atmosphere that fills the gaps and
gives this extraordinary illusion of distance to the spectator. To represent
what is going on in this atmosphere such is the principal object, the prime
cause of the work of art. In spite of all the comparisons which can be
made — and many of them indeed arise from a similarity of results — the
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works of the landscape painters of Japan and of the masters of the Im-
pressionist School of our own day have not the same starting point. The
great French artists to whom I allude express light by modelling surfaces,
whereas -the Japanese admit only line and the aid of some washes to
produce the sensation of distance and the illusion of light.
This tendency shows itself from the earliest beginnings known to us
of Japanese Art, and it is visible in all the different manners indulged in by
artists of classic or poetic tastes whose works have come down to us. The
genius of the Far East finds an incarnation in a new race, the esthetic
inheritance of China passes to the tiny nation of Nippon, which receives the
heirloom with due respect, as a collection of historic traditions and religious
precepts. The landscape painters obey the common law. Their attention
never strays to familiar paths, to sweet rivers, to the luminous ocean, to the
mountain seen from every point of view. No ; the landscapes which they show
us are the landscapes of Japan transported into some other artistic latitudes.
We are inclined to think that the early Japanese painters were acquainted
chiefly with the later works of the Chinese Schools, a conventional art which
was the last outcome of probable masterpieces full of orginality and power,
the dying gasp of a sumptuous and refined past, jealously guarded as a cast
secret, a national mystery. Some Japanese artists may have travelled in
China and learnt partially the chronology of this tradition, but the poetical
ideal of a civilisation cannot be begun over again, and the Japanese, so highly
endowed with instinct, while still following in the footsteps of the Chinese
artists, already began to foreshow individuality of research and a striving
after fresh discoveries.
In the works of the Japanese artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, directly inspired as they were by the hieratic bent of their
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
neighbours on the Asiatic continent, in the productions of Sesshiu and his
School, of Keishoki, of Doan, and of Schiubun, a contemporary of Sesshiu
even more strictly imitative in his art, we already discover traces of an
individual way of looking at nature, of freedom in the use of the brush.
There exist works of Sesshiu's distinguished by deep blackness of ink, by
the violence of the strokes, through which we get a glimpse of a mountain
road, of water dashing agîùnst trees and rocks, and here already we find
the blotch, and the diffusion of that blotch by the most simple means, show-
ifig a curious searching after Nature and a love for atmospheric effects.
Keighoki gives the true impression of a mass of mist floating like a lake
of vapour in mid-air between two mountain-tops. Another, an anonymous
artist, piles up the snow, silhouettes the skeleton of a tree, and makes a
horseman wander over this mute winter waste. In these artists, and in the
Kanos, whose works mark a phase in the artistic evolution, a reaction against
the purely aristocratic nationalism of the Tosa School, Chinese teaching was
singularly productive. If the works with which these painters were acquainted
showed signs of obstinacy and decrepitude, they were none the less capable
of recognising the grandeur of the summary drawing, the manner of giving
size to the subject by employing expressive lines and blotches. This is the
starting point of the art of the Japanese landscape painters, and for three
centuries the genius of their race continues to be in harmony with their
first declarations. Over and above the difference between one individual
and another, there is a general characteristic which particularly strikes our
eyes and mind, and perhaps all the drawing of all the draughtsmen of
Japan is summed up in the fact that the lines by which they fepresent
objects never reproduce anything more than the essential part. A pro-
montory jutting out, the bank of a river, a silhouette of mountains, afford
occasion for the eye to wander over immense landscapes. In all the
representatives of this Kano dynasty, which springs into being in the
sixteenth century, passes through the seventeenth and aghteenth centuries,
and survives to our own day, there is, to begin with, before any preoccu-
pation about detail, the desire to represent a geological and atmospheric ■
condition, the weight of metal, the fluid nature of air, the force of an
element. They show us the plain, the cliff, the mountain, the river, the
lake, the sea, rain, snow, mist, wind,
sunshine, — earth, water, ligl^t.
In all of them we find this
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pre-occupation to sum "P and to
give grandeur to their subject, — in
Motonobu,* who fills the air with
luminous' beams and gives a
• glimpse of mountains ; in Tanyu, ■
who paints low bluish' hills ; in
' Naonobu, in Yassunobu, who
unfold endless perspectives on the narrow ■ strip of a makiyémono, rapid
landscapes, bird's-eye panoramas, rising moons whose silvery splendour gleams-
in soft waves below the level rice-fields, mountain tops which emerge and
rise one above another, Tsunénobu expresses a density of atmosphere, a
low sky, a soil on which all sounds are deadened, a cold- and silent phase
of nature, by depicting a long-legged bird, standing on one leg, in the snow
mist. Guéamî,f who belongs to a school parallel with that of the Kanos,
inscribes the four seasons on one sheet of paper, beginning with the tree
blossoming in spring-time to end with the peak frozen by eternal winter
in the mountain regions. A gentle dreamer, Soami, son of Guéami, paints
the house-tops and the tips of branches peeping through thin mists, piles
up ' pagodas in the fog, and makes a stream suddenly leap from a moun-
tain goily. I name these artists here, without any order, quite at haphazard,
as if I were walking through a museum. Here is the never-to-be-forgotten
Korin, the unique master, who avails himself of the tiniest scrap to pro-
duce a whole.
From the end of the seventeenth century, when Moronobu laid the
foundation of the popular art, the artists who took upon themselves to
set forth the manners and customs of their country, and to show with
exactitude the spots where these scenes took place, did not on that account
give up the grand lines of landscape, the poetry of far-spreading spaces.
They no longer possess the sentiment of landscape in the abstract, so to
say, as did their predecessors, and we must come down to Hokusai to find
the realization of familiar truth allied with generalizations of Nature ; they
sometimes amuse themselves with pretty child's play, and limit themselves to
the dryness of technique. But they tell the story of their country day by
day, and despite these differences, they still keep a feeling for fair sights and
• See No. 14, Plate AGB. t See No. 20, Plate AGA,
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a tendency to eloquent summaries. Before their works one can pass long
hours of reverie and dimly guess at distant perspectives, adding to the
districts which the artists traverse imaginary countries. The human figure,
be it noted, plays an important part in their compositions, and some of these
artists have realised it in such a typical and grandiose manner that their
share is thus sufficient, and it would be unfair to ask of them that pantheistic
genius which is the lot of a privileged few. Is it not enough that the
artists of the Outagawa family should have been the chroniclers who make
all the public life of Japan move amid its accustomed landscapes, — night fêtes
by Toyoharu, delicate architecture and clever pictures of crowds by Toyohïro,
illustrations of the stage and scenes of everyday life by Toyokuni, ladies
out walking by Kunisada, sumptuous and melodramatic compositions by
Kuniyoshi, in which the landscapes assume the appearance of a transforma-
tion scene in a pantomime ? There are some brilliant and very individual
prints in the work of Kuniyoshi, the last of the group, .a contemporary of
■Hokusai, from whom he draws his inspiration. Graven in our memory are
the monster in the clouds, the huge fish surrounded by men in boats,
mountains girt with clouds, great fires by the water-side, Fujiyama seen
through a fisherman's net, a rainbow, the harmonious bend of the Gulf of
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ARTISTIC JAPAN. .
Yeddo, the boat with the great black bird on its prow, brilliant harmonies
of red and green trees, yellow roads, blue skies, and that waste 'land, those
rocks, this hamlet buried in snow by the shore of a sea, blue, limpid, and
cruel, and the priest Nitshiren alone in the cold and the silence making his
way through the snow which rises up to his waist.
Kiyonaga and Utamaro, the poets of woman, who know her daily life,
her occupations in the house, her walks, her graces, her elegance, her love
affairs ; know also what kind of nature she looks at, through which streets
'inter [an J&cape, bjr Hokuiai,
she passes, on the banks of what rivers she lingers with sinuous gait. Look
at the charming landscape by Kiyonaga,* in the print of two ladies in a boat,
and in the work of Utamaro.f the greatest of all in portraying woman ; look
at the illuminated bridges, the dark skies, the pale moonbeams, the twinkling
stars, the spring trees blossoming white and pink, the snow sprinkling the
dîùnty gardens.
All, we repeat, are not named, and biographies of individuals with
enumerations and descriptions of their works seem necessary if we wish
to know the history of Japanese Art A chapter ought to be con-
secrated to Massayoshi, who has drawn landscapes in the same way
* Sa No. 7, Plate IUI. t -Snr No. 8, Plate IH, and No. iz, Plate AAI.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
that great pencil draughtsmen take jottings of physiog-
■ nomies. In the same way, a place would have to be
given to the realistic painters of the Shijo School
{founded by Okie at the end of the eighteenth cen-
tury), who loved morning mists, tree tops, amethystine
mountains. Here, where our task is limited to passing the landscape painters
of Japan rapidly in review, we have only two more names on the roll-call,
those of Hiroshigé and Hokusai. For myself, I must say that I do not
place these two artists on the same line, and I see an enormous difference
of conception and talent between the one and the other. But they represent
well, in the last day of Japanese Art, the two directions which we can seize
and follow in a mass of paintings, drawings, and prints. Hiroshigé is
a man of great talent, very anxious to be exact, paying great attention
to the form of things, and even succeeding in feeling himself and making
others feel lofty sensations. There is a prow of a ship by him, in a
vignette about two inches wide, which" suggests the movement of the
waves ; there is a cataract whicli forms the subject of a huge com-
position in which the eddies and whirlpools of the . nether waters are
undeniably masterly ; there are others too, certainly, and he gives a
very high opinion of his talent in the rapid studies of his sketches.
He excels in treating near objects, but he is somewhat coarse in his
distances. It is possible that he has suffered in the process of engraving,
which has made the lines heavy and loaded the colour. Finally, the
impression which he leaves on the mind is that of an artistic image
maker, admirably gifted, destined to immense popularity, sowing broadcast
all the innumerable products, truthful and amusing, of a brilliant and
flexible art.
Hokusai is a poet of a very different calibre. Unrivalled as a painter
of manners and customs, he shows a personal philosophy in treatment of
human nature, and unites a certain good-humoured satire in his representations
of man with the most audacious flights beyond the horizons, at. the same
time, to confine ourselves to the technical means employed, he is ^
harmonious colourist and a forcible and refined draughtsman. He is a
realist in this sense that he paints scrupulously the
landscapes which he has seen, effects which he has
noted as they passed, but he always goes further, ^-^V
higher, and he never wearies of affirming the essence ^0 \- ■
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of things, the force of phenomena. His waves swell, rise, fall, and make
one think of the whole ocean, of all the rhythm of the universe. Everywhere
in the views of Fujiyama, in the Man-gwa, he knows the smallest details and
marks out the spaces. He is the most attentive observer, the scientific
exponent; he carefully measures his objects, decomposes the slightest move-
ments, and he is at the same time one of ' the boldest travellers who has
ever journeyed into dreamland. He paints scenery which cannot be moved,
changeless rocks, eternal mountains, — he enumerates all their changing
aspects under the influence of lights and shadows. He possesses in the
highest degree the Japanese talent for rendering the movement of beings
and things ; he makes men gesticulate, animals walk, birds fiy, reptiles
creep, fish swim ; he makes the leaves on his trees, the waters of his
rivers and seas, thé clouds in his skies all move. He quits at will
the commonplace of life to soar on the wing of a chimera, turns nature
to his own account, creates monsters, tells the tales of startling dreams.
He is the truly extraordinary landscape painter ; he sets forth the seasons
from flowery spring to black winter, draws up a map of the fields, orchards,
and woods, traces the course of meandering rivers, makes the sea swell in
foam like muslin and in waves all claws ; he casts the breaker over the
rock, twists it into languid volutes on the sand ; and again, when the
panorama of the world he lives in is no longer enough for him, the eye
of his imagination returns to former.
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DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
Plate BEA is a print by Utamaro. In a bit of landscape buried under the snow, a young"
lady is on the point of stepping into a little boat, of which we just see the prow and a corner of the
covering which is to protect the fair traveller against the winter cold. Her head wrapped in an
ample black snood, her figure tightly clad in a long dark mantle which covers the rosy tones of her
robe, cautiously picking her steps with bare feet, which high wooden pattens or guéta keep from
touching the snow. With one hand she holds up her dress, with the other she seeks for support
from her companion, a servant no doubt, to judge from his common clothes. The artist has
amused himself by contrasting against the spotless white snow the greys, pinks, and pale blues,
giving strength to this sweetness by the bold note of the two touches of black.
Plate CAC is taken from a work by Toyokuni, entitled Customs of the Day, which was
published in Yeddo in 1802. We have already taken from it Plate CAD of No. 31, " The Rice-
Harvest " ; each of those two volumes ends with one of these two plates, the second by the rice-
harvest and the first by the composition which we now have before us. On the bank of the river
Sumida, rolling its pure waters through the capital, a young woman stands upright on the prow of
a boat and gazes dreamily as she contemplates the night. If we make allowance for the artifice —
quite admissible to the mind of a Japanese — by which the artist lights up his foreground despite
the darkness of the hour, we must reo^nise how ably Toyokuni has made the most in this print of
the masses of black.
The kind of parapet in the immediate foreground, and the robe, printed in a strong full black,
throw back into the distance the depths of the landscape and the clouds which darken the sky.
And in this supple silhouette, in this head gently raised, what a refined indication of the reverie of
the personage, what an enticing suggestiveness for the poetic mind of a Japanese, always ready to
be touched by the beauties of Nature !
Plates CAI, CBA are taken from the Tenkin Oral, a work in three volumes illustrated by
Hokusai, from which we have already taken the subject of a plate in a previous number. The
series of scenes which pass before us in these volumes are most instructive ; we find in it all the
occupations of Japanese life, rapidly caught from Nature by the powerful vision of the master, and
rendered with straightforward simplicity. In Plate CAI we have, first, a road passing between a ■
rice-field and the pebbly bed of a stream which turns a mill-wheel. Men laden with burdens pass,
while a peasant with his pick by his side takes a rest, and another moves away with his spade
over his shoulder. There we see a pilgrim, carrying a lantern, who stops and casts a reverential
look at the stone image of Buddha placed at the turn of the road ; then, two gardeners are
busily occupied, one in mending a palisade, the other in pruning a pine-tree.
438
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ARTISTIC JAPAN. .
Plate CBA shows us an umbrella-maker, a woman dressing, caught in a supple movement,
and under a shower a d^imio's retinue with his standard-bearers, baggage, and beasts of burden.
Lastly, in Plate CAH, a portion of an analogous retinue in which coolies, two-sworded noble-
men and their followers with the flag-staffs march in military step.
The other composition represents the gathering of the kaki, the most delicious of the fruits of
Japan, with a flavour of the orange and the apricot Finally, the last scene shows us, hurrying
along under a shower of rain such as is unknown in our latitudes, a woman with her child on
her back, while her companion shelters her by holding over her a lotus leaf of fabulous size.
In Plate A AG are figured two birds, the snipe and Miquelon's duck {harelda glacialts), each
in their natural surroundings, indicated by three strokes of the brush, the marsh, which is repre-
sented by two water plants, and the waters of a cold country, figured by some waves and a snow-
covered tree-trunk. _^^_^_
Plates CBF and CBH are taken from two works by Kitao Keisai Massayoshi, both executed
with a determined intention to carry simplification of drawing to the farthest limit, leaving in each
subject treated only the stroke which indicates the essential part of the form, or the movement
which betrays the character. The crow becomes a mere black blot, the bird of prey a flattened
head and wings whose powerful folds lap over each other ; the parrot becomes only a curve with a
crest, the swallow an arrow shooting along, the. pheasant a swelling breast and a long tail ; it is the
minimum of an indication in every case, but so clear, so legible, so striking, and at the same lime
savoured by a grain of humour so amusing, that in turning over the five ox six volumes which
Massayoshi has consecrated to these kinds of sketches, one cannot help being tarried away by their
gaiety. .
In the same way, in Plate CBH, with what an admirably natural movement the woman
arranges the folds of her dress and the other opens her umbrella. As to the two little scenes where
the back of a chair is represented by three strokes, we must observe that they represent Chinese
personages: the flute held by a man and woman refers to a love l^end, and the kind of chess-
board which- we see on the other side is also of Chinese origin ; it is the game of go, more
complicated than our draughts. The Japanese give themselves up to it with an enthusiasm which
affords endless material to their caricaturists ; wc often see two players at go so absorded in the
game that thieves carry off the contents of the house under their noses without their noticing
anything.
Plate CBI reproduces a print by Kuniyoshi, It is the dramatic story of a double suicide, the
result of disappointed love. This romantic story has remained famous in /apan under the title of
Shin-Ju. Two young people fell in love, and on their parents refusing to consent to their marriage,
threw themselves off a bridge Into the Sumida, their two bodies bound by the same cords.
Thus we see that the drama of love belongs to all countries.
Plate CD contains three decorative designs, the first formed of a sprinkling of tiny leaves ; the
second, of cherry-blossoms on a dotted ground ; and the third, of a trellis along which run wave -lines
carrying with them half-open fans. '
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Contents of Number 33.
JAPANESE . LANDSCAPE PAIUTEKS— {contusion). By Gustave
Geffroy ........... 419
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES .428
SEPARATE PLATES.
BEA. Embarking. ByUtamara
CAI. Three Scenes — Landscape ; A Pilgrim ; Gardeners. By Hokusai.
CBF. Birds.
Rapid drawings by Kitao Keisai Massayoshi,
CBH. Figures.!
CD. Three Decorative Designs.
CAC. A Nocturnal Reverie. ByToyokuni.
CBA. Three Scenes — An Umbrella Maker; A Woman Dressing; A Daimio's Retinue
By Hokusai.
AAG. Two Birds.
CBI. The Suicide. By Kuniyoshi.
CAH. Three Scenes — Travellers; Gathering i<ï*/; In the Rain. By Hokusai.
Number XXXIV. will contain an article by Mr. A. Lasenby Liberty, on the
" Industrial Arts in yapan"
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
nection with their ioduatrial arts, to note how it influenced the past, and
to try to form an opinion as to the extent it will affect ^e future.
Ethnological. — The Japanese are a distinctive and characteristic people
— vigorous, tenacious, intelligent, and emotionaL
(a.) The race has developed a simple, poetic, and euphonious language,
known as the Yamoto, which, though amalgamated with, has survived the
ordeal of being brought into contact with the much older and more
complex language of China, compared to which it is more elastic and
capaUe.
(^.) The race has evolved a high form of natural religion, known as
"Shinto" — "the way of the gods" — which teaches simplicity, courtesy in
social life, and careful attention to the least detail in life's surroundings.
Shinto teaches the fundamental tenets of true politeness, in that it inculcates
reverence to parents as one of the highest virtues, and the family circle
fosters the germs of the great national trait of ceremonious politeness. There
is no oath or offensive word with which to express
y^v .^^ ^. dissatisfaction in the Japanese vocabulary, save recent
~ ^ acquisitions supplied by Western civilisation at the
Treaty Ports. Deference to age is universal with the
young; and it is considered a privilege as well as an
evidence of filial duty, to study the wants and wishes of
the parents even before the necessities of the progeny of those
who may have households of their own. " Keep this mirror — my picture
— and thy destiny will endure as long as heaven and earth," were the
injunctions delivered to Jimmu-Tenno, the first Mikado, the first head of
the Shinto faith, and the Shinto faith has survived both the introduction of
Buddhism in the third century, and Roman CathoHcism in the sixteenth
century; Buddhism adapting itself and amalgamating itself with the indi-
genous cult ; Roman Catholicism being obliterated and swept away. The
national social " Tea Ceremony," known as the " Tsha-no-yii," which specially
cultivates hospitality, courtesy, purity, and tranquillity, comes of Shinto origin,
and largely influenced the applied arts, as the rigid ceremonious
rules of the " Tsha-no-yu " make it compulsory on the
part of every guest to bestow complimentary and minute
inspection on each utensil used, and on each object /Ssl^M
and surrounding in the room. Sir Edwin Arnold
attributes this influence on
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
the arts to Buddhism, because a Buddhist priest, one
" San-no-Rikin reformed, extended, and gave the insti-
tution a dignity it had not before possessed ; " but the
institution was extant, or it could not have been re-
formed, and to ascribe the aesthetic progress of the
nation to the influence of Buddhism on such grounds
surely to mix cause with effect. The architecture of th
domestic buildings and the Miyas, or temples, bears witnej
to the Shinto spirit of simplicity and careful thoroughnes;
and the hearts of the people are yet imbued with the spirit ^^ '^'^' ^*^-
of their religion. I myself saw cables, wherewith to raise the timbers of a
temple in course of reconstruction made of thick masses of human hair
contributed by Japanese maids and matrons, who had voluntarily parted
with their raven locks for this purpose. All the materials used for the
building were gifts, the labour voluntary, and no paid craftsman engaged.
(c.) The race has produced an administrative Government, which,, with
. varying fortunes, has existed during twenty-five centuries. The head of this
Government, the present Emperor, who ceased to be known as the Mikado
in 1868, ruling by right of an uninterrupted succession extending over the
whole of that period. This- unique dynastic continuity is surely suggestive.
Physical. — Physical causes have played no unimportant part in influenc-
ing the direction of the applied arts. The one I would especially emphasize
is the liability of the islands forming the Empire of Japan to frequent seismic
disturbance, necessitating the adaptation of the constructive arts to the exi-
gencies of abnormal conditions. Thus not only are the buildings constructed
in such a manner as best to resist the unwelcome but inevitable earthquake,
but, the domestic buildings particularly, are planned on a most modest scale,
as regards height and dimensions, and to this cause must be assigned the
general "smallness" of the minor constructible arts. It would, however, be
a grave error to conclude from the size of the domestic
art productions that the Japanese are incaoable of
producing important work when materials serve, and
circumstances are favourable. We have proof of this
in the colossal sedant figure of Buddha of Kama-Kura,
which measures 50 feet high, and weighs about 450
tons, and the bronze Buddha at Nara, through whose
nostrils a grown man can pass.
\
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Histùrical. — (a.) The earliest historical influence dates from the third
century, consequent on the conquest of Corea in a.D. 202 by the Empress-
Regent, Jingu-Kogo. Through the medium of Corea, Japan came in contact
with the language, laws, literature, and industries of China ; was introduced,
to its more advanced culture, with Buddhism and the philosophy of Confucius
and Mensius as their vehicles.
(^.) The next historical influence in order of importance was the gradual
development of feudalism, dating from the beginning of the twelfth century,
placing a warrior, the Shogun Yorimoto, in the seat of actual power, and
relegating the Mikado to a shadowy half-ecclesiastical headship. Before this
period, the Mikado, in time of war, was the leader of the army, and every
able-bodied man a soldier ; there were no arbitrary class distinctions, and
troops were disbanded after the occasion for mobilisation ceased to exist.
In the year a.d. 1603, the feudal system and dual Government was perfected
by the great Shogun lyeyasu, and up to the year a.D. 1868 thenceforward
the Government of Japan remained a feudal Government. The people were
divided into two classes, the civil and military ; the former, the Heimin.
becoming serfs under vassal princes, lords, and barons ; the Daimios, amongst
whom the whole country was parcelled out, and the military clan, the Samurai,
monopolising the entire field of arts and learning. There
were in addition to these two * '* ■ * -' '"'
old nobility, clustered around
with the Mikado as their cen
gunate was transferred to Ye
the barons, accompanied by lé
bound to journey, and pay hoi
These periodical ceremonious
a spirit of rivalry among th
expression in sumptuary displ
feudal lord, or Daimio, dwelt
surrounded and fortified cEisth
his own distant province, or i
ployed art-craftsmen who liv
protection, and were member
To these servant-craftsmen the
Daimios looked for. diversified
and perfect art works, art
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
such as might excel the possessions
of rival Daimios, and in the pro-
duction labour and time were
deemed of no moment. It was
under such exceptional circum-
stances that the feudal craftsmen
produced the tsubas, kodzukas,
menukies, armour- trappings, fine
embroideries, brocades, inros, and
lacquer boxes which have charmed
and astonished the art critics of the
Western world.
(c.) The introduction of Roman
Catholicism in the sixteenth cen-
tury, leading up to the expulsion
of all foreigners in the seventeenth
:™b- century, has had a greater conserving
influence on the industrial arts than is
generally realised. The foundation of the Jesuit order, a.d. 1542, coincided
exactly with the epoch of the discovery of Japan by the Portuguese traveller
Mendez Pinto, a discovery so strange that the truthfulness of his narrative was
doubted, and his name, Mendez, was treated as synonymous with mendax =
liar. Mendez was followed, in 1549, by the Jesuit father and missionary,
Francis Xavier. In 1581, the number of Japanese converts to Roman
Catholicism amounted to 150,000, with 200 churches. In 1587 to 2CX),ooo>
and ultimately to 600,000, or, according to some authorities, to 2,400,000.
This wonderful success was destined, however, to be short-lived. Mission-
aries were now forbidden to preach and reside in the country, prohibitions
they ostentatiously disregarded; consequently on the 27th of January, 1614,
a proclamation was issued by the Shogun lyeyasu, which led to a general
and sanguinary persecution of the converts, continued until 1677. From the
rocks of Papenburg thousands were hurled into the sea ; all were doomed to
death, and Christianity ruthlessly and absolutely stamped out. In 1624 all
foreigners, with the exception of the Dutch and Chinese^and these subject
to the most humiliating restrictions— were banished from the country, and an
edict promulgated by lyemidzu, which ordered the destruction of all ships of
any considerable size, and limited the building of ships to certain modest
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
dimensions, in order to prevent the Japanese henceforward from navigating
the open sea. and thus coming in contact with foreign nations. This is a
point to emphasize — this voluntary withdrawal of a civilised people from
contact with the rest of the world, as it has fostered and nursed individuality
in a manner impossible under any other conceivable circumstances. During
two and a-half centuries two mighty forces — isolation and feu
acted in concert to confine all progress within certain limits,
these limits there has been steady and continuous developn
so far as art, thought, and productions are concerned, the
result has been of the utmost interest and (as yet only
dimly realised) benefit to the sister nations of the world.
(d.) The latest historical event, the re-opening of Japan
consequent on the arrival of Commodore Parry in the Bay
of Yeddo, in 1853, was followed by a rapid absorption of
western scientific and mechanical ideas and influences. Perhaps
no period could have been more unfortunate for Japanese art,
as it coincided with the western climax of art retrogression,
and, the Japanese being an emotional people, for a while failed
to discriminate between material and art advantages. But I
believe the indigenous vitality of the race-genius is amending
this error, and, as heretofore, will re-adapt the arts to fitly
accord with altered circumstances ; and this conclusion I will
now endeavour to support by a survey of some of the more important
industrial arts and manufactures.
Woodwork. — " The Japanese are a nation of carpenters, and with them
carpentry is a fine art." So I said and felt a few days after my arrival in
1, and this impression remains with me. I have not time to speak of
work in regard to the major constructive arts, the wooden temples and
houses, in which the race-genius for simplicity and thoroughness is
most prominent, and can only allude to the minor constructive arts
which are equally permeated with the same spirit, however unpreten-
tious and humble their intended use. In cabinet work, the drawers
fit so accurately, that it is a pleasure to open and shut them ; the
little wooden tables, the wooden trays, drinking cups, fans, tobacco-
pipes, umbrella frames, bamboo baskets, buckets, ladles, implements
of husbandry, etc., are all formed with rigid directness, and are
artistic, each after its kind.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Pictorial A ri.—'WiÛï the Western nations the fine arts are divorced
from the applied and decorative arts, and pictorial art is, technically
speaking, out of the province of this paper ; and yet I do not see how it
can be passed by without some word of comment, as in japan it is the
frequent custom for the artist-craftsman personally to design and manipulate
every detail of his work. The pictorial art of Japan has been treated
admirably and exhaustively by Dr. Anderson, M. Gonse, and others— whose
knowledge is profound, whilst my own is superficial.
The natural art instinct of the Japanese again and again rebelled
against the formalism of their court patrons and Chinese
tutors, but the nearer Japanese pictorial art approa
the formal prototypes, the better it was esteemed I
those who, for so many centuries, have conventionalise
and fixed the art canons of Japan. For instance,
Kiosai, whose death occurred during my stay in
Japan, had a distinctly original genius for the por-
trayal of demonology, and wild imaginative delinea-
tions, and some of us are familiar with his illustrât
books known as "Sketches while Drinking." He w
a powerful draughtsman of the naturalistic, rapid, and
vigorous full-brush-school, his Hfe studies of crows being eminently successful,
and yet he was most esteemed by his native patrons for altogether different
work ; work which was slavishly conventional and unimaginative, and in the
old Kuge and Chinese school.
Copies of the works of celebrated masters are used by the craftsmen en-
gaged in the ceramic, embroidery, lacquer, and metal industries, and in many
cases supplemented by natural objects, such as flowers, birds, and feathers.
Lacquer PVor^.^The art of the lacquer-worker is so intimately as-
sociated in our language with the word " Japan," that it has become
synonymous with a specific glossy varnish ; and yet the process of japan-
ning, or lacquering, was borrowed from the Chinese. But who can look at
an ordinary Japanese lacquer-tray, and compare it with
the lacquer productions of the Chinese, without at once
seeing that it has practically become a new invention.
In Chinese work we have an opaque surface, generally
ornamented witK rigid, finicking, monotonous detail ; in
Japanese work we have a translucent surface, combined
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
with freedom and spirit in the decorative treatment, and, as
a prosaic matter of fact, far greater durability. This is true even
with inferior work, which has conformed itself to the requirements
of the Western demands.
But the higher branch of the lacquerer's art, which has pro-
duced the lacquer de luxe — an art combining the most marvellous
variety in technical combination with incredible thoroughness in
manipulative finish — is beyond the possibility of any comparison
whatsoever;
Ceramics. — Early Japanese ceramics do not equal early Chinese
in brilliancy and translucency of colour, balanced distribution of
design, or symmetry and dignity of form. And if we take examples of the
old Sung, Yuen, and Ming dynasties, and compare them with old Hizen,
Nabashima, Kaga, or Satsuma, this will demonstrate itself But, as we have
seen, there is an intelligent reason for this divergency ; the Japanese handle
and caress their little art objects, and seldom
display them as permanently fixed decorative
ornaments, therefore variety and interesting
detail are sought after rather than broad
effect. Thus the Japanese artist
wanders with his pencil, just as
humour leads him, above or below
the surface of the object he is deco-
rating, often placing the most careful
work in such a position that, from a
western standpoint, it would practi-
cally be lost ; for he well knows the
ceremonious and careful attention his
production will secure from his coun-
trymen, and that no quaint fancy,
no one touch of his brush will remain
unappreciated. The result, in short,
is not a slavish reproduction of a
foreign idea, but a successful effort
to fulfil the requirements of changed
circumstances.
As an instance of this, I will refer
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
to a visit I paid to a well-known potter in Kyoto, to whom a friend of mine,
some twelve months previously, had entrusted one of the familiar Dresden
" Nodding Mandarins," coupled with a request that this figure should be
reproduced with Japanese characteristics. Apology after apology had been
offered for delay, but on this occasion the artist-potter was able to show,
in an unfinished state, an array of some dozen unglazed figures, the
result of his experiment, each with the typical moving head and tongue
of the original, but each a separate study of Japanese male or female
character, and each showing individual humour and intelligence. This is
the spirit in which the best masters of the present day carry out their
work, but to secure work of this order one must perforce await the artist's
. (Theitrical Encyclopediii.;
leisure and inspiration. It is interesting to know that the more wealthy
among the Japanese themselves secure the larger proportion of these
higher class productions. The inferior and familiar modern ceramic wares
exported in such abundance from Japan are of course regulated by the com-
mercial law of supply and demand, and too often show a retrograde tendency.
Enamels. — In the art of cloisonne enamelling on copper, the Chinese
attained a decorative excellence unequalled by any other nation, and the
Japanese modified the art to accord with their own specific requirements,
paid more regard to detail, and introduced a more sombre key of colouring.
These modifications resulted in a loss of general decorative effect, but were
again more in harmony with the Japanese habit of close inspection.
C«.) Metal Work. — Bronze working in Japan is a pre-hi-itoric art, bronze
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bells and arrow-heads being discovered concerning whose origin and age
nothing is known. About the eighth century many coiossal bronze figures,
bells, candelabra, and incense burners were produced, designed after Chinese
models for the requirements of the exotic cult of Buddhism, and no marked
alteration or further progress appears to have been made in this art up to
the middle of the last century, when a retrograde taste developed, also of
Chinese origin, for high relief, and overgrown and overloaded ornament.
Immediately prior to European intercourse, a complete revolution took
place in the bronze industry, introducing a skilful arrangement of varied
metal colouring, and a better sense of due balance in ornament. In this
latter school, which is absolutely indigenous, high relief does not play so
prominent a part, whilst inlaying and incrustation are artistically combined
with chasing and engraving. The metallic combinations — inlaying and amal-
gams for colour effect in modern bronzes — form an interesting and separate
study.
(ß!) The Sword. — After the eighth century followed the era of feudalism,
in which the turbulent rivalry of the barons caused the sword and armour
trappings to take first rank in esteem, and the less useful bronze industry
to be neglected. The art of welding steel was carried to consummate per-
fection, and sword blades made by such men as the Myo-chins obtained,
and justly obtained, a reputation equal to the old Persian. The metal
sword hilts, or tsuàas, were treated in the utmost imaginable variety of
methods consistent with utility, beauty of ornament, and the material
employed.
Menkis, after the manner of the isubas, were developed and elaborated
into the most charming and varied exemplifications of the skill of the metal-
worker. In fact, every portion of the sword and its belongings,
the knife {kodzukd), the hair-pin {ko-gai), etc., became a detailed
work of art without losing an iota of
usefulness, and the Japanese sword ^^
and its fittings is in itself a type of /"^a' „-^^-^^""^
the original, practical, and artistic (\ J i-<^ ^À^
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genius of the nation. Western military innovations having now supplemented
the sword by the breechloader, the artist-craftsmen who erewhile decorated
the sword and its trappings now readily utilise their skill in other branches
of the metal-worker's art.
(c.) Iron. — Most interesting developments in cast and wrought iron-work
are now produced in Tokyio and Kyoto, and an infinite variation shown in
design, the inlaying of gold, silver, copper, and other metals. The Zogan-
works in cast iron are coated with a steel-blue or dead-black ground work,
a peculiar kind of " Nielo," which is made of lacquer putty, or Shakudo.
Among the most eminent Hving exponents of this craft are Komi, lyenori,
and Ikokusa, and I consider the modern circular metal salver by the latter
artist, which I have the pleasure to exhibit, shows breadth and force in
combination, with microscopic detail, far beyond the skill of any metal-
craftsman outside Japan,
The variety and beauty of Japanese iron nail heads would supply
matter for a paper by itself.
(a'.) Copper does not lend itself well to casting, but is adapted for
working up into wire and sheet forms. The Japanese fully recognise this, and
utilise this property by engraving copper, and forming with it decorated mounts
for boxes, cabinets, etc. The yuwa-kashi, or native kettle for boiling water,
is an example in which the hammer marks are left on the comparative soft
metal as an assistance in the decoration of the ground work : an idea
happily adopted by Messrs. Tiffany, of New York, in the manufacture of
silver goods.
(e.) Gold and Silver. — In the precious metals an instructive illustration,
'c point of view, is the present coinage of Japan,
hich I venture to submit, without comment, in con-
Libilee coins. Formerly the Japanese attached little
value to any metal, precious or base, other than
what it would produce from the art point of view,
and many of their most precious heirlooms are of
no intrinsic value.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Irving. — The major glyptic art was for centuries
nted in Japan by the wood-carver, the Moku-butzu,
•oduced life-sized and colossal figures of the various
)nationS of Buddha, and the saints and heroes affi-
with the Buddhistic cult. The monotonous treat-
was prescribed by formal rule, and Hindu in
er.
ssing to the minor glyptic works, we find in the
»f carvings known as Netsukies, an absolutely
and indigenous art. These Netsukies, in ivory,
id, in bone, and other materials, are so much
n froa [he Cf.™ of Hûkusai. (ippictiatcd and so well known to Western collectors,
the schools and principal carvers so duly chronicled and
attested, that I need here do no more than allude to them.
The immediate modern successor to the Netsukie — the Okimono— is
made entirely for the Western market, and is for the most part too complex
and ambitious, retaining little, if anything, of the freedom, life, and humour,
the simplicity and directness of the true Netsukie.
Textile Manufactures. — The most characteristic Japanese textile pro-
ductions during the feudal era were silken brocades and plain stiff silken
material adapted for male and female costumes.
In contrast to the thick and stiff ceremonial silks, are the silken robes
ordinarily worn by the women , and children, fulfilling as they do all the
requirements of a classic standard of good taste. These
supple silken fabrics, both plain and cra|
all of one plain and quiet colour, others bt
some printed with colour designs, some w
of both printing and embroidery. In pass
out how skilfully, in the combination of
broidering, the Japanese secure an effect a
of the entire surface being covered wit!
rich embroidery by their method of substi
tuting printed tones and colours for th<
ground work, and merely touching up ant
emphasising certain minor portions of
the design with the needlework. The
result is a great saving of labour, and
a hint for our own manufacturers.
. ,, Tiktn from Ihe Nikon NiHuItu of Hokual
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ARTISTIC JAPAN. "
There can be no reasonable doubt that the Japanese silk industries
will in the near future greatly influence the European. Manufacturers are
conforming to European requirements, the area appropriated to sericulture
and the cultivation of the mulberry is being rapidly extended, the native
hand-looms are being supplemented by power-looms and the latest scientific
mechanical appliances of the West. The material is a home production, the
workmen are industrious and deft, the cost of labour is far below the European
scale, and the expense of ocean transit for an article occupying so small a
bulk as manufactured silk is merely nominal. Lyons and Milan will soon
have no insignificant rival in the Japanese market
Conclusion. — In conclusion, I claim that the race-genius of the Japanese
has preserved its individuality, known how to benefit by contact with older
and seemingly more powerful foreign influences, absorbed what was useful
in those influences, and evolved from them new and progressive developments,
moulding even the powerful cult of Buddhism and the teaching of the Chinese
sages to its own form and special requirements.
I claim that this race-genius has admirably conformed itself to the
peculiar physical conditions of land and climate ; to historical events which,
at one and the same time, fettered in social serfdom, and barred it from
all contact with the rest of the world ; and that in all varying circumstances,
subject only to temporary aberrations natural .to an emotional people, it
has maintained its essential vitality.
A. LASENBY LIBERTY.
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DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
Plate CDJ represents a statuette in earved wood about sixteen inches high ; the dress is
covered with a thin coating of dark green paint, much worn by time, the head and hands are
the natural colour of the wood, which has acquired with age a fine dark brown, almost black, tone.
We pointed out in a former number (No. XXIX. p. 379) that Japanese sculpture was far
from limiting itself to the netsuké of tiny proportions, and that it also dealt with subjects of
larger size.
Before the netsuké came into general use — it only dates from the b^inning of the seventeenth
century — Japanese artists had even conceived, outside of religious sculpture, works of great
vigour, of which unfortunately only a few rare specimens have reached Europe. The statuette
which we reproduce here belongs to thfe category of profane sculpture ; but the sculptor had
not taken an ordinary mortal for his model, and his work perpetuates the features of one of
the great figures in the history of Japan. An inscription placed below reads thus in English :
" Portrait of his Lordship Hidéyoshi, carved with deep veneration by his vassal Katakiri,"
Hidéyoshî, known under the posthumous name of Talko-sama, was the famous dictator
who invaded Corea in 1492. He had under his orders lieutenants, several of whom became
celebrated as much for their love of the arts as for their exploits in arms. This Katakiri, who
produced this real masterpiece of sculpture, may perhaps have played a brilliant part in the
feats of arms accomplished under the great Taïko. It is certainly not the beauty of the
model which is here in question ; Hidéyoshi was notorious for his ugliness, so much so that
the people had nick-named him General Saru or General Ape. But the sculptor, penetrating
into the inmost depths of his model, which he could the more easily do as he could often see his
chiefs forehead wrinkled under the weight of heavy responsibilities,, and knew how powerful
were the thoughts which animated that uncouth face, has found means to express in the deep-
set eyes under eyelids which are however tightly stretched, in the prominent cheek bones, in
the imperious, almost haughty mouth, and even in the stiff and somewhat hieratic folds of
the robe, an intense energy, the' dominant quality of a great captain.
Plate CCE affords a new specimen of profane sculpture. It is the portrait of a nobleman
who has retired into a cloister — one sprung from the dust — such is the picturesque Japanese
expression — in accordance with a custom followed by a great number of personages who on
the approach of old age willingly withdrew from the agitations of a busy life and shaved
their heads as a sign that they had retired from the world. In this case the subject is
ascetically lean, and his face bears the stamp of a remarkable depth of contemplation. Instead
of the piercing glance of Hidéyoshi we sec the eye somewhat dim of a man who lives within
himself, having renounced all the vanities of this world.
There are traces of white paint on the dress, and the right hand held a fan. This
statuette is probably about 2 50 years old.
Plate CCB and CCJ are taken from a work by Massayoshi, two other pages of which
we reproduced in our last number. We find always the same determined simplification,
requiring an extremely rapid vision, a particular aptitude for seizing, almost in the twinkling
of an eye, the characteristic trait of every object, that which is sufficient by itself, all the
others being left out, to convey to the spectator the expression of a complete and synthetic
drawing. There is indeed almost an entire theory written in the oval form given by the
artist to the mandarine ducks. Does it not seem as if he had wished to show how admirably
those aquatic birds are constructed for navigation ? In the wild boar the solid snout, the
bristling back, the short legs, everything down to the stumpy tail are of an astonishing accuracy
if we take into consideration the rapidity of eye required to profit by the rare occasion of a
wild boar seen rushing along at full speed.
Again, the pose of the fox and the way he carries his tail are strikingly truthful ; so too
are the heavy aspect of the bear and the supple movement of the cat washing itself. Finally,
the meal in two movements of the fishing bird pushes simplification to an almost comic point
by suppressing entirely, while obliging us to guess it, the intermediate movement performed by
the bird, viz. : that of tossing its prey up into the air and swallowing it, beginning by the head.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Plate CCJ is conceived in the same spirit, but consecrated entirely to a band of sparraws,
studied in the most varied poses from quiet rest on the bough to a fierce fight, beak and claws.
Plate CDA, Î8 taken from the Tenktn - Oraî of Hokusai. It presents three pictures of
Japanese occupations. Dyers hard at work are dipping their stuffs, or preparing their dyes,
while some pieces which have been already withdrawn from the bath of colouring matter hang
out to dry. Then we have a painter in his studio decorating under the eyes of two visitors a
lai^e panel on which he has just painted a haughty princess in ancient court costume. The
painter to whom Hokusai may very possibly have given his own features, holds two brushes
in his hand and two little cups, evidently containing two different colours, are placed within
his reach. But we must not imagine that he draws two strokes at the same time. It is simply
to save himself the trouble of taking up and putting down his brush that he has taken two
at once. He works squatting on his heels and draws his Unes with outstretched arm, with
an astonishing surety of touch, the result of long study and patient exercise.
Lastly, Hokusai invites us to assist at the toilette of three young women, one of whom is
piling up the cunning edifice of her head-dress, truly a most complicated operation, and
one which is only performed once or twice a week ; the other is washing her face and shoulders
with an admirably rendered movement of the arm ; the third is smearing her teeth with
black lacquer in conformity with the custom of the women of Japan who have no more
conquests to make once they have found a lord and master.
■ Plate CCH reproduces on the left a page by Hokusai — the interior of a stuff-shop
with bales piled one on the other, while the ladies who have come to buy press forward
eagerly, mingling with the salesmen and porters. Everyone is in a hurry, down to the packer
who, crouching under the steep staircase, is putting up some precious purchase in a box.
The other half of the plate is by Shôkôsai and represents the interior of a big hall in
which a large crowd has assembled to assist at the exciting stru^les of the game of Ken.
We can see, however, that the spectators do not neglect to indulge in repasts of a most copious
nature, for on each of the squares, which are so many boxes without partitions, is a pile of
dishes of fish, of rice bowls, and of sake-cups and basins. The whole mass is full of life and
movement, and the young serving-girls who pass through the close ranks of customers are
apparently unmoved by the volley of chaff which is directed at them from all sides.
The double plate CAG is a kakémono by Mori Sôsen, one of the greatest animal painters
of Japan. Sôsen was more particularly, truth to tell, the painter of monkeys, and one of his
kakemonos, which we have reproduced (No. I. Plate D), as well as the cover of our Number XVII.,
shows how far he had pushed his study of their movements and of their silky fur. Sôsen is said
to have lived of his own accord for several years an almost entirely wild life in the depths
of the woods in order to be in closer communion with his models. In his long woodland
walks he must have observed other animals besides monkeys, and his eye must have been
charmed by the gracefulness and suppleness of the deer surprised at the turn of a path
with its neck outstretched and its eyes eagerly fixed on the intruder. Exact observation and
finished rendering could scarcely be carried to a higher pitch of perfection. The slim, graceful
limbs, the dappled skin, the timid pose of the frightened animal ready to spring away out of "
reach, are all nature itself. Were it necessary to cite another instance to show that this admirable
artist was as skilful in treating other animus as in dealing with the monkey tribe, it would be
sufficient to mention the picture in the collection of M. Ph. Burty in which a no less decided
master touch shows itself in the representation of fish in Chinese ink.
Plate AIE is a double study of lilies so wide open that their petals bend backward.
Plate AED is a decorative design composed of bamboo leaves arid mushrooms i
granulated background.
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Contents of Number 34.
THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS IN JAPAN. By A. Lasenby Liberty. . 431
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 444
SEPARATE PLATES.
CDJ. Portrait of Hidéyoshi, in carved wood. By Katakiri.
CCB. Rapid Jottings. By Kitao Keisai Massayoshi.
CDA. Various Scenes. By Hokusai.
CAG. Deer. Kakémono. By Sôsen. (Double Plate.)
AED. Decorative Design.
(A StufF-shop. By Hokusai.
The Game of Ken. By SbOktisai.
AIE. study of Lilies.
CCJ. Birds. By Kitao Keisai Massayoshi.
CCE. Statuette in carved wood.
Number XXX V. vjiU contain an article by Mr. Marcus B. Huisk :
" Advice to Collectors."
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*f T> r
HINTS UPON THE FORMATION OF
A
COLLECTION
OF
JAPANESE ART.
Artistic Japan, which all its readers will hear with regret is shortly to
complete its issue, cannot have existed in vain. Some portion of the seed
which it has scattered broadcast over the world must have fallen on good
ground and brought forth good fruit. In addition to those who, previous to
its appearance, affected an interest in Japanese Art, and whose interest it
has strengthened, there must be many who through its teachings have been
led, not only to take up its study seriously, but to become collectors of
Japanese wares.
It cannot, therefore, be altogether out of place that one of the closing
articles should take as its subject some suggestions and advice to those
who come under this last-named category,
I am the more emboldened to offer these because I have myself oftentimes
suffered from the want of any source to which when commencing to study and
collect I could turn for guidance, and also because I feel that the time has come
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
when all classes of Japanese collectors should regard their
possessions in a more serious light than they have hitherto
done, and that each and all should endeavour to assist in
the elucidation of the vast field which still lies unexplored
before them.
The subject divides itself into the following heads : What
to collect ; How to collect ; How to treat a collection when
made.
The question, What to collect ? may seem at first sight
to carry its answer with it, namely, Anything distinctly
Japanese. By no means. If a collection is to have any
individuality, any increasing value, any abiding interest for
its owner, if he is to become on terms of intimacy with it,
and a kinship, as it were, is to exist between himself and
each piece of it, it must have strict and abiding limitations
which the owner must make up his mind never to depart from.
The first of these limitations is as to the branch or branches of the
Art which shall be selected for collection. If there is one thing in Japanese
Art which there is no gainsaying, it is its extraordinary variety. To such an
extent does this permeate it that if a single branch only be collected, and
the collector be endowed with ample means and ample opportunity, he will
probably never arrive at a time when he will have to stop for lack of
■specimens dissimilar to anything that he possesses. If, therefore, he ranges
over the varied branches of Art, no house will hold any representative
collection of each, and few purses will be deep enough to supply the where-
withal to acquire them.
For this reason, if for no other, a choice should be made at the outset
and adhered to.
Amongst the varied branches from which a selection may be made
we may enumerate pictures (on rolls), engravings (coloured and plain),
books, pottery and porcelain, silks and stuffs (including costumes), lacquer,
metalwork, carvings in wood, ivory, etc., household wares,
or even articles made of particular materials, as
bamboo. Or the collection may be formed ind«
the object, as for instance, representations of tl
zoology, the . religions, the history, the manners and
myths and folklore of the country. There is muc!
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
for this method. Professor Church, for instance,
has a quite representative collection of Japanese
flora depicted on sword-guards, in that most
difficult of mediums, wrought and chiselled iron.
Or, again, the collection may be made accord-
ing to the occupation or tastes of the collector.
As regards this, opinions differ. For instance, one
would imagine that the sculptor would be attracted
towards the bronzes with their marvellous patina's,
or even towards the tiny netsukes ; the silk merchant towards old dresses,
and the goldsmith towards metalwork. But this is not by any means always
or usually the case, and the reason is not far to seek ; half the delight of
collecting is the relaxation which it affords from the cares and troubles of
business, and this can certainly best be done by something which is as entire
a diversion from the day's work as possible ; this will not be altogether the
case if the thing collected is at all akin to the profession of the collector.
But there are other considerations besides these which should influence
the choice. And the first is the capacity for storage at one's disposal. A
bachelor, especially a confirmed one, may indulge in fragile china, whilst a
man with children and careless housemaids may find it necessary to confine
himself to substantial bronze. One who lives in a mansion may buy colossal
Buddhas, while he who can only spare a corner of his dwelling-room must
acquire nothing which will not go into a drawer. But Japanese
Art adapts itself to everybody's requirements. A museum is
not too large to adequately represent one phase of it ; a
couple of thousand examples of its finest art may be so
stored away in a room that no one need be aware of their
presence, as is the case with the writer's collection.
Then, again, there is the consideration of the length of
one's purse ; a very serious one, for it is astonishing how
much money may be invested in a tiny drawer full of
objects ; and nothing is more disheartening than to find
oneself face to face with an object absolutely essential to
the completion of a link in one's collection, and no sufficient
balance at the bank with which to acquire it So then it
is no use for one who has not a large margin on the right
side between income and expenditure to embark upon costly
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
pieces of lacquer, or he may find himself
at the end of his tether before he has
half-a-dozen pieces ; and, on the other hand,
he who is in that enviable position should
confine himself to the finest pieces, not
only because in the long run they are
the best investments, but naturally, the
acquirers being limited, they are usually
comparatively the cheapest.
There is yet a further- matter to which
I attach considerable importance, namely,
. that the collector should not collect one,
but two branches, and these should, so
far as they fall in with the conditions of
space and purse, be as unlike one another
as possible. I advise this for more than
one reason. First of all I do not think
I am singular in feeling that one is apt
at times to tire even of one's bibelots, even
when they are not confined to a single
class of objects. I find that, as the year
goes on and one gets jaded and fagged
with work, a nausea springs up even for
the most dearly beloved acquisitions, and
that the key is turned upon them when the
summer holiday commences without any
parting pang. Fortunately in such a case
absence makes the heart grow fonder, and
one looks forward to seeing them again
as for the friend from whom one has
been long parted. Not only to mitigate,
From tba TinÀni Oral, by Hokuui. . -i i . ■ i i ■ - ■ i ■ i i
and possibly to avoid this, is it advisable
to divide one's attention between two branches, but also because a collection
is in this case much more likely to interest outsiders.
This may perhaps be a convenient place for noting a word of warning.
All ugly things should be avoided, for nothing will so soon induce a
distaste for Japanese Art. Compared with other kindred countries, Japan
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
art is remarkably free from monstrosities and hfdeosities. Instead of, as in
Indian and Burmese art, a great portion of it being composed of hideous
representatipns of deities, and demons which have not even grotesqueness to
recommend them, it has, apart from its illustrations of religious personages,
little that . is ugly. Curiously enough up to a certain period, the older the
art the freer it is from this, and it is a remarkable fact that just now the
Japanese artificer's mind seems to be imbued with an idea that what the
foreigner likes is ugliness, and in every way he shapes his wares accordingly.
Only a few days ago I came across a quantity of newly-made sword-guards
upon which ever>' form of ugliness had been perpetrated.
Most people will prefer to collect objects which have a flavour of
antiquity to those of more modern aspect, although in the one case there is
a great chance of deception, and in the other none. But there are few
modern wares which are now well enough made to be worthy of collection.
One class of objects must certainly be avoided, and that is those which have
the slightest western influence apparent in either their shape, decoration, or
material. But interesting collections might be formed easily and very cheaply
„f .u„ !,„ — u„ij u:„t. ... a ygry
lerican
>ut of
) corn-
have
r. It
consists of swords and sword furniture, the use of which has been forbidden
by imperial edict ; medicine cases, and the beads and netsukes attached to
them' ; writing and perfume cases ; pipe cases and the ornaments which
adorned them ; all of which, if not already disused, are rapidly becoming so.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
These have three very special attributes, which entitle them to
consideration by collectors. In the first place, they have the
personality of the owner attaching to them, and which it is not
difficult to arrive at when examining them ; in the second place,
they have for the most part received much consideration at
the hands both of their maker and their owner, for they were
the only articles of attire (except garments) which could be
lavishly decorated ; and lastly, they have not as yet been suffi-
ciently collected over here to warrant modern reproductions of
them being made. Additional reasons are their compactness ;
their comparative cheapness ; in the case of medicine cases —
their illustrating in the finest way every phase of lacquer manu-
facture ; and in that of sword furniture every phase of metal-
work ; besides this they are exceptionally strong in illustrations
of folklore, history, religion, and the flora and zoology of the
country.
An advantage of confining oneself to the collection of
certain specialities is this, and it is by no means an insignificant
one. psnecially if the collector does not inhabit the metropolis,
he dealers get to know what he wants and what
does not, with the result that when anything likely
suit comes to them they will buy it with a view
his needs, and he will in this way have as good
opportunities, if he be a liberal buyer, that is one
not given to haggling and beating down, as if he
lived in town.
The second section of my hints, namely — How
to collect — may be dealt with more cursorily.
First of all, do not begin without previous study.
Time, money, and the accumulation of much which
it will be troublesome afterwards to be rid of will then
e saved. It is true that opportunities for this study
re rather difficult to obtain. Not only the English
ut the French museums still put off the acquisition
r what they will one day have to pay very dearly
ir, and when they do buy do not always exercise dis-
■imination. To private collectors, therefore, the student
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will have to turn for information, but my own experience of them is that
they are not only too ready to show their treasures, but to impart all their
knowledge. Reliable text-books on the subject are few and for the most
part expensive, two of the best being, for Pictorial Art, Mr. Anderson's work,
and for all the decorative arts, except lacquer, Gonse's L'Art "japonais.
A reliable text-book has still to be written upon lacquer, and in fact upon
almost every branch of the industrial arts. Much can be learnt from photo-
graphs, and collectors would earn the gratitude of their brethren if they
would, as Mr. Gîlbertson has done, photograph and circulate impressions of
their most noteworthy pieces.
Do not buy too quickly. Know every piece in your collection by careful
examination and comparison. This it is impossible to do if you buy a score
of pieces every week. Duplicates do not often occur in Japanese Art, but
you should know your collection so well as never to commit such an error
as to acquire unwittingly two similar objects.
Never buy in lots. It is only natural that de; *
should try to avoid being left with the indifferent pi
of a lot, but pay more rather than be saddled with ■>
will only cumber and degrade your collection.
Never beat down the wares with a dealer you ki
It not only results in ^is raising the price of the :
article which he offers you, but if it is a question betv
yourself and another customer as to which shall have
first sight of new things, you will not be the fortunate «
Have a few things and good rather than
many and second-rate, and consequently never
hesitate to turn out and sell for anything it will
fetch a doubtful piece.
Never lose an opportunity of acquiring a
piece which constitutes a missing link in your
collection : in Japanese Art so rare is the chance
of obtaining a duplicate that in one branch of my
collection I have retained two almost similar pieces
merely as a curiosity.
Never think it too much trouble to look
through what may appear to be rubbish — one not
only gains experience, but there is always the
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chance of a find. Few collectors but have had more than one pleasant
experience in this way.
And now, lastly, for a few hints as to the collection when started.
There are few pieces which do not improve by being carefully cleaned
when they get home. Wood-carvings and lacquer should be rubbed with
fine cotton wool upon which a little siccative linseed oil has been placed,
and afterwards polished with a 6ne silk handkerchief, great care being taken
that there is no dust or grit in either wool or handkerchief. Metalwork,
especially if rusty, should be treated by the following process, which has the
high authority of Professor Church to recommend it : Dissolve about an inch
of stick potash in a. quarter of a pint of warm water, then totally immerse
the object for about five minutes, after which rinse in hot water until the
latter is no longer discoloured by rust or dirt. If the articles should
unfortunately have been coated with vaseline or parafhn oil, they must be
previously rubbed with oil. When dry the specimens should receive a light
coating of siccative linseed oil ; after this has been rubbed in with a plate
brush, any excess producing a gloss must be removed with a cloth or with
pads of carded cotton. Neither shibuichi, shakudo, or incrustations of gold
and silver will be harmed by this process.
Metalwork is often defaced by the labels having been affixed
with injuriously-compounded gum, containing sulphuric or nitric acid, which
has almost removed the delicate patina. Nothing remains in this case but
to ease away the edges of the mark with oil and fine cigar-ash very delicately
applied, and so render it less noticeable. A note of warning must be
sounded against keeping metalwork with delicate patinas wrapped up in
newspaper, the ink from which will oftentimes indelibly imprint itself upon
the surface.
Having cleaned the objects, the next thing should be their cataloguing
and numbering. This should
not be neglected for any
length of time, or difficulties
will certainly ensue. A
separate drawer should be
reserved for uncatalogued
pieces. It is not necessary for
me to speak of how articles
should be catalogued, but I
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have found it convenient to have different books for different articles, such
as netsukes, inros, and sword-guards. Do not affix huge unsightly tickets
to the articles themselves. A very small one will suffice for the number,
the maker's name, apd the price paid (in private hieroglyphics) ; if the owner
prefers to paint the catalogue numbers on the article itself it should be done
with artist's white oil paint toned with raw sienna and thinned with turpentine,
so that it can be used with a pen, and strengthened with a little copal or .
amber varnish.
Finally, let everything look cared-for and precious. A Japanese, we
know, bestows infinite care upon his treasures, not only wrapping them in
the finest silks, but encasing each one in its own special box. French
collectors often imitate him, and always tend their treasures more artistically
than Englishmen. Not only do they place them in cabinets which are of
themselves objects of art, but they dispose them therein upon rich stuffs and
in an artistic manner. No doubt this may be carried too far and the
objects themselves may suffer from too costiy and elaborated settings, but
this is a fault on the right side. I have tried various colours and have
come to 'the conclusion that for everything (except silver and gold, for
which royal blue is the best) there is nothing like pure white, dove colour,
or a blue-grey, the 'first for choice. What is known as swansdown serves
very well, in fact almost better than velvet.
The collector may wish to keep his various objects apart, but they
certainly improve by being mixed in a legitimate manner ; medicine cases, for
instance, with netsukes and beads, and sword-guards with fuchi-kashira and
kozukas.
MARCUS B. HUISH.
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DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
Plate CCI reproduces a kakémono of the sixteenth century, from the brush of Kano
Massanobu, the celebrated founder of the school of the Kano, which lasted down to the
nineteenth century, Massanobu, who died young, and whose productions are in consequence
extremely scarce, had a son, Kano Motonobu (the author of the kakémono reproduced in No. 14
of our publication, plate AGB), and was the ancestor of a large number of famous artists such as
Taniu, Naonobu, Yassunobu, Tsunénobu, etc. etc.
The subject here reproduced is extremely simple ; it represents a bird of the henicurus family,
akin to the wag-tails. This bird belongs to the fauna of China ; it is.not indigenous to Japan,
but the artist might have seen one there by chance. The execution is remarkable for its flowing,
smooth, elegant handling, already free from the archaisms of the Chinese schools, but not yet
giving itself up the fougue of the later masters. The artist has, however, contrived to render
perfectly, by the delicacy of his touch, the silky plumage and modelling of the bird. It was in the
presence of such aristocratic works as this that the great lords of the olden times experienced the
keenest enjoyment of art, deeming intensity and depth of sentiment to be far above the attempt to
tell a story in the subject represented. The highest art consisted in expressing and communi-
cating the largest possible amount of sensations by compositions reduced to the maximum of
simplicity.
Plate CBC is taken from the Denskin Gwakio, a work in volume by Hokusai, edited in 1813.
It contains a miscellaneous collection of familiar scenes, animals, and plants. The three scenes
set together on this page do not require long explanations. Two young mothers are tending their,
children. The Japanese, as every one knows, do without chairs and Mve on the tatamis mats,
spotlessly clean, with which the floors are covered. One of the children tries to get hold of a toy.
It is of wood or strong pottery, the rough little figure of Dharma, who lost his legs from having
remained too long in meditation in a sitting posture The Japanese though they represent the
hermit with "a touch of caricature have a profound reverence for him. Is it to inculcate in children
a respect for the saint, or, for a more prosaic reason, because his legless figure is specially adapted
to form the toy common to all countries, the doll, which always retains its erect position however
much it be pressed down or knocked about? The almost spherical object placed on the floor in
the foreground is a china stool in the shape of a barrel, furnished with rings to hft it about by,
Another scene represents a lady on her travels crossing a ford. One of the servants carries his
mistress on his back, while the other is laden with the small packages and her parasol. Lastly,
four children are doing gymnastics on two horizontal bars, with a zest which must have
-enchanted an artist so fond of movement as Hokusai.
Plate CBB is taken from the same work. It consists of two pages of studies of birds, a cock,
hen, chickens, geese, the drawing of which is done with little strokes of the brush to give the
sensation of downy plumage. Two storks and some sparrows on the other page are treated in the
same way, which contrasts with the more rapid and more simplified execution which Hokusai
adopted in subsequent works.
Plate CBD is also by Hokusai. It forms part of the Skaka go itskt, a work in six volumes,
narrating the life of Buddha Sakya Mouni. In the incident represented by our illustration, we see
456
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
the inhabitants of a country which the text calls lya, and who are at any rate Hindoos whom
Hokusai has made as little like Japanese as he could by giving them a fantastic head-dress. The
text is not very explicit as to the relation of this incident to the life of Buddha. It is probable
some old legend which seduced Hokusai by the contrast it offered between the small size of the
men and the gigantic proportions of the fish ; he has managed to bring this contrast into relief by
treating the creature with extraordinary force, and showing by their violent attitudes, so true in all
their diversity, how much trouble the men have in getting the better of the monster.
In Plate CBG Massayoshi has carried, even further than in the examples which we have
already '«hown, simplification in the representation of forms pushed' to the farthest possible limit
This class of little children grouped at the foot of the master's chair, this troop of children walking,
this ring of singers with a priest in the middle of them giving the tone of the chant, row behind
row of heads in which nothing is to be seen, so to say, but open mouths, this wood-cutter who
looks almost like a bundle of wood — are they not all irresistibly comic in the simple exactitude of
their poses ? _^_^_^^_
In the same way in Plate CCA it would be difFicult to represent with fewer strokes the
sublimely stupid air of geese, the hasty waddling gait of ducks, and the downward flight of wild
geese.
Plate CCG represents one of the objects of the Burty Collectiqp. It is a sea-eagle in Bizen
pottery, brown, about sixteen inches high. Posed on a rock it turns its head roused by some
unusual noise, and the haughty pose, the curved beak, the eye deep set in the orbit, render
admirably the impression of ferocity natural to a bird of prey.
The place of its origin, Bizen, is a town situated in the province Imbé, where the manu-
facture of this pottery has been practised for many centuries. It is however only within the last
hundred and fifty years or thereabouts that figures of men and animals have been produced.
These figures are really sculpture, and exhibit the hardness, the tone, and almost the fine chiselling
of the most wonderful bronzes.
The five sabre-guards of Plate CCF also form part of the Burty Collection. All- five are of
iron. Two are composed of a delicate open-work pattern of leaves. Another is ornamented with
two shrimps carved out of the iron circlet ; it is signed by Massakata, of the 'province of Mussahi.
The guard formed of a twisted snake is of cast iron. The smith has ornamented the iron of the
last one with a bunch of wistaria, cut out with an unerring precision, with a skill which cannot fail
to surprise all who know what a resistance this hard metal offers to the chisel.
Plate AGC is a piece of silk stuff brocaded and ornamented with alternate rows of white and
blue irises. They are arranged with a regularity which gives a great appearance of grandeur to
the stuff, and yet the lines of the flowers flow with an ease which prevents all sense of stiffness.
The design presents all the characteristics which mark the work of the celebrated painter
Korin, who lived in the seventeenth century. If it was not made by this great artist, we need not
hesitate to ascribe it to his period.
Plate BDA is a collection of seven small designs for metal-gravers, ducks on the water ; snails
on leaves, geese in the clouds ; two forms of birds curiously inscribed in a circle ; snowflakes and
the moon, in which we perceive tiny landscapes, bats, and lastly, simple fragments of tiles.
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Contents of Number 35.
ADVICE TO COLLECTORS. By Marcus B. Huish . . .447
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 456
SEPARATE PLATES.
CCI. Kakémono. By Kano Massanobu.
AGC. Piece of silk brocade.
CCF. Five Sabre-guards. From the Burty Collection.
CBG. Rapid Sketches. By Kitao Keisai Massayoshl
BDA. Designs for ornament.
CCA. Geese and Ducks. By Kitao Keisai Massayoshi.
CCG. Sea Eagle in Bizen Pottery (Burty Collection).
CBC. Familiar Scenes. ByHokusaL
CBB. Birds. By Hokusai.
CBD. The Giant Fish, incident in the life of Buddha. By Hokusai.
The XXXVIth and last number of our publiaUion will coniain an ArHcU by
M. Roger Marx : " On the Rôle and Influence of the Art of the
Far East and of Japan."
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ROLE AND INFLUENCE of the ARTS
FAR EAST AND OF JAPAN.
In bringing this publication to a close, we will not seek for any other
conclusion to the mass of information which it contains than that which
is made evident by its opportuneness. Historians and thinkers, accustomed
to associate art with the atmosphere which surrounds it, have been of
one mind in looking on the appearance of Artistic Japan as a logical
consequence of the movement which, with all the force of an irresistible
current, has swept our taste and studies towards the Far East. As to the
success of the review, the honour thereof lies with the erudite editor,
whose supreme ability and energetic enthusiasm are borne witness to in
the few farewell pages which follow, pages written without his knowledge
and despite his express prohibition. It is to Mr. S. Bing's management
that Artistic Japan owes its strict adherence to its mission, the accom-
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
plishment of a precise programme which may be defined as
follows : to extend and increase the knowledge of an art as
yet only partially popularised, to affirm the charm of an
xsthetic sympathy, to indicate the aim of an influence which
is continually on the increase,
list we attribute this sympathy, this influence, to the whim -
ashion, and consequently consider them as ephemeral, or are
mt rather the outcome of an affinity of temperament proved
years ago ? The apotheosis of to-day would then be but the
an of a tradition, the return to a taste stronger than ever now,
new. If we turn o*er deeds and inventories, we learn the high
vcuu^- jv.i, some five centuries ago, on "that first fine porcelain which has
come to France since Europeans go to China, a porcelain clear and white,
with a happy blending of all kinds of little pictures," and later, in 1698, the
description of the treasures of the Palais Mazarin is also instructive ; for its
compiler, Germain Brice, lengthily extols " the Chinese cabinets and the
Japanese varnished ware of admirable lightness." Without priding oneself
on erudition, or dwelling on the ecstacies into which the grand rot and his
court went at the sight of the figures, pagodas, and stuffs "stamped with'
flowers and birdies," it is evident that these works were predominant in the
collections of that day, and that they hastened the reaction against the stiiT,
pompous despotism of Le Brun, by furnishing the elements of freedom,
dissymetry and movement which the originality of the French nation blended
in so marvellous a manner during the Regency and under Louis XV. It
is this passion for the porcelain and lacquer-ware of the Far East which
makes the men of that day anxious about the return of the missionaries,
makes them crowd eagerly round the Portuguese traders at the fair of St.
Germain and ransack every bale of merchandise from Holland whose con-
tinuous intercourse with China, and especially with Japan, would be revealed,
were other evidence want-
ing, by the patterns used
in Delft ware. Side by
side with this imitation,
which soon spread in turn
to the French potteries
of Rouen, Sinceny,. and
Nevers, we must not omit
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
to mention the changes brought about in furniture by the
vogue of lacquer-ware. The day had gone by when the
amateur of bric-à-brac considered that he had given suffi-
cient proof of enthusiasm by assigning the best place in
his gallery to these famous cabinets ; fashion willed that
the panels should be disjoined, mixed with Boulle mar-
h bf Kn«ù Yara. *^ "'
queterie, or let into the side . of some chest of drawers or
wardrobe in ordinary use ; at other times furniture in plain wood was sent
to the workshops of Japan to be adorned with lacquer, until the slowness
of communications with the East and the impatience of amateurs led to the
creation in Paris, England, and Holland, of the craft, which in its eagerness
to apply the new process to every substance and every object, gave rise in
France to innumerable inventions of styles and subjects marked by peculiar
originality, the never-to-be-forgotten Vernis Martin. Under such circumstances,
we must not imagine that the cabinet-maker failed to undergo the common
yoke ; how, indeed, could he have escaped doing so when the Far East
gained a stronger and stronger hold on writers and artists, manifesting itself
in novels and in furniture, in everything in which the wît and taste of an
epoch leaves its mark ? A strange East indeed that which the books of
this age describe, which its pictures show us, which its wainscots, hangings,
bronzes, chinaware, call up, Chinese and Japanese designs having become the
stock-in-trade of every decorative painter ! A false and conventional East,
despite all the information, all the books of travel, an East disguised,
powdered and painted to suit the humour of the age, landscapes from
dreamland, inhabited by human
beings without any ethnological
truth ! The East of Montesquieu,
of Voltaire and of the younger
Crébillon, the East of Watteau,
of Boucher and of Christophe
Huet ! The very lack of
fidelity in such imitations
served to maintain in full force
the. enthusiasm for the original
productions which had called
them into being ; from the
Livre Journal of Lazare
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Duvaux we learn what high prices were
paid for these objects in lacquer of which
Julliot endeavours to give a classification
at the beginning of the catalogue of the
Randon de Boisset sale ; under Louts
XV., under Louis XVI., there is no
abatement in the zeal for collecting special ^^ *^ *"*™^
types ; the dauphine, the favourite, the queen, all share this enthusiasm as
if boxes, caskets, desks were the necessary fittings of a cabinet, every-day
pleasures, as if these finished and perfect works of art, the ne( plus ultra
of exquisite and refined taste, were best adapted to come in contact with
and answer to the elegant requirements of woman, society, and art in the
eighteenth century.
The Revolution comes, , and away go — for how many years ! — the
lacquer-ware and the china, like all the creations of French art of the age
which had loved them so fondly. David, his school, and his generation,
care nothing for them, and, to see them again in request we must wait for
the revolt of some independent spirits in favour
of Watteau, Chardin, La Tour, Fragonard, for
the same umpires — be they Concourt, Villot or
Burty — undertake, towards 1850, to restore to its
due position the despised French school, and to
bring into honour again the genius of the Far
East. By expeditions, by treaties of commerce,
by the opening up to Europeans of several
ports, our notions become somewhat less narrow
with regard to this genius, so many manipula-
tions of which had remained unguessed at, and
the epoch of these revelations is the same in
which the difference between the works of
the Celestial Empire and of Japan begins to
be scientifically established. It is well now-a-
days to celebrate the discovery of Japanese
art, the hold it took on the attention of, the
œsthetic world, its promotion from the domain
of the curious, to which, under pretext of its
strangeness, it had been relegated by ignorance
Tilno from tht Ti«kia Oral, by HoVus.
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
and prejudice ; it is well, pending the day when the Louvre open its
doors to this art, to remember the comparisons which it has elicited
from archseologists, how those most worthy of credence have compared
it to the classic arts of antiquity and of the middle ages, arts to
which it would be unbecoming to stint our admiration and respect For
the last forty years, in both worlds, a great investigation has been held in
open court; no question has been left untreated by criticism, aided by the
help of competent Japanese authorities; no traveller, returning from the land
of the Rising Sun, fails to publish some unconscious explanation of its art
by its surroundings — a significant contribution to the fragmentary preliminary
studies which furnish material for the synthetic works of a popular character
by Anderson, Gonse, Brinckmann. Side by side with this we note the
diffusion resulting from universal or private exhibitions, the increase in
importations, which fail to have any interest -save for commercial statistics,
when Japan, stripped of the great works of her old masters and seized
with a thirst for gain, takes the downward path and prostitutes her art.
Factories spring up on all sides, skill of hand lends itself to the bidding
of Western requirements, all individuality is renounced. One is tempted to
think that the source of invention has run dry for ever when one sees
trade thriving on imitations made in hot haste, at low prices, flooding the
European markets, adapted to every want and associated with furniture so
as to form the usual adornment of the homes of Europe and America.
Whether it confine itself to lofty inventions or lose itself in degenerate
imitations, this tendency of the élite and of the popular element cannot be
merely the result of inherited taste and a superior aesthetic sense; its power
is also due to the satisfaction which the genius of Japan offers to modem
aspirations. There is nothing which our age disl'l"": c-^
much as repetition, receipts handed down from tl
past ; it is afflicted with a craving for some ne
thing, it yearns for fresh sensations ; to get free
of the trammels of remembrance, to banish all
that is intentional, learned by rote, such is its
ambition, if not its law. How then could it fail
to be seduced by an art distinctly national,
sprung from the soil, from the race, the result
of habits of mind and of vision unknown to
us — by an art which has glorified matter to such
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STIC JAPAN.
:ent as to supply in every
r its transformations Sub-
f reverie for the brain and
nite delight to the eye ?
rt of Japan has won our
sympathies by its points
of resemblance and of
difference, by the analo-
gies of humour which it
reveals, and by the con-
trast of its doctrines
with Western tradition ; this amounts ;to saying that it has won a position
amongst us by its ingenious and subtle charm, by the wealth of its imagina-
tion, by its delicate qualities of observation, slightly sceptical and ironical, as
much as by its clearly defined individuality ; but, above all, we love it
because it is the expression of a supremely sensitive people, vibrating in
harmony with all the perception of a nation of children artists, because in it
all is intuitive, spontaneous, full of unerring tact, of innate delicacy, and
because by its very nature this delicacy unites the freshness of impression,
the searching naïveté of the early masters with all the subtleties and
abstractions of societies which have grown old and polished by the lapse of
centuries.
Meanwhile, as the current flowed on, Japan became the model, the
accepted master. The reports of successive Exhibitions demonstrate the
increasing power of their sway and of the part played by Japan in educa-
ting art. Everywhere the traces of Japanese influence are manifest ; it
would be foolish to attempt to enumerate the signs by
which they show themselves ; we have barely room for
a hasty enumeration of a few. You may be sure that the
love of the Japanese for all that forms part of their life
indoors and out of doors has not failed to encourage tn
a very high degree the idea of respect for surroundings
and the inseparability of background. On the other
hand, the sentiment of the gracefulness, at times hieratic
of the attitudes of women, the taste for facts signified
by gesture, a certain perspective manner by which nature
seems to be taken in at a bird's-eye view like a projection
464
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drawing ; finally, the desire to render
groups, the denseness of crowds, the
swell of humanity with the seemingly
impossible magnitude of the fore-
grounds (which photography proves
to be exact), is not the origin of all
these to be sought amongst the
Japanese ? Or again, who can deny
that their kakémonos, prints, and
albums have driven us to appreciate
Taken from the Tintin On!, by Hckuai.
more highly the power of expression
which lies in line, in silhouette, the charm of simplified indications, reduced
to the strictly essential, if they have not awakened our consciences to all the
life, the realism and the reverie, which may be contained within a rapidly
traced outline ? And as these rapid draughtsmen were at the same time
lovers of colour and of sunlight, it was their lot to appeal to the painters
and wood-engravers of the West on behalf of atmosphere and pale
harmonies, to open their eyes to the play of the phenomena of light, to
egg them on to the rendering of passing effects, the fugitive and peculiar
nature of which seemed always to defy all attempts to set them down,
and thus the artists of Japan have every right to rank, according to the
equitable verdict of Duret, Duranty, and J. K. Huysmans, amongst the
promoters of impressionism.
~ t in no branch was the advan-
Japanese influence so great
e designs for decorative pur-
:s. Firstly, we have the happy
lequences of borrowing from
, and feuna, and in a more
general way a marked re-
turn to organic and in-
organic nature, as a source
of inspiration : we see
shapes regulated by the
substance employed, more
account taken of the end
aimed at, less attention as
Taken (ram tbe TakaiiU, by Hokluu.
465
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
! regards proportions to mathematical rules, and at
the same time a striving after flowing lines and
masslveness. There is an increasing desire to
obtain an agreeable appearance by mingling two
different substances, or if one only be used, to
constrain it to furnish its own ornamentation by
submitting it to various treatments, by exposing it
to the hazard of accidents, by contriving to give
it contrasts, changes, or half-expressed ideas. If drawing be used, the
design seems to have been renewed, and its character, its date, will be
recognizable by the dash, energy, and go, by the isolated or half-finished
composition, by the evocation of a whole by means of a fragment, — in a
word, by the renunciation of all the old formulas and a return to the
promptings of fancy, to the unexpected, to freedom.
Whether it be intended or unconscious, direct or transmitted, beneficial or
detestable, according as it leads to the assimilation of the emancipating prin-
ciples of a free code of aesthetics or to the unreasoning adoption of exotic
conventionality, the influence of the Far East stands clearly manifest as an
accomplished fact. They who henceforth would forget it would condemn
themselves to ignore in part the origins of modern evolution, to leave out of
the question a trustworthy explanation of the tendency of painting in the
nineteenth century, and to fail to discern what constitutes, though we do not
know it, the style of to-day. In thus doing they would be ignoring in the
history of the variations of art the instance of an all-powerful influence, with
which only the influence of antique art on the age of the Renaissance can
be compared on equal terms,
ROGER MARX.
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DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
Plates BIF, CJI, CJF, CAJ and CJG are reproductions of original sketches by Hokusaî
■«ollected by one of his pupils in an album of sketches.
Plate BIF. Sketched with broad and rapid strokes of the brush, two women, one doing her
hair, the other in a holiday dress. The former is smh from behind, squatting on her heels, her
arms gracefully raised to cover her hair with a piece of stuff. It is in such a sketch as this that
-we may see the artist's masterly sureness of hand. There is no hesitation, not a single correction in
the indications of the diiTerent values, the arms round and plump, the sleeves falling backwards, and
the folds made in the back by the raising of the arms. The knot of the sash, the legs tucked under
the body are indicated with a firm outline, and the whole body seems to live in this rapid sketch.
The other woman is walking, draped in robes which fall in an ample wadded train. The
richness of her costume which the hasty sketch in Chinese ink just indicates, the numerous pins
in her hair tell us that she is one of that anything but austere class of women whom the Japanese
■desired well educated and cultured, in order to enjoy the emotions of art even in the midst of
sensual pleasures.
Plate CJI. A cartwright mending a wheel. This study is drawn with the greatest accuracy,
without any attempt at brush play. At the side a traveller is sitting down tieing on his sandals.
Then comes a woman carrying stuffs iff a pitcher, and another sketch of a woman walking, seen
from behind. Lastly, also in a back view, we see a member of the upper classes amusing himself
by playing on the flute. He is seated on a piece of stuff spread out on the ground. The action
of the hands which we catch sight of over the shoulder, the movement of the head are admirably
accurate. We almost seem to see the peculiar tension of lips and cheeks occasioned by the action
of blowing on the instrument.
Plate CJF. Two subjects. An embroiderer busy ornamenting a piece of stuff stretched on
a frame before him'. At his side a man with a cane stretches out and beats the stufis. Then a
woman, carrying a baby on her back in the folds of her robe, is sifting some grain.
The pose of the embroiderer's head bent attentively over his work, the right arm passed
over, and the left under the stufl", are all indicated with a marvellous skill of the brush, imper-
■ceptible, but so true, so eloquent !
467
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
In the second subject, a woman with her child on her back, its head peeping over her
shoulder, is occupied in unwinding silk on a large wheel, and another woman is carrying a
bale of stuff.
Plate CAJ. A woman is walking away with her child on her back. In this sketch Hokusai
seems to have studied the gait of a person carrying a fragile and precious burden. Note how
carefully she steps in order to avoid any shock. At her side, a labourer has gone to sleep over
his work. Further on, a man is walking hurriedly. A woman of the lower orders, powerfully
built, carries a pitcher with both arms. The accuracy of attitude and movement are wonderful,
A porter has hoisted a load on to his back. Lastly, of somewhat larger dimensions, two soldiers,
with their swords in their belts and long guns of a very primitive appearance in their hands.
Plate CJG. Scene in hell. (This composition is printed in the work in three volumes. History
of Buddha Sakya Muni, from which we took Plate CBD, published in No. XXXV.)
Two damned creatures in the midst of the flames, in a fearful state of emaciation, raise their
hands in supplication towards the devil, who listens to them without pity in an attitude of
indifference ; he seems by the expression on his face to take a delight in the tortures of these
wretched beings. These two bodies, as ghastly as anatomical studies, afford an opportunity of
making a curious comparison between hell as conceived by the imagination of the Far East and
the hell of the middle ages, for it is evident that here the artist's imagination has been directly
inspired by the popular legend to which he has given a striking and terrible form.
Plate BHB is a print by Koriusai.
Isoda Koriusai belonged to that brilliant pleiad which, in the second half of the eighteenth
century, carried the reputation of engraving in colour to its highest point. He possessed an
admirable knowledge of colour, without going outside of an aristocratic scale, without any striving
after violent contrasts. A remarkable part of his work, exhibited in 1890 at the École des Beaux-
Arts in Paris, was noticeable for the extremely refined treatment of widely different subjects. He
knew how to give a grand air even to his animals, and the white bird Ho soaring above the sea
in the pale red rays of the setting sun seemed to be really the attendant of the Empresses.
Here we have a young man picking, for his fair companion, some branches of maple already
tinted by autumn. The graceful attitude of the girl, the supple gesture of the young man's
uplifted arms, recall with somewhat more refinement the tender idyls of Harunobu, the con-
temporary of Koriusai.
468
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ARTISTIC JAPAN.
Plate CCD represents a kakémono of the fifteeath ceatury painted by Sesson. This artist,
a pupil of Sesshiu, was particularly famous in Japan for his moonlight scenes ; he was also fond
of painting animal life, particularly birds. We have already reproduced, in our No. XXIII.
(PI. AGJ), a kakémono by the same artist The painting which we reproduce in the present
number represents a crow, treated in the vigorous manner of the old masters, who had preserved
the good Chinese tradition.
Plate CCC is a collection of rapid sketches by Massayoshl, We find always the same system
of simplification, with nothing but the endeavour to seize and fix with the greatest accuracy the
important feature, some sparrows in various movements, storks soaring in the air, one of them
standing out against the orb of the sun, others posed in the awkward attitudes common to all
long-legged birds ; lastly, some dusky silhouettes of bats.
Plate AGH represents a piece of brocade of the eighteenth century. The pattern is a flight
of storks on a background of clouds. The monotony of the continuous repetition of the birds
is avoided by the various poses in which they are represented, and by the alternation of tints in
a general blue tone, with here and there a discreet touch of red.
Plate EC gives a decorative design in which full-blown peonies alternate with slender tw^s
on a regular groundwork of lozenges.
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Contents of Number 36.
ON THE ROLE AND INFLUENCE OF THE ARTS OF THE
FAR EAST AND OF JAPAN. By Roger Marx . . .459
DESCRIPTION OF PLATES .467
\
SEPARATE PLATES.
BIF. Two Women. By Hokusai.
CJI. Flute-player, Cartwright, Traveller, etc By Hokusai.
CJF. Embroiderer, Women winding silk. By Hokusai.
CAJ. Soldiers, Women, etc. By Hokusai.
CJG. Hell. By Hokusai.
BHB. Lovers. By KoriusaL
CCD. Kakémono. By Season.
EC. Decorative Design.
CCC. Rapid Sketches. By Kitao Keisai MassayoshL
AGH. Brocade. Eighteenth Century.
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Portrait of Edwin Booth at the Players' Club. l'i..n' ihi
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Sarjent's Portrait of Edwin Booth, A Tocm. Tkom.^s
Finlaini. Firsl Pirt. Ccner.il ^'iew of ilic C,>ui;irv an'i Tvi,.].!.;.
liLNHV LANii.RLL, ii.D. Will, \1 v ai;-! 1 l-'i' i:!i„tr,ii,.i'S. Fron, l'l,.;I...
tjMj-.hs .™i l>rjv,iii|:s (.j- Alm.hi- t;t' fLi.Tniil I'. E. l.uiuils.
Finland. .Second I'.'.rt. tikeii.hcs 11. liiiLiJiii Ai.m kt J'.ui-i.fki.i.
Wiih Si^ -■:. Iil,i..'r.iu-..i.;. ]):3w(i i.v V.MYxt l.iJELt tr.r.
English Writers in IndiaX'''-'^^'- J""^' ^- f',.-K-^r. n.I>. Hiu^.
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tliL* liiilian U) the Ad^ntic Oo'.iin.
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iiri''.:;ci: Ivütiun, ;UiVi'j-,i li, p,-;; a:n' I.ir..-.'ir;.;, ac '1
1 Mi'iLS i,;jf.; I2J. {)..-., r.in ■■'.ill'l.t oNulreJ
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MV KALTjLU:
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NOW READV.
PRICE ONE SHILLING.
HARPER'S
MAGAZINE:
April Number.
rAT.VI.OGUE
JAPANESE MASTER
lND max, iS</),
BEAUX ARTS,
■ 77.A- IV/-ISJ r IT • -/,:[' _\
Nu. 22, RUE DE PROVENCE, lARIS.
PSIC-S TKN rRAHCS.
SAMPSON LOW, MARSÎÔH & CO,'S
PUBLICATIONS.
Works by Henry M. Stanley.
yEW AyD CI.'EAPLR hDIT'OS'i-
:\V HE. I!
I THE CONGO, AND THE FOUNDING OE
! ITS FREE STATE:
1 A Story of Work and E-xj !i.r.iLiu:i.
ÏMO
Thf; Fremii Army. riL-ntral ] t « vlu io
The Sute of Wisconsin. Hon. '.V, l-". Vi
, I
\>ls. Jcmv ÏVÙ. wiliiovfr loo ."-iil p!;
Ï 1,'Ue M.i:i3, ar.il :;i'vc. i! si.i .liv ■ l
I ,. .'he Mother. A IWm. Wcli-.m w.l.i;! i C^Mrr.Li.i.. ■
■^Mtr.àfy. Folk. Part II. Tin.M.i^ \\\»-'.\. W:ih t Ilivsi' lawis, !
I i' l.'.r,.,:L.jl. 0^;,LN.
i Glimpses of the Bacterid. T. :.tii-.Hi-:.L i'uriM.i.N, mj). i
'_■ lilj.- .,.:■>.»-. lJi.i,v,i.u' [1. i!. .■;, :iLi.=. ;
T.K'nias lluod, Pun&tcr, Poet, Ireacher. J'i.li'. I'.ev. T. r. I
The Court The. are of Muinî-'ËCn.
, W.I Li. b
DoQ Carlos. .V a' Jry, .Maii';,\.i] r CK".^r.v.
The Behring Sea Controversy, V.. J. I'ln li-^
Mark >=enti'ri. \ -^(üiy. A:j..:1.l.:.i. Teai.
J^icei'iuie ProviicijI Sketches. Ti';>'i."'kü Cü.i-d. n I!lu-,-
Si'erice and Solitude. .-\ I'^cu;. .\->:. Imeiüc.
Pre':wLÎence in Vanity Fiir. l.'.L-rtn Iv iIlou..^ jjl M ilm].;;.
* ,E. i,ror'sErtsyCb;ür. C.icn.K V/iii.i^,) Cuk'-.
: , y E(:i;cr's SMdy. i-'il! l.^^. b; -n ji,viv.i.L..
i/ A Monthly F.ticiid of Current Evi-nrj
> "\;Dr's Driver. <;..u"ii i-,.îl,-:', ■.■jlf.ï Itn.' w '.V,A'..';t'-.
i-'A'i -o.x ■ :;A\;."ho:-.' low,
HOW I FOUND LIVLNCSTGX'^;
I'"our Months' llesidcnce with P:. Livi.Ni.- ■-■..
W^th Map ard niLH^niikin.^. i''0"i)tno. cÎMil., :r. ' .-.
•,* Th.- Unal):iti.;oJ I.àili-o.i, siij'i,Tifc in iMiiirami'' ■;!',.;, -'iv
With the I'vijiiiul M ijis, iiri'V 7-f. 6./.. i-yn j.\ i :.c üLl !■■ ■ :,
THROUGH THE DARK CONTINE.NT.
ÏTom th;: Iiiiliau to t!ic A;bi-;ic Oi;c:)n.
Will M-M» .1^1'' Ilhi'ifitM!,^. Crou- 3vo, fluil., jf. (v/
'.,' The Ur.ihi i.li^cd bliiion, SU]'i;iior in ;;i;.er ;ir,l l>.r..':i;^. l1.
iii;h IJie Oi;t;inal Maj>s piitx- i;j. 6i/., cli:i ;:;;u !ic olii:;i-.etl
.1 yrcil
j^iiiy."--/".«/.»/.!/; ."
MY KALULU :
Prii-r-., Kill.:;, .iiid Slave, lay H. M. S-i.\,M,hv.
C.-i.«:i Svc. c.--Ay., Jo. 6./.; b>lt e>i|;-,-s is. U.
'.''1-. '''1' ^".2 ' ' ''^ ' "■"■"■'"'' 'ifptizêcf'G'y VjO^^^tC
MAKsroN =M-Co. ',i.^:rn-;i'.
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FE
fERS
O.'S
:JZ)K
; OF
Tatioit»,
IN FAR LOCHABER.
THE STRANGE ADVEN
Tl'Ri;S OF A '10lSl.llü.\'l-.
THE PENANCE OF
JOHN 1.0«. AN.
A DAUGHTER of HETH.
KILMENY.
THREE FEATHERS.
SUNRISE.
LADY SILVERDALE'S
S\Vl't.TiIl:.-.iCT,
WESSEX NOVELS BY THOiMAS HARDY.
iVF'.r AND CHKAPRR ISSUE NOW READY,
In i;r-,f..niL crown Kvi>, vii'umc;, bosfis, 3s. : ami dolli, 2J. ii</. ench.
THE RETURN OF THE
FAR from the MADDING
The MAYOR of CASTER-
The TRUMPET-MAJOR.
THE LAODICEAN.
NATlVi:
THE HAND OF ETHEL- i
BF.RTA. '
A PAIR OF BLUE EYES, i
TWO ON A TOWER.
THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT.
From the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean.
With Mjp am! Illustrations. Crown 8vo. cinth, 3^. 6./.
'* Tlic UnabriJi^eJ Edition, superior m paper and binding, and
wiLti the Origin.U Mapa, price \%s. dd.. c:in still be obtaincl.
" Every pn.-n i-untaini the rrenpl of suina Btrangc advenluii', or the note oi
.i wiK valuuiilc olivtrvilion. . . . We lay ilowr thf bJgk with a feeling of a. ;Tiiii.-
■\ D ''ji the courage of ihc exiilore- and of ic-^pccl lor his power- of observai: \
5.1.1 KtcJt \vAw,Xt^."—FaU M>.ll C<a-tu.
MY K ALU LU :
Prince, Kin^, and Slave. By H. M. Stanley.
Crown Svo. cloth, as. 6d.; gilt edges y. (td.
( Foriaiiig one of the Vuluinesin Low's S..-ries of StanUird Books foi Boys.)
"The Ik>uV is e.iii loiJin.irily fascin.iline, and «ill 1« tea I by cvef>-oni-, 1...11
or boy, with brealhl' s; inten-.-t truni cover Ii rovtr,"— /Ininf llUatralal Pa'pft.
Ij>\DÜNr SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON S: COMl'AW, Ll'\ri'i^iÖ,
ST. tifNT-T.VNS H"'; r'i. rKTTER LANK, FLKE'I STREET, li.C
y v^:iv/v/
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