tell us that Sesshiu always played original artists of Japan, and won an air on the flute before beginning a fame which would have been a picture, and that he died in 1507, better worth achieving had the at the ripe age of eighty-seven. time in which he lived not been His careful and powerful style of singularly barren in artistic talent. painting was worthily imitated by But in all he did, as well as in all some of his pupils, notably Shiu- the works of his fellow-Kanoists, getsu, an attributed specimen of the Chinese influence was parawhose work Mr Anderson gives mount. The subjects of their picus in the likeness of Vimalakirrti, tures were the sages, landscapes, an Indian priest. It is difficult divinities, animals, and flowers to know what to admire most in which we find produced over and this picture. The pose of the fig- over again in Chinese paintings. ure, the powerful delineation of But though originality of design the features, and the wonderful must thus be denied them, they harmony of the colouring, are all deserve unqualified praise for their equally excellent. mastery over the caligraphic art, their unquestioned skill in the composition of their designs, and the harmonious splendour of their colouring. Sesshiu's fellow-student, Kano Masanobu, adopted a more caligraphic style of art, and was followed in it by a number of disciples, who, while preserving the While the Kanoists were thus traditions of Chinese design, gained reproducing Chinese landscapes the most extraordinary mastery in and figures with what would have the use of the brush. With a few been wearisome iteration, if it strokes they produced effects which were not that their genius introrival, if not surpass, the chefs- duced variation and added graces, d'œuvre of the best Chinese art- there sprang up a number of artists, and they possessed the subtle ists, headed by one Matahei, and power of suggesting "colour in two generations later by Hishimonochrome and chiaroscuro with gawa Moronobu, who strove again out true shadow." Mr Anderson to interest their countrymen in reproduces several specimens of native scenes and surroundings. their skill, and amongst others the These men cut themselves free portrait of the Chinese magician from the well-worn subjects of Le T'iehkwai in the act of dismiss the Chinese masters, and turned ing his spiritual self to the moun- to depicting the things of comtain of the immortals. This is a mon life which passed before favourite subject with Japanese their eyes. The new style readily artists, and it is instructive to found favour with the people, who compare this work of Kano Moto- were delighted to recognise their nobu with those of artists of the superstitious legends, the scenes so-called other schools. A later they were accustomed to see in follower of this school, by name their streets, and the incomparable Tanyu (died 1674), departed to a beauties of their native land, in great extent from the caligraphic the works of first-rate artists. It style of his associates, and adopted was during this period-the end of an impressionist manner, which, the sixteenth century-that the while extremely effective, laid him art of engraving, which had already open to the charge of apostasy been practised in China for more, from the school of Masanobu. He than a century, was first employed was one of the most prolific and to any extent by native artists. other innovations "Popular school"; but when we As with all "a travelling priest, who, earnest in was incarnate as the Pious Hare." As a comic painter Itchō was inimitable, and there exists in the British Museum Collection an engraving of a painting by him, which is a masterpiece of vigorous fun, and in which a hawk is carrying off a fish, while the owner with every gesture of dismay and anger follows in pursuit. It is interesting to compare this sketch with one representing the same subject by Hokusai. In this comparison the advantage is all on the side of Itchō, who has thrown infinitely more freedom and life into his portraiture than has been achieved by his successor. It is in virtue of his painting; in these directions that Itchō is claimed as a disciple of the so-called As His works demonstrate not only the versatility and range of his ar tistic genius, but convey a vivid impression of his moral and intellec tual qualities, of his keen but kindly powers of observation, wit untainted by malice, strongly marked individuality free from self-consciousness, and an art-loving industry that never permitted him to save labour by repetition or plagiarism, or to mar his conceptions by carelessness of hand or thought. He was a cyclopædia of folk-lore and legend, and has left untouched few motives that were worthy of his pencil." It is not too much to say of him, that for dramatic force, freshness of fancy, and skill as a colourist, he has few equals in the long roll of Japanese artists. Mr Anderson reproduces one of his most notable pictures, in which a mad woman, "clad in tattered finery, and happy in the delusion that she is a brilliant ornament of the Imperial Court, parades the streets with mincing steps and affected gestures, apparently filling the part to her own entire satisfaction, as well as to that of the little urchins who are bearing an old straw sandal above her head, as a mocking emblem of a royal canopy." Another work forms one of the collection of his en gravings at the British Museum. In this an injured husband is in the act of stabbing his guilty wife, while a female companion in a defiant attitude exposes her breast, and invites him to wreak the same vengeance on her. The subdued and concentrated fury of the man, the helplessness of his wife, and the taunting recklessness of her companion, are all represented with a vivid power which it is impossible to surpass. It is the fashion among Japanese connoisseurs to speak lightly of Hokusai as an artist. They call him the artisan artist, and affect to consider him little more than a vulgar caricaturist. They base this opinion on the fact that as a caligraphist he lacked much of the power possessed by many of those who preceded him. If he wrote Chinese characters as he -painted, he would, they hold, be deemed a very sorry penman. This is no doubt true; and if we were to reduce ourselves in our estimate of art to the level of Japanese savants, we should doubtless agree with them. But we are not called upon to be bound by any canons of art but those of our own; and judged by this standard, Hokusai stands head and shoulders above many whom the native coteries delight to honour. Before, however, Hokusai rose to fame, a tendency towards greater realism in painting was brought into vogue by Okio (1733-1795), who, according to a native work, "invented a new style, painting birds, flowers, grasses, quadrupeds, insects and fishes, from nature.' Many stories are told of the extraordinary fidelity to nature which he observed in his paintings. Among these it is relate that a patron, "having expressed a desire for a picture of a wild boar, the artist, true to his principles of drawing only from nature, requested a farmer who lived in an adjoining district where the animals were sometimes seen, to send him word should he ever find one asleep. In due time a message came to say that the opportunity had arrived; and Okio, hastening to the spot, found his model stretched upon the ground in sound repose, and after having taken a careful portrait, withdrew without disturbing him. Some months later he seized an occasion of submitting his drawing to the opinion of a person who was extremely intimate with the appearance and habits of the boar. This practical critic, after examining the picture closely, at length said, that although it had an exact resemblance to the animal, it was rather like a sick than a sleeping boar, and explained that the latent power of limb always evident in the healthy animal, even during sleep, did not appear in his representation. Okio saw the truth of the remark, and in vexation tore up his sketch. He thought no more of the matter, until one day, happening to be in the neighbourhood of the farmer who had sent him the summons, it struck him to inquire what had become of the boar. The man was eager to tell him a curious circumstance in connection with the incident-that the animal had never moved from the place in which it was first seen, and the next morning was found dead." Whether this story, or any part of it, is true or false, it illustrates the style of art for which Okio and the so-called Shijō school which he founded are most famous. For exquisite finish and minuteness of detail, some of Okio's works are masterpieces; they are full of grace, and have the exact precision of miniatures. But he was more than a carefully minute painter; he was an impressionist and a caligraphist of great range and power. In a well-known volume of his engravings, there are some beautiful effects produced by mere blotches of colour. One of the best of these is the drawing of a water-wagtail — for, like all Japanese artists, Okio reached his highest excellence in portraying birds. In this case the water-wagtail is instinct with life, and almost cheats the spectator into the belief that it is in the veritable act of walking. Some storks, also, in the same volume, are eminent examples of his skill. Goshun (died 1811), whose name is associated with that of Okio, was even more conspicuous than his companion for the beauty of his designs and the delicacy of his style. Among his engraved pictures is a moonlight scene representing a couple of rabbits sitting in a field, which is startling in the realistic nature of its effect. Many of his other works are marked by a grace of composition and a charm of colouring which are little short of marvellous. By some of Okio's followers the naturalism which was his avowed aim, was held to embrace far other subjects than those which occupied his brush; and in marked contrast to the dainty and delicate objects depicted by the master, we find street and domestic scenes, somewhat after the style of the illustrations in the Petit Journal,' classed among the products of his "school." An offshoot from the Shijō school was established by an artist named Ganku (died 1838); but it is difficult to distinguish between the works of his pupils and those of the followers of Ökio, unless it be that the landscapes of some of the former are wonderful examples of the impressionist school. A good specimen of the work of one such painter-a charming view of the Yodo river in spring-time-is reproduced by Mr Anderson, in which are depicted, with surpassing skill and beauty, "the soft, changeful vapours of early morning gently drifting before the rising breeze, lingering to kiss the rippled surface of the stream, and half veiling the blossoming gardens of the bank and the undulating perspective of the fertile hills.” of In speaking of the different styles of painting in Japan, we have followed Mr Anderson, who gives in his work a certain sanction to the native division into schools of the artists of each age. But no one who approaches the subject with an unprejudiced eye can fail to observe that the differences which are said to constitute the characteristics of the various "schools" are in the main trifling, and are quite insufficient to justify, or at least to call for, any such separation. The Japanese have a genius for subdividing; and the people who possess a sufficient analytical power to divide the extremely simple Japanese verb into fifty-one tenses and seventeen moods, are quite capable of classifying their paintings into any number schools. For every one not imbued with this Japanese proclivity, it would be sufficient, should it be even necessary to make a division into schools, to classify the paintings into the Buddhist school, the Chinese school, and the Sinico-Japanese school. This becomes obvious when it is recognised that there is absolutely nothing which is original in the principles of Japanese art. The inspiration is entirely drawn from China. Their painters have improved upon Chinese art; but there is not a picture quoted by Mr Anderson, nor is there a painting among those lately acquired by the British Museum, which does not bear on the surface the impress of Chinese influence. Nor is this to be wondered at, when we find that all the art students' text-books reproduce and insist on the Chinese laws of drawing, and that each revival of art in Japan has been the result of the appearance of renewed artistic activity in China. Precisely the same se quence is to be observed in the outbreaks of poetic fire in Japan. In each case the impetus and keynote came from China, and it was necessary that the Chinese bards should first restring their lyres before the Japanese songsters could sound a note. So it has always been with their paintings. The artists of the T'ang, the Sung, the Yuen, and the present dynasties, gave birth to the art-renaissances of the ninth, the twelfth, the fifteenth, and eighteenth centuries; and the laws which they laid down have formed the guiding principles of their Japanese followers. But it is often in the failures as well as in the successes that we are able to trace the history of art; and it is especially noticeable, as helping to establish the oneness of Chinese and Japanese art, that Japanese painters exactly fall short where their models have been in fault. For instance, Chinese artists have never, with very rare exceptions, been able to paint horses, cows, dogs, or deer, and these are precisely the subjects in which Japanese artists fail so signally. A careful survey of any large collection of Japanese pictures exposes at once the illogical nature of the native divisions into schools. If we take, by way of example, the Buddhist school, which is more distinctive than any other, we find that followers of the so-called Chinese, Tosa, Sesshiu, Kano, Popular, Kōrin, Shijō, and Ganku schools all painted Buddhist subjects, and all treated them in precisely the same manner, though with varying skill. An illustration of this may be found in the portraiture of the Rishi Tekkai, which is a recognised subject of the Buddhist school. In the Anderson collection, we find the wellknown incident of his breathing forth his inner Self, painted by Kano Keiho of the Kano school, by several artists of the Popular school, by the Chinese artist Yen Hwuy, and others; and in each and every case the treatment is so similar that they might all have been painted by the same brush. In like manner the caligraphic style of the Sesshiu and Kano schools reappears through all the history of the art, from the studios. of every school; and the same may be said of the impressionists, and of each and all of the other styles of painting. In estimating the value of Japanese paintings, it is necessary to place ourselves on quite another level to that from which we are accustomed to survey Western art. One prime difference between the two schools unquestionably is, that whereas the principal aim of the best European painters has ever been to suggest lofty thoughts, and to teach great and inspiriting truths, Japanese artists strive only to inspire that keen sense of the beautiful in which they themselves revel and delight. Important as this worship of the beautiful is, it has the mitigating effect of blinding their eyes to all but the objects of admiration which they desire to depict; and hence we find that most of their pictures are sent out into the world without foreground, background, or even shadow. If we take it as an example the poppy painted by Ogata Kōrin, in the Anderson collection, which is not only an exquisite piece of art, but is singularly true to nature, we see it growing on nothing, surrounded by nothing, and casting no shadow. So also is it the case with birds, which are, for the most part, represented absolutely alone, as though the painter was fearful of introducing accessories, lest the attention of the spectator should be diverted from the central point which it is desired to impress upon the mind. |