Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/569

merely artificial excellence? Artisans, for instance, make different sorts of articles, as their talents serve them. Some of them are keen and expert, and cleverly manufacture objects of temporary fashion, which have no fixed or traditional style, and which are only intended to strike the momentary fancy. These, however, are not the true artisans. The real excellence of the true artisan is tested by those who make, without defects or sensational peculiarities, articles to decorate, we will say, some particular building, in conformity with correct taste and high æsthetic principles. Look, for another instance, at the eminence which has been attained by several of the artists of the Imperial Academy of Painting. Take the case of drawings in black ink. Pictures, indeed, such as those of Mount Horai, which has never been beheld by mortal eye, or of some raging, monstrous fish in a rough sea, or of some wild animal of some far-off country, or of the imaginary face of the demon, are often drawn with such striking vividness that people are startled at the sight of them. These pictures, however, are neither real nor true. On the other hand, ordinary scenery of familiar mountains, of calm streams of water, and of dwellings just before our eyes, may be sketched with an irregularity so charming, and with such excellent skill, as almost to rival Nature. In pictures such as these the perspective of gentle mountain slopes and sequestered nooks surrounded by leafy trees are drawn with such admirable fidelity to Nature that they carry the spectator in imagination to something beyond them. These are the pictures in which is mostly evinced the spirit and effectiveness of the superior hand of a master, and in these an inferior artist would only show dulness and inefficiency.

‘ “Similar observations are applicable to handwriting. Some people boldly dash away with great freedom and endless flourishes, and appear to the first glance to be elegant and skilful. But that which is written with scrupulous neatness, in accordance with the true rules of penmanship, constitutes a very different handwriting from the above. If, perchance, the upstrokes and downstrokes do not, at first sight, appear to be fully formed, yet when we take it up and critically compare it with writing in which dashes and flourishes predominate we shall at once see how much more of real and sterling merit it possesses.

‘ “Such, then, is the nature of the case in painting, in penmanship, and in art generally. And how much more, then, are those women undeserving of our admiration who, though they are rich in outward and in fashionable display, attempting to dazzle our eyes, are yet lacking in the solid foundations of reality, fidelity, and truth! Do not, my friends, consider me