Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/572

lacquer-works and porcelains were beyond doubt a monopoly of this period. True it is that the lacquer-works existed from very remote periods, and those of the Higashiyama period (a section of the Ashikaga period, when Sessiu, Sotan, and the like flourished) were excellent, especially from an antique and æsthetic point of view. The full development of them, however, was a conspicuous achievement of the period under our view. As to porcelains, though they may not fall in the proper sphere of art, they had their development essentially during this period, their growth being comparatively a matter of a recent epoch. There was cloisonné, but the rapid and full development of it was left to our own time. Ukiyoye (popular pictures) of the Ukiyoye School and those of the artisan style are also entirely the new growth of this period.

I must here interpose some explanations. Old styles of pictures, especially Kano and Tosa, had spread their influence very widely among the gentle classes. In this period, too, there were numerous eminent painters, among whom we may mention Tannu as the greatest; but, speaking generally, their styles became more stiff and conventional. They failed to arouse popular feeling with their novelty and audacity, and, besides this, they were not within easy reach of the common town people; hence out of the tendency to revolt from the hackneyed old style, as well as out of the vulgar demands of common people, arose the new style of these Ukiyoye and artisan schools. Besides, the artists of these schools generally lacked refinement in themselves, belonging usually to the vulgar classes, whereas the artists of the older schools generally belonged to the gentle class, often holding samurai rank under the patronage of some feudal lord. Such being the case, these new schools are far from being the ideal of the Japanese cultured classes. There are, however, great geniuses to be recognised amongst them, Hokusai being the greatest of them; and in their way they had many excellent points, especially in their manipulation of colours and their aptitude in hitting on new ideas taken from daily life. It is due to the credit of European critics more than to ourselves that their merits were accorded their proper place. Only, the cultured Japanese never can be induced to appreciate these schools in the same degree that the Western critics do. Korin and his school form an entirely different category in our art. The pictures of this school are grotesque at first sight, and their merits can be discerned only by those who have especially the type of observant mind which enables them to appreciate hidden craft. I think it does great credit to the European experts who appreciate the merits of this school with the same eye which rivets itself on the paintings of those schools of vulgar origin.