ARTISTIC JAPAN.

ARTISTIC JAPAN

Illustrations and Essays.

COLLECTED BY

S, BING.

LO N D O N :
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE & R I V I N G T O N,.
LIMITED,
Sit Bunitait Sjoue,
FE T T E R LANE, FL E E T STREET, E.C .
 CONTENTS
OF T H E

FIRST VOLUME.

I.

Programme. By S. Bi n g ..............................................

SEPARATE PLATES.

A. View of Lake Biwa. By H iro - s h ig h .

C. Study of Grasses.
H. Design for Decoration.Mallow.
E, Study of a Dead Bird.
G. Design for Decoration.
B. Specimen of Brocaded Silk.Wisteria.
I. Three Bronze Vases.
D. Group of Monkeys.Kakmono. By S osen .
AJ. Ornamental Designs.
F. Mask of a No Dancer.
T h e Japanese as Decorators. By Louis G onse
Notes on the Illustrations . . . .

SEPARATE PLATES.

EG . Fragment of Girdle in Brocaded Satin.

GO. Two Designs. By H o k u sa i .
I. Crabs and Sea-weed. II. Persons caught in a Shower.
EE. Four Sword Guards.
FD. Decorative design.Chrysanthemums.
A A. Altar in Carved Wood.
Double Plate. Portrait of a Lady. By K aigetsudo.
DH. Decorative Design.Plum Flowers.
GD. S tu d y of Pinks. B y B um po .
GG. Landscape with Misty Effect.
AB. Bronze Vase.

III.
Japanese A rchitecture (Tem ples). By V. C h a m p ie r
Description of P l a t e s .................................................

SEPARATE PLATES.

El. Piece of Brocaded Satin.

CG. Industrial Design.Clematis.
FB . A Young Girl. By H a ru n o bu .
ED. Vase in Terra-cotta.
EH. Branch of Camellia.
AF. Carp. From a Stencil Design.
Cross-bow Shooting. By S h u n sh o .
Dd. Frog, in Ironwork. . .
GB. Wild Flowers. By M a s a y o s h i .
AI. Studies of Birds. By H o k u s a i.

IV.

Japanese A rchitecture (Houses). By V. C h a m p ie r .

Description of Plates . .
FF. Actor in Female Costume. By K iyo m itsu .
BJ. Bronze Incense Burner, in the shape of a Duck.
G A. Fragment of Silk Stuff.
CH. Ceramics.
I. Water Vessel. II. Group of Cats.
y- Landscape. By H okusai.
BG. Street Scene.
CE. Industrial Designs for Stuffs or Paper.
01. Bronze Vase.
GE. Study of Convolvulus.
DD. Industrial. Design.Gourd tendrils.

V.

Jew ellers Work. By L. F a l iz e . . .

Description of P l a t e s ...............................

SEPARATE PLATES.

GJ. Flowers, Fruit, and Insects. By U tamaro .

HE. Three Bronze Vases.
Yoshivara. By U tamaro .
HJ. Studies of FlowersIrises. By H okusai.
Butterflies and Flowers, Design for Stuffs.
DB. Industrial Design.
GB. Tomtits. By Sui S ki.
EB. Industrial Design.
HC. Four Sword Guards.
DE. Popular Sketches. By H o kusai.

VI.

A Travelling Writing-Set. By E dmond de G oncourt .

Description of P l a t e s .......................................
 SEPARATE PLATES.

HI. Scene from the History of the Forty-seven Ronins. By H ir o s h ig k .

DA. Bronze Hand Screen. By K o-u n .
IA. Specimen of Ceramic Art.
FA. Study of Irises.
IJ. Second Scene from the History of the Forty-seven Ronins.
FC. Decorative Design.
CA. Flowers, Insects, and Birds.
BD. Mask of a N Dancer.
BA. Model Industrial Design.Leaves and Flowers.
 CONTENTS
OF TH E

SECOND VOLUME.

VII.

Engraving in Japan. By T. D u r et 73
Description of Plates 80

SEPARATE PLATES.

Mil. Ladies Boating. By K iyo naga .

HF. Three Bronze Vases. Date 18th Century.
A JA . Sparrows on a Branch of Bamboo. By N osan .
HB. Scene of Indoor Life. By M oronobu .
Dl. Industrial Design.
1C. Mandarin Ducks. By H o k u sai .
EA. Decorative DesignBamboos.
IE. On the Banks of the Sumida-gawa. By H o ku sai .
H-H. .Industrial. DesignTrunks of.Trees.
A JB . .Piece of Silk with pattern of Peacocks.. 17th 'Century.
H o k u s a is Man-gwa." By A r y R enan
D e s c rip tio n o f P la te s . '

SEPARA TE PLA TES.

ID, Sto Ware. Sak Bottle.

EF. Two Pages from the Man-gwa. By H o k u sa i .

1H, .Double Plate Night Fete. By U tam aro .

CO . Three Industrial Designs.
G, View of Fujiyama. By H o k u sa i .

HA. Four Sword Guards.

EU, Decorative Design,
Cd. Study of Wild Vine.
BC. Buddhist Mask.

IX.

Hokusais Man-gwa {Concluded). B y A r y R en a n . . . .

Description of P l a t e s .................................................

SEPARATE PLA TES.

AdC. KakmonoSparrows and Bamboos with Snow. By T k h o -s u i .

DF. Two Pages of the Man-gwa. By H o k u sa i .

BE. Actor, in Female Costume. By S h un - y e i .
HD. Three Bronze Vases.
Design for Printing on Stuffs.
DC. Industrial' Design.
FE. Fragments of Old Leather.
OF. Types of Blind People. By H o k u sa i .

Bl, Industrial DesignPeony Blossom.

IB. Pheasant. By H o k u sa i .

X.

dapanese S w o rd s The Katana or large-sized Sw ord , By

P h il ip p e B u r t y . .- . , . . .
Description of Plates . . . . . . . . . e
ABJ. Hanging Vase in Awata Pottery.
ABG. Two SketchesSquirrel and Crane. By T aci-iib a n a M o r ik u n i .
A JE . Birds and PlantsSchool of Shijo.
A C J. Pigeons on Broken Tiles. Hizen Porcelain.
ABB. Men Fishing. By K u n iyo sh i .
AAH. TigerKakmono- By G a n ku . (Double Plate.)
A B F. Industrial DesignButterflies and Flowers.
AJJ. Portion of Brocaded Silk Robe. Seventeenth Century.
ACC. Bronze Vase. Eighteenth Century.

XI.

The W akizashi (Small Sword). B y P h il ip p e B u r ty .

Description of Plates ...............................

SEPARATE PLATES.

A EE . Small Sword, with Sheath, Kodzuka and Kogai.

ABC. Flower Vase in Bizen Pottery.
AD. Decorative DesignFlowers and Leaves.
A C F. K akm ono Poppies. By K rin . (Double Page.)
. Six Sword Guards.
FJ. A Young Girl. By H arunobu .
ADD. Decorative DesignBamboo and Chrysanthemums.
ACG. Birds in the BamboosMoonlight.
ABI. Bronze Vase, with Swans Neck.

XII.

Ritsuo and his School. By E rnest H a r t ........................................

Description of Plates

SEPARATE PLATES.

ABA. Landscape, from' the Thirty-six Views of Fujiyama. By H okusai .

AEH, Two Pages of the Man-gwa. By H okusai .
AAA. , A Bird, and FlowersSchool of Shijo.
ADI. Industrial DesignBamboo. .
A A I. Night Fte. By U tam aro . (Double Plate.)
BF. Industrial DesignFlowers.
A EG . Eight Netsuks.
A F J. Temple Candlestick Porcelain.
IG. Coloured Wood Carving.
 PROGRAMME

In presenting to the
public A r t is t ic Japan, I
lay no claim to the addi
tion of a fresh ch apter to
th e m an y w orks upon th e
history of Ja p a n e s e A r t
already in existence. Its
aim is n o t th a t of a uide
to unexplored regions, or the examination of recondite ""
theories. These have already been treated of by masters
of aesthetics, who have subjected them to the keenest analysis,
to the most careful verification, classification, and comparison.
But the section of the public which has been thus
catered for is a comparatively small one ; the inquiring spirit
who is never satisfied unless he is admitted behind the scenes,
and receives certificates of authenticity for every one of his much-
prized objects as he acquires them, is only to be met with now and then.
These have had, as I have already said, their requirements met. To them
this publication is addressed, but not in the first instance. It is primarily
intended for the instruction of the general public in the real and rare beauties
of an Art which has hitherto attracted chiefly through its superficial qualities.
How, indeed, could this be otherwise ? In almost every country in Europe
(England perhaps excepted) the great State collections, in which marvels of all
styles, all epochs, and all lands are included, have disdainfully closed their
doors to Japanese Art. In the shop and the bazaar only has Japanese Art
been represented, and there merely in its least refined and elevated form.
There its productions, in picturesque disorder, have appealed to
the undiscriminating glance of the passer-by, who, indeed, could not
help being fascinated by the undeniable charm of nicknacks made
only for exportation, but who did not consider that what he saw
was no more than the vague reflection of an art which was formerly
vigorous and sound. He could not know that the sculptured groups
whose effeminate forms he admired had some masterpiece of life and
expression for their prototype ; he has not been told that yonder garish
vase is but a feeble imitation of a piece of pottery marvellous in colour
and technical perfection. It is not surprising that he admired a
sample of tissue woven in the period of decadence, for he has
never seen any of those sumptuous stuffs which the artist in
embroidery of the feudal times covered with harmonious tints in a
style of lordly grandeur. Even the artist, when he stopped to
admire the drawings and engravings sketched with the cleverness
of the race by some draftsman of modern Japan, knew naught of
the wonderful albums in which the genius of the famous masters
of the bygone time was matched by that of the engravers who
interpreted and multiplied their works.
 It is in the power of but very few, when first they are
privileged to see side by side two phases of Japanese art_
one in its prime, the other in its decadenceto recoo-nise \
at a glance the vast distance that divides them. v
It is by degrees only that the eye can dis-
tinguish between them. It is only as we
begin to examine them with closer attention that
we arrive at some knowledge of the subject, and come to see that
precisely the same distinction which there is in the case of the produc
tions of our own country, exists between the masterly works of Japanese
art which were creations, and the current products of a modern industry,
in which the mighty genius of ancestral artists has been frittered away under
the mercantile influence of a later epoch.
This truth was, however, immediately recognised
by that limited number of connoisseurs who in every
age devote themselves to the study of the beautiful, and
it came with especial force to the few well-informed
collectors who were so fortunate as to meet at the onset
with specimens of a superior order. Unfortunately, such
specimens are rare, and are becoming more so every day,
and it is within the means of but few to acquire them.
A* To the great majority therefore the only way of instructing
W ^ them as to what is really choice in Japanese Art is by
placing before them faithful reproductions of the original objects. This is the
task to which I am about to devote myself. I propose tofurnish the lovers of
Japanese Art, by the aid of the best processes ofengraving, with a continuous
series of diversified specimens, taken from every branch of that art, at all its various
epochs. The work will constitute a sort of graphic encyclopaedia, for the use
of all those students of Japanese Art who are desirous of tracing the course of
its development.
The present publication has yet another object. It is especially addressed
to those persons who, on any grounds, are interested in the future of the
industrial arts, and especially to those who, whether as manufacturers or as
artizans, have an active share in their production. In the new forms of art
which have come to us from the utter
most parts of the East, we see something
more than a Platonic feast set b e fo re our
 contemplative dilettanti, we find in them
examples worthy to be followed in every
respect, not, indeed, worthy to uproot
the foundations of the old aesthetic
edifice which exists, but fitted to add a fresh force
to those forces which we have appropriated to our
selves in all past time, and brought to the support
and aid of our national genius. How could the
vitality of that genius have been maintained had
it not been recruited from fresh sources from time
to time ? Where is the civilized country, ancient
or modern, from which we have not at some time
borrowed some of its artistic culture ? Long- since, alas ! we exhausted the
patrimony o f the ancients, and from the confines o f central Asia, the cradle
of our race, even to our own seaboard, nothing has been created for three
thousand years that we have not turned to our own uses in the endless
evolution, that we have not made a law to ourselves. A nd at last of any
novel addition there appeared to be no chance, when all at once, from behind
the barriers which a small insular people had erected around themselves with
jealous care, a fresh form of arr, quite startling in its novelty, revealed itself.
It was not therefore surprising- that our artists and manufacturers availed
themselves eagerly of the discovery. Unfortunately, their precipitation was so
headlone that it threatened to be fatal to the cause which it was intended
to serve. Defective information concerning the new art led to the use o f all
the scraps, good or bad, that came by chance into their hands, and a still graver
mistake arose from an immoderate as well as an indiscreet
application of them. Tim e has now toned down this eagerness, and the
opportune moment for beginning again, with matured experience, on
another plan, seems to have arrived. Within the last few years extensive
and successful research has brought the finest models of Japanese industry to
western countries, and henceforth choice may be made from amongst them
of specimens not only racy o f the soil, but possessed of that eclectic beauty
which is o f no country. Especial care therefore ought now to be given to
the selection of subjects which lend themselves readily to the requirements
and customs of our western culture, with scrupulous avoidance of all those
which would encourage mere trick, or degrading imitation. Such are the
tendencies which will prevail in the choice of the specimens
which will compose the collection of which a first instalme
is now offered to the public, and which will gradual
accumulate in the series that we shall continuously
offer in this periodical. B y them we hope that we
shall be enabled to estimate the marvellous fertility
of that Japanese imagination which has formed an
endless variety of brilliant designs, all bearing the
stamp of the purest and most ingenious taste.
Our producers will not we trust allow such valuable resources to remain
unutilised, for there is not one among technical designers, book illustrators,
architects, decorators, manufacturers of papers, printers, weavers, potters, bronze-
workers, or goldsmiths, and even the workers in the numberless small industries,
who may not derive benefit from consulting a collection which will form
a repertory o f centuries of Japanese fine art.
It will not suffice, however, merely to borrow the designs
of these models ; they must be thoroughly analysed and
studied, with a view to arriving at their original conception.
This they will be found to be well worthy of, for undoubtedly
to discerning minds their aspect will suggest extremely
serious reflections upon the fundamental principles of
Japanese ornament as compared with the traditions o f our
own schools. F o r whilst strict limits have been placed, by
the rigorous laws which we call our styles, to the bounds
within which our imagination has been permitted to wander,
and whilst our industrial arts have in consequence assumed
a stiff and conventional character destructive to the boldness of originality,
Japan appears to have indulged in freedom from and laxity of rules and
method. Not that the Japanese artist emancipates himself from all rule, or
ever lets his fancy wander at haphazard. F ar from this ; the constant guide
whose indications he follows is called N atu re ; she is his sole, his revered
teacher, and her precepts form the inexhaustible source of his inspiration.
T o Nature he surrenders himself with a frank fervour which exp res
itself in all his works, an d invests them with touching sincerity.
T h e Japanese is drawn towards this pure ideal by a twofold
characteristic of his temperament. H e is at once an enthusiastic
poet, moved by the spectacles of Nature, and an attentive and
minute observer o f the intricate mysteries which lurk in the
infinitely little. It is in the spiders web that he loves to study
geometry ; the marks of a birds claw upon the snow furnish him
with a design for ornamentation ; and when he wants to depict the
curves of a sinuous line he will certainly resort for inspiration to
'the capricious ripples which the breeze draws upon the surface of
the waters. In a word, he is convinced that Nature contains the
primordial elements of all things, and, according to him, nothing exists in
creation, be it only a blade of grass, that is not worthy of aplace in the
loftiest conceptions of A rt. This, if I do not err, is the great and salutary
lesson that we may derive from the examples which he sets before us. Under
such influences the lifeless stiffness to which our technical designers have
hitherto so rigidly adhered will be relaxed by degrees, and ourproductions
will become animated by the breath of real life that constitutes the secret
charm of every achievement of Japanese A rt.
In thus endeavouring to secure a welcome for this work, I have as yet
addressed myself only to the enthusiasts who have a special devotion to
Japanese Art, and to the larger class to whom it may be of practical use ; but
I have still to solicit the goodwill of that more general public, who, without
any set purpose, may take pleasure in looking over a publication, which,
although its purpose be a special one, is recommended by a tasteful array of
artistically-executed illustrations. W e shall not be un
mindful even of the interests of this branch of our
pN clientele. Sketches from Nature will alternate
with completed drawings by great masters ; land
scapes, studies of birds and flowers, scenes from the
life of the people, and even the strange typical masks used in
the native plays, will, we believe, as they appear, interest
and amuse.
I cannot bring my too lengthy preamble to a close without mention
of an apprehension which made me hesitate to undertake this task. I allude to
the fear that I might not be able to obtain satisfactory results in the reproduction
of the subjects. A ll doubt on this point has been happily dispelled. I have
had the good fortune to obtain the assistance of M. Charles
Gillot, whose zeal and skill have been seconded by his fervent
love of Japan, and its A rt. M. Gillot has succeeded to perfection
in his engravings, and in the printing of them, and he has thereby
proved that mechanical means cease to be the irreconcilable foes of Art,
when they are employed by one who can turn them into docile auxiliaries,
as supple as the artists own fingers working under the direct inspiration
o f his brain.

S. B IN G .

May, 1888.
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 THE

J A P A N E S E AS D E C O R A T O R S .

I have elsevyh ere e x p r e s se d m y o p in ion on th e

a r tistic g e n iu s o f th e J a p a n ese, an d h a v e sa id p la in ly
th a t t h e y are th e g r e a te s t d ecorators in th e w orld .
T h is v e r y d e c id e d v e r d ic t req uires ex p la n a tio n , an d
e lu cid a tio n , a n d th is sh o u ld n o t b e inap propriate in a
p u b lica tio n e s p e c ia lly d e sig n e d to in trod u ce th e k n o w
le d g e of, an d d o h o n o u r to th e A r t o f Japan. I am
th e r e fo r e g r a tefu l to M . B in g for h a v in g g iv e n m e th e
 opportunity of unfolding shortly my opinion on a subject
that for a long time has deeply engrossed me. When I
said that the Japanese were the greatest decorators in the
world, I did not by any means intend to throw discredit on
the decorative art of other nations, or to disparage the merit j
of productions whose artistic value is universally accepted. Such
products as Persian pottery, Gothic stained glass, Venetian stuffs of
the fifteenth century, and French furniture of the eighteenth century,
will always remain works of real beauty, to which no others of their kind
will ever be preferred. But I would draw attention to the fact that a feeling
for decorative art is born in the Japanese. Always and everywhere he
makes an object worthy of a decorator, and I here use the
word decorator in its noblest and most exalted sense.
Art exists for him as something more than a creation to
enhance the morality of life : it is to him a mental and
physical luxury which is intended by its refinemnt to increase
our satisfaction in living. In the same way in the higher and
more severe spheres, those of religious or historical art, the
Japanese artist submits to the ordinances of education which
compel him first of all to please the eye before exciting and
chariping the intellect. He subordinates himself without any
apparent effort, and as if it was inherent in his nature, to all
the canons of taste. It is necessary to think of this in judging
and understanding a Japanese work of art, and this applies
to the commonest as to the choicest articles. If this is borne
in mind, then everything is clear, all explains itself, and all
that was inexplicable at first in those creations which are
Japanese in style becomes a new object of admiration. The
Japanese has, in common with his brethren belonging to
other Oriental races, an innate decorative sense ; but in his
case it is assisted and refined by a clear conception of the
From beauty of nature, by the influence of customs of ancient
date, and many other complex causessuch, for instance,
as his method of writing, andeven of holding the brush. These have
enabled him to exercise tothe extremest limits this decorative capacity.
This sense has been still further sharpened by a natural taste for
synthesis, by a marvellous instinct for the resources of colour, a thorough

IO
 ARTISTIC JAPAN.

knowledge of
colour harmony,
and a delicate per
- -
ception as to its
employment. This unique
concurrence of qualities has
made the Japanese the most
thoroughly qualified nation to From an original sketch (late eighteenth
century).
take Art into the usages of
everyday life, for the ornamentation of the home ;
it has made them devotees of luxury, ornament,
grace, and originality in decoration. It is this'
predominance over other races as regards the
decorative principle in every phase of Art, that has
given me ground for asserting that the Japanese
are the greatest decorators of the world.
Although I myself do not know how sufficiently
to praise this phase in their artistic genius, I am
well aware that by some it is used as an argument
in diminution of their artistic capacity. To such
as these, this power of design ought to add
psychological and quasi-literary suggestions which
should increase its value. This is the point of view
of the sthetic of the Arian races, and we by no
means wish to speak disparagingly of it. The
point of view of the Japanese is more confined;
but, once understood, it will seem logical and
natural: it suits a people whose physical feelings
are refined in the extreme. The consequences of
this temperament have had their effect' even on
the lowest branches of Japanese industry. During
the long periods of peace, when the creations of
its taste expanded themselves in all their wealth,
Japan was, as it were, seized with a
universal dilettantism. In all grades of
society, from the most humble workman
to the most accomplished prince, the

C o m p o sitio n o f T o y o h i r o [178 0 )-
nation seemed to live for the study of*
Art ; it became, one might almost say,
possessed by an inherent love for the
beautiful. Greece alqne offers
a parallel example of so
pure and complete an en
thusiasm for the pleasures
of imagination and the con
tinuous exercise of the
aesthetic faculties.
Religious art, so far as
regards the branches of painting and
sculpture, does not evidence in so marked
a degree the same love of the beautiful, but
still in outward form it witnesses in many
ways to the Japanese taste for decoration.
The great pictures of the temple, the '
Buddhist rolls with their dead-gold ornaments in the ...7^;
style of oldminiatures and with their costly mountings, .
the figures of bronze with their graceful out
line and reposeful attitudesall the apparatus
of that highly spiritual conception, the
religion of Buddha, is marvellously sym
From an ongioal 1
pathetic to the general idea of giving Shigoobu

pleasure to the eye. In addition to all this, the pomp of

ancient ceremonies, the unequalled splendour of the vestments
of the priests, and around all the colouring of the
architectural frame, and we shall have some idea of
the refinement which this nation of artists imparted
even to the minutest details of the exercise
of its religion.
The Japanese have nowhere given
fuller play to their delight in harmonising
From Hokkei's M an-gw a (1820).
colours than in the construction of their
templesBuddhist or Shintoist. It is by
the thought bestowed upon this decoration, much more than by the structures
themselves, that the religious architecture of the Japanese recommends itself
 to the notice of the foreigner. From whatever point it is regarded, it
seems the natural complement of the landscape ; it associates itself like
a living organism ; it is quite in keeping with the luxurious
, vegetation which envelops it, the free growth of which
the Japanese take delight in, as making a picture
essentially picturesque. Trees, rocks, and water play
From Hokusais M an-gw a, vol. x. {1825). their part in the symphony. It is in the midst of
the choicest scenery that the Japanese delights to see
elegant porticos raising their graceful outline, arrangements of lanterns, bronze
vases, chapels with wonderfully carved roofs, and pagodas in red lac, whose
brilliant colours contrast with the green of the pine trees. It is by this
perfect accord between the framework and the picture that the aesthetic
rightness of Japanese Art so strikingly affirms itself. According to this
sequence of ideas, the artists of Japan have produced work unequalled in
beauty. Look at the Temple of Nikko for instance, which was raised in
the seventeenth century by the Shogun Yemitsu to the memory of Yeyas,
and see whether it was not designed quite as much for the general effect
as a picturesque mise eit schic, as we should sayas for its richness of
ornament. But what is true with regard to religious art is much more so
with regard to profane and familiar art. The Japanese painter in designing
a kakmono or wall-painting always starts by remembering its particular

A
Fragment of a composition representing a religious ceremony. From vol. v. of the Suikoden, a novel
in 90 valmes, b y Hokusai 8-).
 a pair of movable screens, decorated .like the kakmonos,
with some pleasant subject, a flower-vase or two, a few
commonplace objects in bronze or china, were deemed
From an album of Hokusai, sufficient by a Japanese of distinction for the decoration of
signed TatoM(1830).
the chamber where he received his guests. It is remark
able that the Japanese will have nothing to do with an object which does
not answer some particular use; he does not understand the use of anything
which serves the purpose merely of an art object ; he is not a collector in
the European sense of the word ; he cannot
bear useless curios ; he likes in his home, air,
light, and plenty of space. But all the articles
used in the everyday life jof the Japanese, or
which form part .of his costume, are
designed so as to assume the most
varied forms, and they become either
by their intrinsic value, technical perfection, or the taste bestowed upon
them, works of Art in the highest meaning of the acceptation.
But we are trenching upon the domain of industrial artan illimit
able subject, wherein the power of invention shown is astounding :
lacquer, fabrics, chasing, pottery, engravingall become marvellous
through the fairy touch of these artists. Here the genius of the Japanese
mitst provoke admiration, for nothing seems to have escaped them that
a subtle instinct for decoration would have conceived. They have
experimented with all forms, all combinations, all contrasts of colour,'
and everywhere they have given proof of the greatest taste and the
most rational feeling. Those who only know Japanese Art from
the wretched modern products, so feeble in every way, will
perhaps smile at my praise ; those, on the contrary, who love
Japanese Art, and have had chances of seeing authentic work of the
best time, will understand and, I hope, agree with me. The collections
formed by the amateurs of Paris, London, and New York give
us, happily, arguments of irresistible eloquence, for nowhere else can
one find such numerous specimens of the choicest work. Their
examination will show us better than all reasoning the variety and
ingenuity of the Japanese decorators. Every effort^ every repetition,
every reproduction, is new, original, fresh, in perfect sympathy with
nature, object, and material, and, as it were, animated with a free
 and airy grace. Y es, I repeat it, the Japanese are th e
g rea test decorators o f th e world.
From an original sketch {late eighteenth century).
i h e y m ay have failed to adequately translate the
beauties o f the human form, or th e heights and depths o f portraiture, but
th e y have carried picturesque treatm ent o f line and colour further than any
other race.
I shall h o p e to return to som e o f the points that I have just glanced
at here, and show som e o f th e lessons to be learnt from them .

LOUfS GO'NSE.
NOTES UPON THE ILLUSTRATIONS TO Nos. 1 and 2.

When we first determined to offer to the public a work dealing with Japanese Art, we did
not propose to supplement the illustrations with detailed explanation, for we considered that
each representation so clearly explained itself, that it would not require any commentary. But
others are not of our way of thinking, and therefore we shall in future give a short epitome of
the history, character, and the peculiarities of our illustrations.

Taking up first those illustrations which deal with the art of painting, wc would draw attention
to three distinct styles represented by the plates lettered D. (No. x), G.-G. (No. 2), and the
double-page plate (No. 2). None of these belong to the early academic or rival styles, known by
the names of the Tosa and Kano Schools. A t the date of the oldest of the three, that of the
figure of a woman (the double-page plate, No. 2), these schools were in rapid decadence. The
dawn was breaking of a new style which was to revive the languishing strength of the painter's
art, and to break through stiff rules which had been rigidly followed for many centuries. This
was the glorious epoch of Genroku (1688-1704},* when the whole nation seemed possessed
by an artistic furore. It was then that Moronobu flourished, the founder of the Popular School,
called Ukioy, of which Hokusai was the most perfect example.
The full-length portrait which (double-page plate, No. 2) we give is the work of Kaigetsudo,
one of the most brilliant pupils of Moronobu; he lived in the period 17 16 -17 3 $ . It is hardly
necessary to set out the masterly qualities which characterise this painting. The colour and
the gold so cleverly arranged, the harmony of the tones of colour, combine to heighten the
rich effect of a dress, the design of which is drawn with a vigour and certainty of handling
only to be found in the work of great artists. In Japanese paintings, more perhaps than in
any others, boldness and freedom in the brush-work are the invariable evidences of a master.f

Plate D., No. 1, offers us an example of another naturalistic schoolknown by the name
of Shijo, and founded at Kioto by Maruyama Okio (born 1733). This kakmono, representing
monkeys, is by Mori Sosen, born in 1747 - The execution displays a genius for this style of
subject which is unequalled. It is said that Sosen passed the greater part of his existence in
the forests, in order to study the habits of animals in their wild state.

Plate G.-G. (No. 2), reproduces another kakmono of the same (Shijo) school. ITere wc
find a poetical landscape, painted in the early morning ; the plains are lost to sight in a misty
atmosphere, which in Japan invariably calls forth the praises of the poet. The vapours which

*. ^.n J aPan an<^ *n Chinn, no calendar was known by which, time w as measured b y regular intervals. T im in history
w as divided into periods or cycles (called N e n g o ) o f an uncertain duration, the beginning o f each o f w hich coincided with
some memorable event.

t To give an idea o f the masterly draw ing of this picture, we may add that irt Ihe original kakm ono the figure measures
thirty inches in height.
cling to the summits of the mountains or float down into the valleys form, during the greater
part of the year, a gauzy moving curtain through which the landscape seems but a mirage,
now assuming a solid form, and again veiling itself in uncertainty. In all times, and to all
artists, this condition of nature has been a favourite subject.

Passing now to our reproduction of engravings in colour, we find in Plate A. (No. i) an

example of a landscape with a clear bright atmosphere, a light mist only hiding the foot of
the mountain and rendering the hulls of the distant fishing-boats indistinct. The delicate touch
of the brush here gives way to the more precise and firm lines of the graver, and to the strength
of colour which a wood-block always produces.
The artist (Hiroshig) here represents the margin of the lovely Lake Biwa, whose shape
suggests the musical instrument like a guitar, which is called by the same name.
Hiroshig was born at Yedo in 1797, and belonged to the popular school; he treated
every imaginable subject, but abov all landscape, which he rendered in an original manner.

In the plate G.-C. (No. 2), which reproduces an engraving from a work by Hokusai, we
now arrive at subjects taken from everyday life. These are treated with a clearness of
perception and a frankness so refreshing, the feeling in them is so natural and yet so personal,
everything is so intensely lifelike, and drawn with so sure a touch, that it requires but little
insight into Japanese Art to recognise the artist who produced them. It can be none other
than the great master Hokusai. What a vast difference exists between these sketches and
the portrait of the young woman by Kaigetsudo! The latter showed the first efforts of
the realistic school to break away from the trammels of tradition, but still evidences the
calm and almost severe style of the classic school ; whereas Hokusais two drawings are the
product of an art completely freed from all the obstacles which formerly held in bondage its
creative fancy. _

Plate G.-D. (No. 2), which finishes for a time our series of reproductions of engravings,
is of a very modest tone. It does not pretend to amuse us with any lively story ; but, instead,
it speaks very plainly of the peaceful life of a flower. It would be difficult to find a truer
portrait of a pink, with its ragged appearance, and its stem so frail that it bows at the will
of the tiniest breeze. ___________ ________

The studies of plants and birds in plates C. and E. (in No. 1) are examples of the con
scientious care which the Japanese imposes upon himself in his art. While no detail escapes
him in his rendering of a blade of grass, the body of the bird is simply indicated under its
different aspects in a summary manner, the artists intention having been merely to jot down
certain notes for his future guidance.

In the plates G. and H. and A.-J. (in No. 1), as in those lettered D.-H. and F.-D. in
the present number, we see some of the innumerable motives created by the fertile imagination
of the industrial designers of whose genius for decoration M. Louis Gonse pleads so ably.
 If we are rightly proud of the creations of our European artists, surely we ought also to
reverence those outside our continent, who by their unaffected work have shown the way to
artisans in a country where all the industries are indissolubly connected with A rt in its highest
sense. ________________ _

Plates B. (No. x) and E.-Cr. (No. 2) show how much the weavers have profited from the work
of the great designers. The two examples of textiles which we have before us must at once excite
our admiration by the elegance of their designs, taken on this, as on all other occasions, from the
innumerable resources of nature. Thrown on a neutral ground with lightness, solidity, and ease,
the arrangement of the decoration produces an effect of great richness. A t the same time the
technical perfection of the weaving and the durability of the dyes is such that several centuries of
wear have left none of their traces on the fabric.

After luxurious clothing comes furniture, such as the bronze vases of which we see specimens
on Plate I. (No. 1) and A.-B. (No. 2), which with us would be considered curios. For a Japanese
these are an essential element in the decoration of the house. For are they not for the
purpose of holding the flowering branch, which is to stand out in bright relief against the
sombre tones of the bronze or of the pottery ? And to render the contrast more striking, it is
usual to have a very simple form for the vases that are destined to hold the often curiously twisted
stalks of a flower. _______________________

We must not leave metal-work without skying at least a few words about sword guards, of
which four specimens are given on Plate E.-E. (No. 2). The subject of sword guards will no doubt
be treated in this publication eventually with all the importance that it commands. For the
description of these four reproductions we must refer to the contents of this number, here limiting
ourselves to admiration only of the wonderful work in so hard a metal as iron. One feels inclined
to believe that the metal must be easily malleable at will. The design is charming both in its
grace and the pureness of its outline, and a peculiarity not less worthy of note is the ease with
which the maker succeeds in confining within a ircle a whole branch of a plant without losing
any of its natural suppleness.

We must speak shortly of the branch of art represented by Plate F., and by the altar-table,
Plate A.-A. (No. 2). No proof of weakness is to be gathered from these and similar works of
excessive fineness. When the nature of an object claims in its execution vigour and energy, the
Japanese artist at once pushes these qualities to their utmost limits, and now and then this
determination has no limits but his innate good taste. What is the secret force that carries him
so strongly onward? We can find it in the intentness with which he pursues his desire for
expression of life in his workthat life which (we cannot repeat it too often) ought to animate all
that makes his mind eager to produce new and original effects.
G rw . . p a r Gallot
 JA PA N E SE A R C H IT E C T U R E .

H o w long, solem n, and im posing the word architecture seem s

w hen applied to th e frail and graceful constructions in which the
fascinating people o f N ippon dwell !
M y pen has ju st traced
th e word, and I
at once feel
 distrustful of our European vocabulary, as being far too serious and
matter-of-fact for translating the affectations and niceties of an art
more delicate than anything of the sort with which we are
^ acquainted. The sensation is exactly that which one
experiences upon seeing some rare and fragile object
grasped by rough hands which threaten every moment
to destroy it. To my mind, whenever we speak of the
Japanese, it ought to be understood that our language
demands focussing to a special scale ; it must lose in
breadth in order to gain in clearness if we are to preserve
to the things we describe their true value, and to faithfully
represent the pictures of a country where everything appears on
a scale entirely different in proportion to all that we have
hitherto been accustomed to.
Japanese Architecture! Can we call it by the same term
as Greek Architecture, Roman Architecture, Gothic Architecture ?
What ! must the same word include colossal constructions of
stone, marble monuments which defy the centuries, and the airy
temples, and the little houses made in wood and paper, more like
bonbonmeres with movable divisions, minute boxes ingeniously
arranged, and coming to pieces like toys ! Yes, though all
that difference exists, the term is the right one, and we must keep to it, even
if our language could furnish us with a diminutive having the same sense.
For, if the definition holds good, which says that architecture is the
material expression of the desires and the manners of a people ; that the
style of building is the exterior form of the ideas, genius, and religion of a
nation, we must agree that the Japanese possess an architecture admirably
fitted to the character of their civilization, wonderfully appropriate to the
conditions of their climate, and which shows the elements of beauty
which we are accustomed to look for in this art, namely, unity
and harmony, in its varied forms no less than any European style.
It would be astonishing were it otherwisethat a people like
this, which has revealed itself to us in so brilliant a manner by
the wonders of industry, which we can never cease to
admire, which in the smallest objects of everyday use
can put such consummate art, so much character and
such perfection, could have built for themselves homes
 without grace, or for their gods, temples without
design.
What are the distinguishing characteristics
Japanese architecturewhat are the rules of its
structure, the logic of its composition ? These points I would briefly explain,
and they come with much appropriateness at the commencement of a review
devoted to the study of Japanese Art.

For to architecture (being as it is a manifestation of one of the

first wants of man, namely, shelter and comfort) one must go if it is
desired to find out the generative principles of those other arts which
follow, and are derived from it, and are less rigorously in bondage to
strict laws of reason. But before one begins to speak of the picturesque
aspect of the constructions and forms, which are the consequence of social
habits, and are peculiar to the race, it is necessary to remember clearly
certain fundamental laws of a peculiar nature to which Japanese architecture
has been subjected, and which have governed its development and limited
its range.
There are two principal factors which in all countries exercise an
influence on the fashion of architecture, but which do so in a still greater
degree in Japan than elsewhereI refer to the climatic condition and the
nature of the soil.
The climate of Japan is of the most variable nature: although
in the centre of the country the cold is very great in winter,
in the south it is hardly felt at all. Everywhere rains are
frequent, especially from the end of the month of April till the
month of June, and they are followed by a long
period of heat. It has therefore been necessary
to construct habitations to serve as shelter both
against the rain and the sun, and which will suit
both a quiet indoor life and a life in the open air.
From this cause have originated the special forrr
given to the houses : those great roofs with the brc
eaves, which give shade from the sun and shelter from the rain;
the balconies and the terraces ; the great recesses which form windows, \
which can be opened more or less, and are closed by means of frames
running in grooves ; the gardens, full of freshness, forming a frame of verdure
to nearly every house.
As to the other factor, it is even more exacting : the volcanic soil of
Japan, and the constant earthquakes resulting from it, have
from time immemorial necessitated the almost exclusive use
of wood in constructions. The whole explanation of Japanese
architecture lies in this fact. It is from the nature of the
materials that the choice of forms has arisen. It is from
this obstacle that the whole design of the art has sprung.
Edifices of an extreme elasticity were a necessity, capable of
resisting the storms of wind and of standing upright in
spite of the severest earthquake shocks. The genius of the
Japanese has triumphed over these difficulties. Their archi
tects have built temples, of which some are a thousand years
old and are standing intact.
Obliged to abandon stoneof which there is abundance in
the country, in spite of what one has been given to under
standin favour of wood, they have executed marvels of
elegance, richness, and solidity. What was a difficulty in
structure they have turned into an element of decoration ;
from obstacles which might have paralysed them they
have produced unlooked-for and beautiful
effects.
Examine from this standpoint any
structure in Japan, and you will easily be
able to account for the place that this
idea of resistance has held in the

22
 arrangements of the architect,
and how he has
made the best of
the materials he was
obliged to use with
infinite taste.
You will under
stand at the same
time why there
are often no foundations to the houseswhy the curves of the supports have
one form rather than anotherwhy window-panes, which might offer danger
whert broken to pieces, are replaced by paper. The foundations, if affixed to
the earth, would ensure the destruction of thebuilding at the leastmovement
of the volcanic soil. They therefore consist merelyof stone pedestals, thick
and strong, on which are placed wooden supports which bear the edifice, at
the same time leaving at its base a small empty space between the pedestal
and the wood, so as to satisfy the two
following conditions :First, if the building
were to receive a shock, not being fastened
to the pedestal it could not be broken ; it
keeps it elasticity, and after the oscillation,
falls into its place again ; further, at the time
of the heavy rains, the water passes under
the supports without the wood getting
wet, thus preserving it from dampness.
One of the most ancient buildings of
Japan, the temple of the Goddess
Kwan-non, at Nara, which con
tains the treasures of the Mikado,
is built on this system : its
supports are elevated not
to the height of several
inches, but more than a
yard, like piles. It dates
back more than 1200
years, and has not stirred
at all. Secondly, in
 ARTISTIC JAPAN.

consequence o f this principle,

th e roofing, w hich plays such
a great part in Japanese
architecture, is alw ay h ea v y and o f
large dim ensions, m ade w ith th e
greatest care, in order that it m ay assure
th e equilibrium o f the erection w hich is not
fastened, and which in con seq u en ce could
easily b e turned over.
T h e quantity o f w ood used in m aking th e roofs and
ceilings o f certain tem ples in Japan is extraordinary. O ne
is inclined to b elieve th ere m ust b e w a ste; b u t all is
m inutely calculated each beam has its place, each m ortice
its reason, and each support som e object. S o m e an cient
p agod as e x ist o f such an elev a tio n that on e w on d ers
how it is p ossible th ey h ave stood till now, in sp ite o f
earthquakes; it is because o f th e ingenuity o f th e fram e
work. T h ere are som e w here on e se es a central pillar o f w ood, w h ich in
the interior is carried to th e top and seem s to support th e roof. T h is w ould
b e b y no means the object o f such a pillar in our architecture. In Japan,
things are reversed, and this pillar, far from carrying th e roof, is actually
supported by it ; it is, as it w ere, a prolongation o f it ; it d o es n o t rest on
th e ground, as one w ou ld su p p ose ; it is separated from it by a hardly
noticeable interstice; y e t it is n everth eless to this th at th e service is a llo tted
o f k eep in g th e centre o f gravity o f th e com bined strength o f th e b eam s o f
th e roof. In th e sam e w ay for th e characteristically-form ed supports, w hich
constitute th e entablature, or form th e extraordinary projections of som e
considerable size th at o n e rem arks on m ost Jap an ese te m p le s; th e y are
form ed o f little beam s from 10 to 12 inches lon g, w ith b en t en d s w h ich are
laid togeth er and bound one to another, h a v in g regular sp aces le ft b etw een
each : from a distance on e m igh t com pare them to th e m esh es in a net.
E v id e n tly th e se supports also originated in th e danger
o f earthquake, and th ey answ er th e problem o f ela s
#> '__
ticity, ligh tn ess, and solidity, o f w hich it w as n ecessary
to find a solution. N o th in g
can b e m ore in g en io u s and
typical.
 In the train o f th ese natural and w eighty
reasons w hich h a v e ruled the principles o f
Japanese architecture, com e religious influ
ences ; b u t in this case there is no
question of construction or depend
ence on clim ate. Style, ornament, and
decoration have to be considered in connection with th e
particular in tellect of the people, its prim itive beliefs in a
word, all th at w hich connects itself w ith its intellectual and
moral d ev elo p m en t to th e vicissitudes in its history, to the
influence exercised on it by other races. It is a question
o f determ ining in w hat m easure it has departed from its
original sources, and to w hat ex ten t it has had recourse to
borrowing. B ut such a study is surrounded with difficulties
so far as regards Japan, for although it has been o f late
years th e ob ject o f learn ed research, much is still hidden in obscurity. A ll
that o n e can sa y in a gen eral w ay is, that the architecture o f Japan is th e
exp ression o f a com plicated T h eo g o n y , increased by m yths m ore or less varied,
w hich h ave furnished nearly all its m otives o f decoration, and that it corres
ponds to tw o distinct cults Shintoism or th e national religion, and Buddhism ,
im ported from India about th e seven th century o f our era. T h e Shintoist
tem ples and m onum ents p resen t m arked differences from th ose o f the Budd
hists : th e y are m ore sim ple, and o f a more unaffected simplicity, and can be
recogn ised b y their v ery singular details o f construction. A feature w hich
characterises th e architecture o f th e nations o f the extrem e E ast is, that it
seem s d erived from th e conception o f a ten t w ith its corners raised up and
p ointed at its sum m it ; b u t w hereas in China th e original form o f this tent
sprang from a cloth throw n over a central pole which it covered in a circle,
in Japan, on th e contrary, it arose from a cloth thrown o ver tw o poles tied
to g eth er in th e form o f a S t. A nd rew s Cross at their upper extrem ity.
S h in to ist architecture in order, no doubt, to preserve the tradition
o f this prim itive construction has left on the roof o f tem p les tw o beams
crossw ise, w hich are b y n o m eans essential to the structure, b u t are sim ply
th ere as th e remains o f a n cien t custom.
V IC T O R C H A M P IE R .

{To be continued in No. 4.)

 D E S C R IP T IO N OF PLATES.

The art of painting was represented in our former issues by several examples which allowed
us to compare the early manifestations of the popular school with the works which show its final
expansion. The illustrations in the present number will show some intermediate phases, giving"
us the productions of several painters who, each in his own particular style, is worthy of the name
of a master.

In Plate F B we find the work of a great genius of the eighteenth century. It has been left
to others to trace the solidity of bold outlines, or to endow their personages with a powerful
masculinity. Suzuki Haronobu has endowed his work with grace and poetical feeling. He is-
perhaps the only one of Japanese artists who has transcribed the innocent love of early youth-
Was it the desire to place these tender scenes in an appropriate frame which caused him to
take up this hitherto ignored subject ? The engravings of Haronobu are always full of harmony
and a sweetness of tone that one searches for in vain in the works of any other timewe dare-
to say, even in the works of any other country. This will not be found a very hazardous assertion
when a few specimens of his artthe least known of anyhave been published.
The subject which we give represents a girl who has just plucked two blossoms from a bush
at her feet. She has carefully folded round them a sheet of white paper, and destines them for
the object of her tenderest affections, whilst her hand prepares to trace the poem, or simple letter
perhaps, which will complete the charming message.

The Plate of "Women Shooting with Bows is a reproduction of an engraving after a

composition of Katsugawa Shunsho, founder of a school illustrated by many followers, of whom
each has, according to Japanese custom and as a sort of rallying sign, taken the name of
Katsugawa, added to his surname. The page we have before us is taken from a work in three
volumes, bearing a title which may be translated somewhat in this manner, A Mirror of the
Beauties of the Green House (1776).* This work was executed with the collaboration of
another artist of merit called Kitao Shigemasa, who has copied in a striking fashion the manner of
his colleague Shunsho. The Green House here represented must have been a pleasure-resort
enjoying a great notoriety with the youth of the period ; for each of the figures represented
in it has her name written at her side. The authors of the work show, in the many pages o f
which it is composed, a crowd of youthful beauties giving themselves up to their favourite
amusements, diverting themselves with games of skill, or improving their minds by the study of
painting or poetry. We will not dwell here on the strangeness of the associations of customs so
little serious with those of a refined, intellectual culture. We must recollect that we aie here

* It is often difficult to find a translation w hich w ill give the exact sense o f the names o f books, which are constantly m ost
elaborate.
carried back to the civilization of a far distant period, which developed itself upon laws very
different to our own.
From the technical point of view, the eye is especially attracted, in these three volumes, by
the pink tone which is the essential characteristic of the illustrations.

Plate brings us back to Hokusai. It is a page taken from his Man-gwa, that wonderful
series of fifteen volumes, which is not only the vade of every artisan, be he engraver,
lacquerer, designer, or decorator, but also offers a vast field of study to every one who is desirous
of knowing to what limits truth of attitude and expression of life and movement, united with
facility and vigour in the use of the brush, can be pushed in the reproduction of beings and
things. Observe on this leaf, which represents hardly the 400th part of the -work, all the
crowd of holiday-makers. How well represented is each grade of society by its own peculiar
characteristics, and how freely they seem to move, as if the artist had caught them in the midst
of their daily life !

Plate CB. Studies of flowers engraved after the sketches of Katawo Keisai Masayoshi,
who lived in the second half of the eighteenth century. This artist may be considered as the
precursor of Hokusai, who probably derived much from Masayoshis works, full of amusing sketches,
often drawn in outline only, and having the most comical aspect. Besides this, Masayoshi left
behind him a volume of landscapes, to which our most ardent Impressionists would gladly sign
their names ; also one of the most remarkable books on fishes ; and lastly, a series of studies of
flowers, from which we have borrowed our page which is published here.
The right of the composition is occupied by a branch of campanula ( Campanula gvandiflord),
in Japanese, Kikio, an autumn flowering variety with pale-coloured flowers, which grows in Japan,
China, and Siberia ; the other is a charming grouping of flower and grass. This grass, the
Eulalia Japonica, as yet little known in our gardens, is a great resource to the Japanese decorator
whenever it is necessary for him to lighten his design. A ll we have here is nothing more than
simple information, and a brief summing-up of facts ; but the characteristics and the essential
organs of the plant are rendered with a truth which shows a profound knowledge arising from a
real study of nature.

rlate E H puts us in the presence of a very old friend, for it is a great many years since the
Camellia Japonica (the Tsubachi in Japanese) was brought from its native land to be the
founder of a family in our climate. This sketch, borrowed from an unsigned series, bewitches us
by the solidity of its composition, no less than by the pleasant form in which it is shown to us.

Plate E D . A vase with cover in terra-cotta. This is a work which dates back hardly
twenty years, but still it shows that it has issued from a hand clever in the style of the good old
times, and with a feeling for the art of composition which is now lost. The power is shown by the
manufacture of an object of this importance without any mould. It is entirely the work of the
hand, which has fashioned, as if in wax, the decoration in high relief, as well as the sides themselves
 of the vase which form the foundation, and upon which the potter did not object to leaving thumb-
marks very plainly visible, doubtless with the intention of rendering some effect of light by this
particular method. A s for the composition, which seems to have originated without the least
effort, it has the great merit of perfect unitya principle the absence of which we are occasionally
obliged to regret in the models of our artists of the West The feet and the handle of the cover
of the vase make us forget that they are indispensable accessories by the place their ornamentation
holds in the general idea of the object.

Plate D J. Is this only the outcome of some lucky chance, or does it aim at a scientific
demonstration of the laws of mechanism, to which the lively inhabitant of the fish-pond owes
its wonderful suppleness ? Or again, has this work been inspired by a desire to wrestle with
a great technical difficulty ? There must have been something of all these in the mind of the
artist, for they all agree well with the Japanese temperament. It is, however, the charm of a
difficulty to surmount which must have predominated in this case ; for instead of choosing
wood or some equally tractable material, the artist has determined on ironthat is to say, on
the substance which both in appearance and in texture offers the greatest contrast to the soft
and slimy nature of a frog. And he taxes his ingenuity, making movable the different parts
of the body by means of articulations so cleverly arranged that they act in the most natural
manner possible.
In his reproduction of the object Mr. H. Gurard has chosen three different aspects ; he
might easily have chosen a hundred, all equally quaint. Take the animal by his little foot and
throw him in the air, he will infallibly fall into the helpless attitude of a poor little corpse ; put
him on his legs again and he looks ready to escape from you at one wild bound. The marks on
his back are copied by means of little silver nails, his movable eyes are imitated by gold
encrustation on the iron.
The specimen bears no signature ; but it is doubtless from the hand of one of the Miochins,
a family of celebrated artists who, during the course of five or six centuries, worked in iron in a
marvellous manner, making the gorgeous armour for all the warriors and princes of renown,
but not scorning sometimes to divert their genius by the manufacture of some such wondrous
object of fancy as this.*

Plates A F and CG. Two industrial designs, of which one (A F) represents fishes. It
is by no means a new thing to see the forms of animals used as elements of decoration in a
coloured paper or in stuffs ; but while it has always seemed necessary to submit them to some
alteration, to conventionalise or omamentalise them, so that even the Persians, those decorators
par excellence, themselves have not been able to avoid it, it has been reserved for the Japanese
to show the possibility of combining arabesques with all objects which attract the attention,
without changing their natural shapes.

* A t the South Kensington M useum, Lon don, there is a magnificent specimen of iron-work, executed in the sixteenth
century M iochin M uneharu. It is an eagle, life-size, with outstretched w ings, every feather of which is a separate piece
o f iron.
 To see these fishes twisting, turning and twining with a wonderful ease, one can with difficulty
persuade oneself that all these lines so naturally curved were drawn for practical utility.
In the design CG, where the clematis flower serves for a motive, one meets with the
application of a principle of the same nature. Recognising that the stems of this plant would
furnish an agreeable ornamental design, but fearing also that their rather slender clegancc would
not offer to the view a sufficiently solid effect, the ornament has been cut to pieces, so to speak,
and the necessary strength has been imparted by a series of narrow transversal lines. The result
of this is a most curious vibratory effectit appears as if the flowers and leaves were undulating
behind a transparent laminated screen.
Here we have, then, a design taken from a plant which, in spite of its almost diaphanous
lightness, sufficiently covers a surface without the help of any conventionalising nor of any
addition which could lessen the merit of its simplicity. Two slender duplicated stalks of bamboo-
are thrown upon the surface with the evident intention of breaking up the sameness of the mass
of parallel lines.

Plate E L Reproduction of a dress material in brocaded satin of the eighteenth century.

When we stated in the preceding paragraphs that the Japanese artist composes his designs by
utilising without the least modification all the elements that he encounters on his way, we were far
from pretending that he determines to banish the interpretations that his inventive genius suggests
to him ; at the same time, always drawing his inspirations from the creations of nature, he seems
continually to give himself up to the pleasure of throwing into confusion natural combinations in
order to put them together again according to his own ideas. No one more than he has made
use of this stratagem, and has carried it to its utmost limits. Nevertheless, the original idea is
always traceable ; but it is at times so hidden, that it wants the practised eye of a Japanese to
recognise it. This is not the case with the pattern of silk that we have before us, bccause the-
open flowers of the cherry, as well as the tender buds that accompany them, render it evident
that the dark curves that are displayed upon the ground are designed from the branches of
the tree, with the intention of breaking up the straight transverse lines, and also to obtain the
wavy character desired for the material.
Grar. . iinpr. per Gil l c ?
G rat. impr, p a r Gillot
 AF

Gtav. ini[ir. j.ar (.ili.LO

Gra?. itrtpr. par G illq
 JA P A N E S E
A R C H IT E C T U R E .
(iConclusion.)

W h a tev er m ay b e th e dis
tinctions which exist between, th e
architecture of Shintoist and
B uddhist tem ples, there is one

31
 remarkable principle which is common to both
and which holds to the same idea
that the two religions arise
from the rle played by man in
nature. It is this which gives
them so individual an aspect.
While with us a building
is an organism having- in itself
its principle of unity, in Japan
an edifice is not considered as
an isolated thing completing
the harmony of the functions
for which it is designed. It is
the part of, and must blend
itself with, the landscape. With Temi',e ,jf 0
'-:,at Tokvu-
them, a temple is a succession of smaller buildings spread over a vast space,
usually on the side of a mountain, each portion dedicated to a virtue of the
god ofwhich it is in honour, and all within an enclosure. The forest
envelops it in its living foliageit lends to it the -wondrous concert of
its voice, either melancholy or loud with anger. It is this which
is the principle, the frame, the connecting-link of this architecture so
scattered in effect, but in reality submitted tolaws of com
position which a mystic conception inspires and orders. As for
the ornament which covers these templesas for this luxuriant
vegetation, this marvellous show of blooms which covers the
columns and the foundations, which runs over the walls and
up to the very roofthis decoration which makes a crowd of
curious gods to grin from the capitols or the ceilings, strange in
aspect, which fills the edifice from top to bottom with a winged
world of chimeras, birds, dragonsas for these painted
walls where bronze harmonizes with wood that time has
toned so exquisitelywe must forego describing their
wondrous beauty.
What also strikes us is the elegance of the propor
tions, the great perfection of detailthe walls of
lacquers encrusted with precious metals, the carved
panels, the finish of which bears witness to a

Gidiyo-Assadi, Mistress of Tai'rano-Kiyomari. From

a Novel illustrated by Hokusai.
 surprising ingenuity. What escapes us is the
symbolical meaning of all this grandeur, the
signification of this exterior merit which only
speaks to our eyes, and to understand which
thoroughly one must be a Japanese.
For everything is symbolical in Japan. B a y a n d F o rtre ss o f A w a ii, S eiran.

Symbols, those porticoes which are called toriis! and which the Shintoists
place close to their temples, and visible from a long distance like the Grecian
propyla. It is a roost, as the word indicates, and its two bent beams are
made in order that the sun, the king of nature, may come like a bird to perch
theie. Symbols also those beams which surmount all Buddhist temples, and
whose rings or added roofs, in number five, seven, or nine (gorin, kurin, &c.),
answer to religious attributes. The flowers painted on the pillars are also
symbols, for they all have a meaning to the Japanese imagination ;
as also have the animals so constantly repeatedcranes, tortoises,
emblems of longevity and happiness ; foxes, elephants, and fish,
which latter recall to the people their origin from fishermen. Even
the dragons, which are the crest of the Mikado, and are found on
all objects for his use, are symbols. Without wishing to still further
dilate on the symbolism of Japanese architecturewhich is by no
means the least curious of its characteristics, and a theme upon
By Qutamftro.
which Mr. Dresser* has so well writtenI shall limit myself by
drawing the attention of my reader to one of the most interesting albums by the
well-known Hokusai,I in which the Japanese humorist, amusing himself by
tracing the origin and laws of religious conceptions whence arise the principal
ornaments employed in his country, arrives at giving this formula of one of the
commonest forms of construction, namely, the Portico, whose massive roof is, in
a curve, beautiful as it is graceful. Hokusai explains that this form arises from
the following idea. The sun, represented by a large circle on a horizontal line,
is supported on its right and left by four smaller circles representing the four
seasons ; from the top of the sun there come concentric lines which join by
geometrical combinations to the smaller circles of the seasons ; and it is these
lines so arrived at which furnish the graceful curve of the portico in question.
Has this explanation any historical value, or is it only ingenious and poetical ?
At any rate, it is enough that it should come from a Japanese artist who does
* C . D resser : J a p a n , its Architecture, A r t, and A r t Manufactures, 1SS2.
t S m JHinagata.
 tmv#v\ not t0 that extent his indications of
a nature> in or<ier to prove how
'^ strong is the conviction in Japan
that architectural forms come more
or less from hazy recollections
of some ancient symbolism.
^ ut *n a^ ^ s w e h a ve
only spoken of reli-
Jbfa ' gious buildings ; I
scarcely dare to speak
A llegorical p e rso n ag e b y O k a m u ra M a se n o b u (1700). of civil architecture,
it being hardly represented in Japan except by the tiny houses no more than
summer-houses, looking like miniature villas hidden in the verdure of the
gardens, and of which one can form a fairly exact idea when looking at
kakmonos or lacquered trays representing everyday life. It is true that
now we begin to find a town or two with buildings in the European style.
The street called Ghinza at Tokio, for instance, has some resemblance to any
large French country-town, with heavy buildings of several storeys high, with
shops and windows like those in ParisGrecian columns here completing
their tour round the world, and making no pleasant addi
tion to the local colour. The Japanese, in spite of the
edicts which force them when they are functionaries to dress
up in our clothes, in our scanty jackets and high-crowned
hats, are faithful to their tiny houses, where they feel safe
in an earthquakewhere they sleep secure under the wooden
roofs, dried by the suns of a hundred years, and which
vibrate to noise like some violin or the stretched skin of
a tam-tam. To describe truthfully the appearance of these
strange housesdivided into movable compartments by means
of paper screens which can .be taken down at will like
childrens toys, and where a European, hardly dares to move
for fear of doing some damage, so fragile do they seem
one should be able to show briefly the most typical pecu
liarities of Japanese life. It is colour that gives life to things;
and how can one depict a habitation if one does not
show its ordinary inhabitantstheir costumes, manners, and
furnituretheir mode of eating and sleeping ? N othing is

A Jufeler. Fiom volume x. of

Hokusai'* -".
 m ore characteristic than th ese hou ses nothing could more
exactly exp ress th e manners of th e Japanese that people
so active and lively, so eager and sedulous, loving little
delicacies and roguish affectations. T hey are in their
elem en t there, w ith th e surroundings m ade for them agree
in g w ith their desires, which are at once very sim ple and
refined ; it is according to their taste for trees, flowers, light,
and all th e objects o f nature a nature rather curtailed,
conventionalized, and seen through a microscope. A s for
th e exterior aspect, it is very much th e sam e in the town
a s in th e country a house one storey high, plastered out
side w ith a m ixture o f clay and cut straw, and over this a sort o f stucco m ade o f
crushed sh ells ; th e garden, which forms a frame to it and w here the grass
hopper m ak es incessant concert, loud and strong, both by night and day ; this
garden is a prodigy o f tiny and childish devices, but charming nevertheless,
with its lilliputian rivers, and its trees stunted by naturewith
its dw arf cedars, no higher than a cabbage, and which take
the attitu d e o f w eary
gian ts w ith its to y rocks
w hich form th e shelter
for tortoises w ith its
w ells surrounded by
bamboo plants, fam ilies
o f gold-fish circling in
the clear w ater. W h en
the w ea th er is suffi
ciently warm tw en ty or
thirty w ood en frames
are p u sh ed a sid e in their
grooves, and th e house
is open on all sid es ; the
fresh faces o f th e charm
ing mous'ms appear on
the balcon ies ; and the
passer-by w h o is o f a
curious turn of mind
m ay lo o k on th e familiar

FUiing Boats leaving the Bay of Osaka,/by Keissa Yeissen (183s)-

scenes which take place in daily life. In the evening at about five
oclock, the time for bathing, one sees women and children quietly
going through their regular toilet. Let us penetrate into the
interior of the housea sight is awaiting us there which will
certainly surprise many of us, who think that a Japanese drawing
room is full of an accumulation of curios, bronzes and lacquer,
gold embroideries and many-coloured satins. The first impression, Ghost. From Hokusai's-
M a n -g w a t .
on the contrary, that strikes one on entering the rooms on the y o I.

ground floor, that they are almost entirely bare, and most scrupulously clean ;
their artistic objects are not displayed upon the walls, but are kept, carefully
labled, in a sort of mysterious apartment, whence they are only brought on
rare occasions in honour of some distinguised- visitor ; everything seems fresh
and new, as if untouched by human hands ; nothing but mats of an un
spotted whiteness, and yellow or white wood, kept also perfectly clean by
constant washing with soap ; perhaps two or three little screens placed here
and there. Now and then, in the rooms of the rich, a small bracket on the
wall opposite the entrance is seen, and which is called the tokonoba ; often
also a kakmono is hung here, before which is a beautifully-decorated stand
on which rests a grotesque figure of ancient bronze, or perhaps a jar full of
flowers most tastefully arranged.
The woodwork has neither paint nor varnish, but it is chosen with the
greatest care, and it displays carpenters work which is unequalled by any
nation in the world. The pillars which support the woodwork are varied
in the most fantastic mannersome are of a geometrical form, perfect in pre
ciseness ; others are artificially bent like the trunks of ancient
trees. The walls are formed of sliding frames covered with
white paper, which can be entirely removed by pushing them
aside in their grooves, so that it is possible to have a separate
room in a few moments. If we climb up the wooden staircase,
which is like a ladder creaking under ones unshod feetfor in
Japanese houses one leaves ones getas at the doorleading to
the first and only storey, one finds the same simplicity, the same
bareness : mats and unpainted wood, no furniture, no visible orna
ments. One of the four walls of the room may not be made in paper,
and not movable ; in it, behind some painted panelsalso of
paper, but decorated with a design or a sketch in indian-inkis
a wardrobe beautifully constructed for holding clothes. There
 is no bed : the Japanese sleep on the mats without taking off their
clothes, wrapped, up in a quilted coverlet, the neck supported by, or
rather fitted into, the hollow in a little mahogany roller, in order to
prevent the wondrous head-dress of the Japanese lady being
disarranged. There are no tablesthey eat off the tatamis ; no
, seatsthey squat on the ground. But we must remark this con
trast ; in the midst of this absence of comfort, of this voluntary
bareness, and this elegance of emptiness, luxury existsa luxury
of refinement of the smallest details, and a luxury of incredible
affectation. In this way: the wood of the beams, the framing
of the panels is in natural wood, looking as if it had just
come from the carpenters plane ; but the nails that fasten it are
hidden under bronze shields of the most exquisite workmanship.
The movable partitions, instead of being furnished with handles
such as we should have put, are pierced by small oval holes
having the shape of the end of our fingers, and are designed for
us to pull them by this means ; and these little holes have bronze
decorations, which we remark, on close examination, are
wonderfully engravedon this a lady fanning herself, on
that a blossoming cherry-branch.
Engraving from an old Enve
lope for a letter.
This is Japanese all over : to pay the greatest attention
to a miniature work, and to conceal it in an aperture made
for insertion of the fingers, which appears only a flaw in the wood of a
large frameall this patient work on a hardly visible accessory, in order
to force an exclamation of surprise or to produce an unlooked-for effect.
If this is not characteristic, it is at any rate a striking example of the work
by which we have become acquainted with this ingenious people, and by
which we must learn to understand its architecture and the decoration of
its homes.
VICTOR CHAMPIER.
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

^ T he Plate FP bears the signature of Tori-i Kiyomitsu, one of the most popular of the
painters of the -i group (1750). In our last number, in a notice of the Katsukawas, we
gave a specimen of costume, and showed how an artist who inaugurated a new and personal
style, perpetuated Ins fame by founding a dynasty in which all his descendants adopted his
patronymic. T here is probably no family of this nature which, within the space of a century,
has had so numerous a following as th at of the Tori-i, the founder of which, Tori-i Kiyonobu,
invented 111 1695 printing in colours ; it m ay be added that there is no school which is so
easily recognisable by its uniformity of treatm ent and style. U ntil 1770, the Tori-i devoted
themselves alm ost without exception to the glorification of the theatre and the portraiture of
contemporary actors, but many of them showed a personality and an individuality; thus, for
instance, K iyom itsu abandoned the vi'olent dramatic mannerism and gesture in which his pre
decessors had always thought fit to clothe their personages, and endued his with a soft harmony
of line and a calm and placid countenance. H e also showed a marked preference for actors
who undertook female parts.*
T he Figure in the Plate F F is an actor, the celebrated Tomdjuro Nakamura, in the part
of the charming Kashi, of whom it is said that she is as fair the day, as she walks
beneath the shade of her nun s hat, which extends over her a radiation of flower-stems, and which
in its covering has a whiteness which equals the fresh-fallen snow on the summit of Mount Fuji.

Landscape. From H okusais Thirty-six Views of Fujiyama, f 1820. Many Japanese artists
find it impossible to delineate any landscape without inserting somewhere or another in it the
classical cone o f Fuji. Probably from the earliest moment, when the Japanese attem pted to
draw upon paper or silk the picturesque details of his country, Fujis imposing mass exercised
a magnetic influence upon him. None appear to have been able to free themselves from this
fascination, which can only be properly understood by those who have been privileged with
the opportunity of personally experiencing it. Comparable in its majesty to the ancient
sovereigns of the land, the offspring of the sun, enthroned in solemn isolation, Fuji rears itself
alone, and exercises supremacy over the vast provinces which lie at its feet ; like the
Mikados too, who hide their august faces from vulgar view behind a transparent veil, the
sacred mountain usually envelops its crest in a curtain of clouds. But on lovely autumnal
evenings its outline silhouettes itself in gorgeous splendour, and through a prismatic atmosphere,
appears in flaming colours, or detaches itself, a magnificent mass from the opalescent depths
of the heavens.
I t required th e audacity o f a Hokusai to create a work in which these numberless visions
should be perpetuated in a m anner and with a strength o f execution worthy of their splendour.

* In Japan, all the parts are filled by men, who imitate in a wonderful manner feminine gestures and voice. The only excep
tion to this rule is when a theatrical company consists exclusively ol girls, who then undertake in a similar way the rle of either sex.
t Fujiyama, a volcano which has been inactive since 1707, is the highest mountain in Japan ; its height is 12,450 feet. The
word yama signifies mountain.
In this volume under notice he has denoted each and all, whether it be the mountain as it
appears like an enormous mass close at hand, or rising up on the furthest horizon, as if seen
through a reversed telescope,, almost indistinguishable in the vast panorama.
T he view before us is taken from a promontory or an island height which has had to be
scaled in order to discover the snowy peak of the celebrated mountain. A t the spectator s feet
extends the tranquil surface of Lake Sowa (province of Shinano), framed in verdant hills, which
shelter at their base fishing viliages half buried in trees. To the left a castlc, erected on a
narrow spit of land, encroaches on the waters domain. I t is worthy of remark th a t the painter
has cleverly contrived to place us somewhat to the rear of the extrem ity of the eminence, whence
the view unfolds itself. By this ingenious artifice the eye is first struck by the im portant mass
in the foreground, with the result th at the rest of the picture is thrown back and all the distances
are accentuated.

Plate BG. Street Scene on New Years Day, taken from Hokusais S-giua. (1820). AU
sorts and conditions of men wade through a slush of melting snow. H ere is the elegant
samurai, carefully wrapped up, and there a young girl of prepossessing appearance, each on
th eir way to pay a ceremonial call, whilst porters hurry about, hidden under their enormous
round hats. But the most characteristic of the figures are the two manzai who stru t along in
th e foreground of the picture. These two inseparables pass, according to ancient custom,
during the first months of the year, from house to house, giving their well-known performance.
W elcomed everywhere with their jests and buffooneries, they accept with the same good grace
a -load of presents at the nobles castle and the copper cash offered by the inhabitant of the
lowly cottage.
T he personage of im portant mien who walks in front is the dancer, ready to display his
serio-comical poses or his full and measured gestures, whilst the fat, good-natured soul which
follows him will frisk around, to the sound of his hour-glass-shaped tambourine which he has
for the moment placed on his back under the protection of a cloth.

T he Plate GE contains two studies of the Convolvulus Ipomna (Jap. Assagud), taken from
a treatise in three volumes (dated 1813), which are devoted entirely to the different varieties
of this plant. I t enjoys, in common with the cherry-fiower and the chrysanthemum, the distinction
of having publications concerning it specially illustrated by artists of renown. In th e -work
now under review more than a hundred varieties are depicted, as being noticcable either for
the difference of their flowers or foliage. For this genus affects the most varied forms and
colours ; the former are long, short, or twisted, its edges are smooth or jagged in a variety
of ways, its colour is sometimes of a uniform green or bronze, at others speckled with yellow
or spotted with white, like one of those which is depicted here. W hat is most interesting is
th at in all these drawings there is a total absence of th at dryness which is inherent in all our
botanic treatises. The engraving and its printing are both artistic, and the tones alm ost as
harmonious as in Nature. Every part of the plant is modelled to perfection, and is redolent
o f suppleness and grace. In order to avoid the semblance of monotony, many of th e works to
which we refer represent in succession a cutting and the entire plant ; in other cases th e stem
is placed in a bronze vase or a porcelain jardinire, and these again take interesting and
unexpected forms. And lastly, invention holds its own beside the most scrupulous fidelity to
N ature both in drawing and in observation. So great is the determination to invest'with interest
a subject which always runs the risk of being monotonous.

. Plate BJ. Bronze duck on a lotus leaf (eighteenth century). A rtist unknown. A practical
opening in the back of the bird allows of the introduction of the as.h-tray upon which the
incense or the odoriferous wood is lighted, and whence the perfume passes through holes in
the lid formed by raising of the feathers. The sculptor, in creating this object, endeavoured
to transform his inanimate mass into a living and moving being. H e restrained himself, from
being led into the puerile idea of endowing his work with even a particle of that conventional-
grace which is termed prettiness. H e determined to perpetuate in all its heaviness the
awkward attitude and shambling gait which characterise this humble denizen of the poultry-
yard. T he modelling of the head and breast is remarkably powerful.

Plate Cl. This seventeenth-century bronze vase of dark patina has less of Japanese
character than any subject which we have hitherto illustrated. Its form did not originate in
Nature, nor was its conception a sudden impulse derived from a simple and thoughtless line.
One a t once recognises the Chinese influence in its severity, its archaicness and its architectural
character. In this instance a finikin grace gives way to solidity, and elegance to a robustness
of contour, united w7ith g re a t firmness in the details of the ornamentation. The contrast will
be great when a fragile, transitory flower takes its place in this vase above the sombre note
of venerable bronze, the emblem of indestructibility.

In the illustration CH we at once return to thorough Japanese Art. The subject which
occupies the upper portion is of porcelain lightly celadonised, and comesfroma factory which
belonged; at the end of the last century, to the Prince of Nabshima, Daimio of the Province
of Hizen. This little utensil is a water-jar (midzu-ir), serving the purpose of wetting the
stone upon which the Chinese ink is rubbed for writing or painting. It represents a folded
lotus leaf, upon which a frog vainly attem pts to disengage himself from the grasp of a small
crab which has seized him by the foot. The stem of the leaf affords a commodious handle
whereby the w ater with which it has been filled (by plunging into a vessel of larger dimensions)
can be poured out upon the stone. A minute hole is always left on the upper part of objects
of this kind so as to allow of the pressure necessary for the flow of the water and the escape
of the air whilst the article is being filled. The lower piece is modelled in terra-cotta, of a
grey tone, and was probably made at Tokyo within the last half century. It is an okimono,
that is to say, a thing to be placed, or 11ornament, which serves no useful purpose. The
artist has delighted in reproducing this familiar picture of a group of cats, in which all the
intensity of the most touching m aternal love is revealed. Compare the disquietude and watch
fulness depicted in the attitude and look of the mother at the approach of astranger, and the
trustful serenity of her two children.

Plate GA. Fragm ent of woven silk. The idea of this composition most certainly originated
in a mind which had carefully contemplated the stirring life which on a hot summer s day
reigns over a piece of still water carpeted with a mossy bottom. Butterflies and dragon-flies
indulge in their frolics, and in grazing the waters surface trace upon it, in a thousand tangled
streaks, th e gyratory movements of their giddy evolutions. The many kinds of Lem na (Jap.
Oukikousa), a plant indigenous to the marshes, have scattered their gay red seedlings, whilst
m ixed with these may be seen the delicate fronds of the water Ranunculus.
W e may add in connection with this, th at although it may occasionally happen th a t the
exact significance of a detail may not be apparent, or a mistake be made in its interpretation,
we must never doubt that a logical meaning, apparent or hidden, most certainly attaches to even
the most insignificant pa'rts of a Japanese composition, if they be purely ornam ental, the only
exception being in the case of certain geometric designs which serve habitually th e purpose o f a
foundation only. __ ____________________

The Plate CE shows an example of this exception in the central frieze, whilst in th e arrange
ment at the lower portion- of the page the arabesque pattern serves as a basis for a design of
running w ater which carries with it sprays of the cherry in full bloom. The upper design consists
o f a flight of a thousand small birds, which are drawn this, that, and every way.

The Plate DD confronts us with a much more striking composition ; the plant of th e cala
bash gourd (Sagena vulgaris ; Jap. Hiotan), letting its serpentine tendrils laden w ith flowers and
fruits wander hither and thither, apparently without any restraint, over a chequered ground, which
originated probably in an idea taken from the walls formed of large stones which sometimes
surround the Daimios properties. The Hiotan, which is much cultivated in China, and in India
whence it originated, holds an important place in the domestic life o f the Japanese. Its skin used
as a bottle is the faithful travelling companion of the pilgrims, of whom a large num ber are to
be seen everywherevisiting places oftentimes as much for their beauty of situation as for the
purpose of offering up devotions at the feet of their tutelary deity ; it also, when suspended against
th e walls, serves as the most popular of flower vases ; as such it is at times used in its natural
state, at others decorated with a rich ornamentation of lacquer, im itating the leafed tendrils of
th e plant. The gourd has also afforded numberless varieties of models to the bronzists, ceramists,
an d basket-makers.
Gray. impr. par Giu o t
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 JEWELLERY.

In approaching the A rt of Japan, it is

not my intention to touch upon its origin
or its marvels, or to ascertain the laws
upon which it is founded. A goldsmith
 myself, I shall confine myself to a short dissertation on
the A rt of that craft as practised in Japan.
Japan, correctly speaking, has neither the art of the
goldsmith nor of the jeweller. T h e males do not, like the
Indians, deck themselves out in jewellery, nor do the females
wear collars or bracelets ; no vessels of silver are found upon
their tables, nor vases of gold upon their altars. Prom this
it will be seen that no comparison can be formed between
them and us in this respect, and it would be puerile to attempt to assign
a preference to the work of either. Originated for dissimilar wants,
governed by other laws, this branch of A rt followed, in Japan, traditions
of sodifferent a nature that it is impossible to compare either the form,
the decoration, or the style with anything Western.
This,notwithstanding, it is impossible not to admire in Japanese
jewellery, or rather in the products of the worker in metals, a taste in
the arrangement, a science in colouring, and a manual dexterity.
T h e forms are not derived, as in ours of the old world, from an
architectural fount ; if vases occasionally appear to be constructed on
certain definite rules, they then most certainly have a Chinese or Corean
origin.T he Japanese model is always supple; inspired by a flower, a
fruit, something in nature, it has never adapted itself to rule or to
measurement by the compass, but remains free, picturesque, and
daring.
T h e love of gold or silver, the desire
to impart to an object richness
and magnificence, has
never bound the workman
to the exclusive use of
those two metals. To
him they are merely two
colours upon his palette,
upon which he has also ranged
iron, copper, lead, pewter, and
brass, and these he uses like a
painter, mixing and combining
his tints, and varying his effects
through the use of alloys in

iJaimirjs Sou out walking, by Kij*onaga.

 a way we have never yet dared
to do.
Thus, then, we see this workman
artist under no obligation to confine
his efforts to hammering

out a silver ., vol. v.
flagon, or shaping a gold ring, but free to model
to his liking his mass of metal, and to paint it in all the colours
which that metal offers to him. H e constructs his model in wax ; it is
perchance a rugged trunk of a tree which two hundred years of growth
and wear have delved into deep furrows, whose powerful roots grip the
ground, which has deep cavities burrowed by generationsof insects, which
is overgrown with moss or other parasites, someold, some of infantine
freshness. A ll this our artist copies with the patient care of a workman
to whom time is of no value. H e installs himself in the
depths of the forest before his model ; he studies it as a
botanist, he gets to understand, love, and admire it.
) He changes nothing, arranges nothing or rather
disarranges nothing of what he considers that nature
has set out so well, and then, when his wax model
is complete to his satisfaction, he coats it with a fine earth ;
this he overlays in small pieces, and allows to dry, adding
From Hokusais M m i-gw a, vol. xii. to it wherever necessary, until he has made of it a mould
which covers his model with a solid envelopment. H e then heats the whole
at a small fire in a specially constructed oven; the wax melts and runs out.
of the air holes, and the mould remains entire,with its previously con
structed core of earth.
Then our artist makes his alloy of shakudo, which is a mixture of
copper and gold ; this will subsequently take a patina of intense black, and
of a transparent polish-; the metal is poured into the cavity of the mould,
and fills it in every part ; the earthen envelope is then broken, and the
rugged tree trunk appears in all its metallic beauty.
Our artist now sets to work again, squatting on the
ground before his tree model which sits so quietly to
him ; shaded by a big parasol, his legs bent under him,
he holds the block of bronze between his knees. And
now watch him whilst he chisels, files, polishes, returns
ao-ain
and a^ain
to the smallest details of his work,

From Hokusais -gna, vol. i.

 and when he has finished it, watch him as he
caresses it and rejoices that he has discovered
so many beauties, and has been, aroused to so
much enthusiasm. But even then his task is in
complete ; when he considers that his bronze cast
is finished, then he commences to cover it with moss
and verdure, or he furrows up with deep lines the fibres IT
of a ro ot; this he encrusts either in small planes. 01* in \ \ \
delicate veins with pieces of shinshm (yellow copper), K h*
ski do (violet copper), or shibuichi (an alloy of six parts 1 \v R
of copper and four of silver) ; then he hollows out the
contours of the leaves, and carves out small veneers of
, . i ' l l Mi 1
green gold which he will mlay, 1hammer, and1 1chisel,
- 1 From vt' ' Hokusai's M a n

until the whole grows like a picture under an- artists brush, and his
sculpture appears, to a near-sighted person, painted with the fineness of a
miniature, and with the delicacy of flesh. Here we see a whole tribe of
ants issuing from a hole in the tree ; their bodies are of gold or iron, their
legs of extreme tenuity; endowed with life, they bustle and hurry about their
accustomed duties. A golden, enamelled butterfly, whose delicate wings of
mother-of-pearl give out reflections as deep and changeable as those of the
original, has posed itself upon a white flower of silver, variegated with threads
o f gold and blue enamel. A curious red spot is visible at the base of the
tree ; it is a fungus, striped and spotted, admirable in its modelling ; the
patient artist has filed and polished it, and then subjected it to, several
coatings of red lac, each of which have had to be carefully and slowly dried,
repolished, recoated, pricked oyer with gold dust. And now only (after having
gone over all his work a hundred times, which never to his mind will
compare with the original, after having clothed it with a coating of
adherent silver-leaf, which is itself a mass of admirable design in nillo-work,
after having baked it in sulphur, polished it with the finest powder,
tempered it in a vinegar formed from plums, fired it -with infinite precau
tions, exposing this part, protecting that, after a thousand caresses, and a
thousand retouches) does the artist place his signature upon it,
satisfied with his work; then he encloses it first in a covering of
embroidered silk which fits it like a garment, and then in a casing
of deftly-joined wood. And now at last w'e see the completed
work, the product of many months of assiduous, impassioned.

H okusais Man-gwa..
 } I h a p p y toil, p assed in co m m u n io n w ith a n o u t-o f-th e-
|) w ay co rn er' o f n a tu re , w ith its im ag in a tiv e d rea m in g s,
jj its e n c h a n tin g life, its d e lig h ts for th e m a n a t o n c e a
f sculptor* p a in ter, a n d m echanic.
^ C an th is b e te rm e d a piece o f je w e lle ry ? W h o is th e
m an w h o will identify h im se lf h e re w ith sim ilar m o d els a n d
w o rk ? I h a v e d w e lt a t so m e le n g th upon th is p a tie n t,
d e te rm in e d , capable, p o e t o f th e tool, in his
From Hokke'fs Man-gvja. o p e n -a ir stu d io . F o rw h y ? B ecau se it is
a p ic tu re o f th e w o rk m a n o f old, as h e o n ce liv e d a n d
w o rk e d . W e c an n o t, u n fo rtu n a te ly , now com e acro ss his
fellow s, for th e y d o n o t ex ist. Ja p a n , in its p ro cess o f
civilizing itself, h a s c e ase d to p ro d u c e a n y th in g e x c e p t th e
articles re q u ire d fo r e x p o rta tio n to W e s te rn b azaars.
F o rtu n a te ly , h o w ev er, th is g r e a t a rtist o f th e p a s t h as left
tra d itio n s, sle ig h t-o f-h a n d se c re ts o f th e craft, re c e ip ts for
alloys, m e th o d s of c re a tin g p a tin a s and of d eco ratio n
w h ich a re still in vogue in th e w o rk sh o p s of K yoto,
O sa k a , T o k y o , a n d N a g o y a .
I t is fo rtu n a te th a t as n o w ad ay s th e se c re t is lo st of
cre a tin g a s w o rd -g u a rd sim ilar to th o se by th e s e ren o w n e d
artists, th e re still re m a in s to us th e o rig in als o f th o se
pow erful and c h a rm in g pro d u ctio n s, w h e re th e iro n is
p ierced , incised, c a rv e d out, to rtu re d in to th e form o f
m o n sters, in te rla c e d in to th e sh a p e o f b ird s, insects, or
flowers, o r m o d e lle d in to a lan d scap e fo rm in g a p ic tu re
no b ig g e r th a n a ch ild s h a n d b u t c o n tain in g w ith in itse lf a c o m p le te p o e m .
N o t o nly is th e w h o le co m p letely m o d elled , b u t a d a m a sc e n in g o f fine
g o ld o v erru n s it, d ra w in g th e o u tlines o f fe a th e r o r scale, a n d s tre a k in g w ith
its colours o f w arm o r cool g o ld o r silver, th e ru g g e d iron basis. P e rc h a n c e
a le a f en c ru ste d w ith g re e n o r re d a ttra c ts w ith th e colo u rin g o f a n e m e ra ld
o r ru b y .
A n d all th is o rn a m e n ta tio n w as n o t la v ish e d o n ly on th e sw o rd -g u a rd .
E v e n in th e in terla c in g s o f th e cord u p o n th e h ilt w e re
to b e found th e m em tk i, m a d e o f th e sa m e m e ta l as th e
re s t o f th e fu rn itu re ; th e s e w o u ld re p re s e n t e ith e r so m e
e x tra o rd in a ry an im als, o r a g od, o r p e rc h a n c e a sin g in g .
 w o m an , w ith h e r m usical in stru m e n t, h e r ro b e all e n c ru ste d
w ith silver, a n d h e r h a ir o f w o n d ro u s b la ck m etal, a n d all ch ase d
a n d c h iselled u n d e r th e magnifying- glass. T hen a g ain th e r e is th e
pom m el o f th e sw ord, a n d th e kodziika a n d kogai, all re p le te w ith
o rn a m e n ta tio n ! B u t it is need less to dw ell u p o n these, for p ro b a b ly th e
m a jo rity o f th o s e w h o re a d th e se lines k n o w o f o r p o ssess collectio n s o f
th e s e w o n d erfu l th in g s. A n d to all th e s e m u s t be a d d e d th e e n g ra v e d
pipes, th e kancmonos, o r pouch o rn am en ts, th e b u tto n s, and th e m e ta l
n e ts u k s w hich riv al th o se in w ood a n d ivory. B esides, th e e n g ra v in g s o f
th e s e th in g s, w h ich will from tim e to tim e a p p e a r in th e se p ag es, will tell
fa r m o re th a n a n y w ritte n d escrip tio n .
I t is now tw e n ty y e a rs since, filled w ith a d m ira tio n a t th e first specim ens
I saw o f an a r t w hich a p p e a re d to m e as a te m p tin g n o v e lty a n d a n
u n e x p la in e d p ro b lem , I w ished a t o nce to s e t off to J a p a n in o rd e r to
s tu d y on th e s p o t th is u n k n o w n in d u stry . I fo n d ly h o p e d to b e ab le to
c a rry th e n c e so m e of th e ir p a tie n t and ta le n te d w o rk m e n in o rd e r to
m ake th e m in s tru c to rs fo r our ow n. I n u rs e d th is w ise p ro je c t for
se v e ra l m o n th s, and d re a m t o f all th a t th e r e w as to be fo u n d in a
c o u n try w h ich h a d y ie ld e d us so little a s y e t. M y desire, h o w ev er, h a d
to c o n te n d a g a in s t a w ill. th a t w as stro n g e r th a n m y ow n. I d id n o t
go, a n d I h a v e e lse w h e re ex p la in e d h o w I c o n so led m y self b y b o rro w in g
from Japanese d e sig n s th e id ea o f cloisonne e n am e ls w hich I m ad e, an d
w h ich h a s since s p r e a d w idely. I f I h a d b ee n ab le to o bey th e in stin c t
w hich p ro m p te d m e, I sh o u ld h av e h o p e d to h a v e b e en th e A p o stle of
Ja p a n , its P ro p h e t, and a cap ab le tra n sla to r o f its A rt. K n o w in g w h a t
I d id th e n , I sh o u ld have b een th e first fo re ig n e r to ex am in e th e A r t a t
its fo u n ta in h ea d , w ith th e w o rk m a n in his p ristin e condition. I need not
s p e a k o f th e fo rtu n e w hich I feel su re I cou ld h a v e easily m a d e ; I o n ly
re g r e t th e loss of a jo u r n e y w hich w o u ld h a v e b een full o f a rtistic a n d
n o v e l in te re st.
S in c e th e n I h a v e sh o w n th e w ay to o th e rs ; I h a v e to ld a n d w ritte n
o f all th a t I h a v e see n , a n d w h a t th e y a n d I h a v e done. B u t im p elled by
th e n e ce ssitie s o f ra p id p ro d u ctio n , n e ith e r th e y n o r I h a v e a p p ro a c h e d th e
d is h e a rte n in g p e rfe c tio n o f th o se m a ste rs w ho a re acq u ain te d w ith e v e ry
m e ta llic alloy, w ho found, b e a t out, chisel, e n g rav e, encrust, d am ascen e,
en a m e l, la cq u er, p o lish , patinize, set, a n d c a rv e w ith a su b tle ty o f invention,
a ta s te fo r d e c o ra tio n , a v a rie ty o f m o tiv es, a h a rm o n y o f colours, a n d a
se n se o f form , a n d w h o are, in th e o pinion o f o u r profession, a rtis t w o rk m e n
w h o se p ro d u c tio n s in m e ta l a re sim p ly ad o rab le.
I b eliev e th a t it will b e w o rth w hile to ex am in e th e su b je c t y e t closer,
a n d th is I h o p e so o n to do in th e se colum ns from a p u re ly in d u s tria l a n d
sp ecial p o in t o f view .
L. F A L I Z E .
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

PART V.

W e have hitherto had some hesitation in presenting to the public certain productions of a
very special kind, because they deviated too decidedly from those hereditary forms ont of
which Eastern stheticsm is built up. A t the risk of being accused of a certain pusillanimity
we feared to fly in the face of preconceived ideas. However, come what may, we owe it to
our readers not to allow this omission in the survey of the different families of Japanese art
which we have undertaken to unfold to exist any longer. For it is especially due to those
whose natural taste is only moderately well disposed towards any liberty which is attempted
to be taken with well defined art precepts. Perhaps it may induce such to judge more
leniently those peculiarities of A rt which at present they are tempted to despise on account of
their extrem e novelty, and of a strangeness which is always disconcerting to well established
notions ; perhaps, too, they may assent to examine with greater toleration works which must
appeal to them on account of their evident sincerity. Who can tell, perhaps even they may
be lead to adm it th at certain doctrines, which to-day they term revolutionary, may have their
raison d'etre., nay, even a practical application elsewhere than at the other side of the world ?
However this may be, it will not do to prejudge the case before all the evidence has been
produced.

T he Plate G appears under the wing of the explanation ju st furnished. I t represents a

flight of tom tits (Zasterops Japonicci), and is taken from the Sui Ski Gwafu, a volume
published at Naniva (the ancient name for Osaka) in 1830. The work contains studies of
flowers, birds, &c., all remarkable for a simplicity of execution markedly defined, everything
being drawn in lines and dashes applied in bold, daring strokes of the brush, which reduce
everything to its most concise .form.
T he author of the work S u i Ski was a disciple of an impressionist school at K y5to,
whose programme was to show before aught else what were the essential characteristics of the
subject, to discover the most striking points, and to render these so clearly and legibly that
they should at once be communicated to others, and thus by a permissible license to push to a
point of exaggeration what there is to say, and to leave out altogether those parts which are
considered to be unnecessary for the demonstration, and which would in the opinion of the
artist only weaken the effect.5'
W e may, perhaps, grudge the absence of a thousand details, but the Japanese dilettanti
whose mind has been long accustomed to this method of workmanship is not so exacting , he
is aware that the artist "wished to present such and such a thing ' in such and such a
manner, and if he finds this done he is perfectly satisfied, nay more, it elicits from him
a greater sense of admiration than a minutely elaborate work would have done. In the
composition before us the artist explains the subject in the following legend : A flight
of tom tits leaving their nest with much fluttering of wings at daybreak.

T he Plate of Yoshivara by Utamaro is taken from the Seiro Nenjiu Gioji, published
in three volumes in 1803.
A similar scene, interpreted by Katsugawa Shunsho (Mirror of Beauties) was given in
our third part, to the descriptive text of which we would refer for an explanation of th e
subject. It appeared tc us that it would be interesting to compare these two similar
compositions treated at different dates, so that an estimate may be foimcd of the vaiicty
of style and a parallelism after a kind established.
Two things at once strike one in connection with feminine portraituie as pioduced by
the Japanese ; the first that, however much sameness, amounting often to monotony, one
artist imparts to his faces and figures, there is a vast difference in this respect in the types
assumed by different artists. Each of themwe are now of course speaking only of those
who have shown inventivenesscreated a type of his own with which he rested satisfied
and which he reproduced at will. The raison d'tre of this peculiarity lies in certain fashions
under the influence of which the painter was carried away, when he was not, as was often
times the case, the originator of them. It must be remembered th a t fashion did not
confine itself, as with other nations, to simply altering the mode of draping, or of doing
the hair. In this eccentric country, where so many other customs follow hieratic laws
which admit of no change, the fashion imposes itself, by a strange aberration, even upon
the physiognomy of womankind, and endeavours to model it upon the lines of w hatever con
ventional style of -beauty happens to be in vogue at the time. It sets to work to transform
artificially even the shape of the face and the form and dimensions of the lips or the eyes. In
certain cases the razor intervened, and the pencil stepped in to displace the eyebrows from their
natural position ; vermilion and even gold sometimes brought out by their brilliance certain
parts only of the mouth ; all the resources of cosmetics were pressed into the service,
and far from hiding these processes, the young coquettes ravelled in the effects of this
tbe.ir 'holiday adornment, ju st as much as they enjoyed on . high days putting on their
best dresses. If it was necessary, therefore, for painters with such restriction and limitation

, * T h is school was undoubtedly founded upon the work o f Korin , a celebrated lacquerist o f the I7 th -i8 th century,
w ho formulated these principles o f A rt (w h ich'w ere in complete harmony w ith Japanese temperament, but remained latent
for a long period) in the most m asterly manner.
to make great efforts to compass their ideal, they nevertheless had every facility for
exaggerating the system to its extremcst limits. One is not therefore surprised to perceive
in pictures of Japanese customs, great divergences of type, which are very different from
those to which one is habituated in real life even amongst different classes of the population.
Once these singular practices are admitted, one cannot but recognize that woman as
she has been imagined by Kitagawa Utamaro, is in every respect most scductive, and
that the model he has given to us is perhaps the one with the most affinity to the
aristocracy of the Japanese nation.
U tam aro is never common ; he displays a method which is always new and unexpected
in the grouping of his personages, which in themselves are full of life and movement, and he
shows great talent in the disposition of his accessories. Was it not, for instance, a happy audacity
to present, as he has done here, a number of figures seen through the bars of the open screen ?
T he building faces the street whose liveliness is pictured by the presence of a quantity of
passers-by whose upper portions only are shown. The man to the right hides his face so that
he may not be recogniscd whilst carrying on a conversation with the young girls ; he is quite
indifferent to the sallies of two mansai* who arc endeavouring to join a young elegant who
turns towards them.
T he whole volume is inspired by Utamaros characteristic elegance, which is accompanied
by admirable technical perfection.

T he Plate GJ, also by Utamaro, shows the talent of this artist under an entirely
different aspect.
I f he produced an immense majority of subjects where womankind plays the principal
part, as for instance in her varied attributions of lover, wife, or young mother, or in those
scenes filled with personages, as in the plate of Yoshivara, it was in order to meet the demand
which arose from every quartereven from China, if we are to believe contemporary
historians. We do not hesitate to affirm th at if we had been fortunate enough to be
a contemporary of U tam aro we should have been much less exclusive ; for some productions
of an entirely different character, and of which, unfortunately, examples are very rare, make
us regret profoundly the taste for specialities which then existed.. A work in two volumes
on birds, and two others of flowers, insects and reptiles, are real chefs d'uvre of their kind.
It is from the last named of these two works, the Ychon Mushiycrabi (book of insects)
which appeared in 1788 that the drawing of a pumpkin which we reproduce here is taken,
and which .gives but an incomplete idea of the quality of the book, which we shall hope
very shortly to endorse by other extracts. Our plate to-day shows, fastened to the stalk
of the plant, one of the numerous varieties of grasshopperthat musical vagabond of which
similar ones in myriads fill the air of the country with a terribly strident concert, pro
duced by the incessant friction of their attenuated legs.

* See Part 3.
 A lmost invariably, a short stanza accompanies the original engraving, and alm ost always
the imagination emphasises the outward form of the subject by a sentim ental note, of a
dream y or philosophic turn. L ittle laughing one, it says, do not let your song be heard
too freely everywhere, for there are walls which have ears.

' The Plate D E, taken from the first volume of the Man-gwa of Hokusai, transports us
into the very heart of stirring popular life. Hokusai was born in its midst, and there
passed the whole of his long and laborious existence. A plebeian by birth, it was in
painting the plebs th a t his power of observation gave itself the freest rein.
If we pass in review the numerous figures which, on this page initiate us into the daily
life of the masses of a Jap an e se . city, we find, commencing at the left panel, two diners,
of whom one is at work swallowing a lengthy thread of a species of macaroni, whilst his
neighbour to the right indulges in a beatific vision of his forthcoming ample ration of
sak* which he is warming at a stove and which will shortly moisten his repast. A fter
passing behind the back of a brave confectioner philosophically seated on the pavem ent of the
street, and offering for sale his small cream cakes, we encounter a group composed of a numerous
family, seated in a circle, and celebrating the funeral rites of a deceased friend. The
priest, in the centre, strikes with a hammer on a metal plate, which acts as a noisy
knell and forms an accompaniment to the monotonous chant in the refrain of which he is
assisted by the whole company, who meanwhile pass from hand to hand the beads of a huge
rosary. This concert would afford little pleasure to any but the ear o f a Japanese, bu t it is
given with the excellent intention of procuring for the deceased a moments gratification before
he is escorted to his last home, and also with the hope th at it will invoke for his soul
divine favours. F urther on two wrestlers, on either side o f the umpire, make their customary
salutation before commencing their bout, and an embroiderer is at work over his frame.
Then we have an assiduous reader lying in a sufficiently nonchalant attitude, beside a scene
which depicts the priest in the old legend seeing with surprise his kettle transform ed into
a badger.
The other half of the sheet is devoted principally to the em ployment of artisans,
boat-builders/ makers of blocks for wood-engravers, dressing or carving delicately the wood :
all are working in feverish haste. A t the lower portion of the sheet a peripatetic oil-
merchant is selling his ware, whilst a letter-carrier bears over his shoulder a yoke upon
which are suspended his tall quadrangular box and his lantern. T he series closes with a
type which is very common in Japan, namely, one of the blind men who for the most
part follow the occupation of rubbers, and who, either singly or in company, traverse the
street spite of all its obstruction with a confident gait. They always carry a whistle,
whose harsh sound, well-known to all the inhabitants, is a request to them to afford a
free passage.

* A spirit distilled from rice.

 These are only a very few of the numerous sketches with which the Man-gwa makes
us familiar, and it is all contained within the narrow confines of a .leaf which one would
imagine had been torn out of a pocket-book.

The Plate H J introduces us to another work of Hokusais, of which it forms one

page ; th at is the Santa Gzvafu, in one volume (1816), a collection of figures, plants and
animals. The idea of the work is somewhat dissimilar to that of the Man-gwa, for it is
framed upon a mere methodical classification of subjects. This sheet, for instance, shows us
studies of four different varieties of the Chinese Iris family, of which one is a specimen
of the Iris properly so called. T he execution of this plate is commendable for its large,
simple, and free treatm ent, which gives with perfect clearness the elegance of the plant.

The Plates DB, EB, and the sheet with the Blue Butterflies, offer specimens of in
dustrial designs. T he motive of the first is taken from the perpendicular 01* transverse
fibres of which the texture of wood is composed. The second shows a pattern
of alternating chrysanthemum flowers entangled amidst bamboo shoots, thrown upon a
shield of rose-shaped design, the idea of which may have been obtained from snow-flakes
as seen under the microscope. Lastly, the sheet with the butterflies is a complex com
position, undoubtedly inspired by the sight of a stream leaping over rocks on the side
of a flower-covered mountain slope.

Of the Plate H E little need be said. The three vases date from the eighteenth
century, and they are given here in continuation of the series of models which will serve
to illustrate the study of lines.

Plate IIC. Four sword guards. We have already sufficiently demonstrated the per
fection which the Japanese exhibit in the reproduction of natural objects with all the
accompanying conditions of life and movement. But this extreme conscientiousness applied
to the faithful im itation of things has oftentimes put persons on the wrong scent as t o .
the real disposition of an art which in reality has far higher aspirations ; for in that case,
in admiring the marvellous fidelity of the object and its correctness when compared with
nature itself, one fails to discover, or overlooks the fact that it is a composition which in
every particular is an emanation from the brain and the hand of an artist of talent.
The guard composed of mice, which will be found on the upper portion of Plate HC,
furnishes a conclusive proof of this hypothesis. One would at first sight see only that
each of these small rodents has been drawn to the life in all its varying attitudes at once
so sharp and supple. A nd yet it is impossible to gainsay the fact that invention reigns
supreme in this small piece, where the gift of observation has only been the handmaid
of an art which was perfected through a consummate talent for composition. The mice,
which gambol or curl themselves up in accordance with the refinements of the composition,
are each made of a different metal, so as to offer to the eye a variety of tones, and
to compose that key of colour upon which Mons. Falize has so ably discoursed in the chapter
at the commencement of this number. They are made of shakudo, gold, silver, shibuichi
and red bronze. Inlays of various metals add to the effect, give an accent of life to the
eyes and of relief to the fine hairs in their whiskers. The guard Dears no signature.
The guard which shows a chimera seated on a pedestal and appearing to support him
self on the central piece, as if it .were an heraldic shield, comes, according to the signature
upon it, from the hand of Umtada, the celebrated armourer of the sixteenth century. It is
decorated with encrustations of gold representing spots on the back of the beast, and
imitating wood veining on the pedestal which supports it.
The third guard, which illustrates a flight of chidori or sea-swallows, a bird veiy
common in Japan, is made of shibuichi, the eyes being of minute inlaid points of gold.
The work is remarkable for its suppleness and softness, resembling a wax cast ; and the
style is in imitation of th at which Korin created in the interpretation which he gave of
the forms of these birds. The compositions of Korin have now become so popular that
. many artists evidently think involuntarily of him in some of his favourite compositions.
Thus, for instance, many never draw these chidori except in this particular form, to which
the name of Korin no Chidori * has been applied. This piece is signed by Hirochika,
who was an artist of the eighteenth century.
The fourth guard consists of a tiger, whose tail is impressed into the service of
forming the circular band round the guard. A .branch of bamboo completes the compo
sition. The tiger is Buddhistic, and is often drawn crouching in a bamboo brake from the
typhoon, showing the powerlessness of the king of beasts to withstand its fury, and this
is evidently the motive here. The guard is of pierced iron encrusted with gold. It is
signed Ikkin, and the lettering states th at it is after a design of Masayoshi, an artist
of the early part of the nineteenth century.

* See the note on Korin, p. 52.

1K SSIN m u a - r i i i u n i - s s i m t s u r -. x i r s i c le ,
Grar. impr. par -Gillot
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D E
 A TRAVELLING WRITING-SET,
MADE BY ONE OF THE FORTY-SEVEN RONINS.

One winter afternoon, some years ago, I happened to pay M. Bing a

visit just as he was having a consignment of goods from Japan unpacked.
Among many small things already gathered together on a lacquer tray there
was a small portable writing-set, called in Japanese yatat (arrow-holder),
which consisted of a little case hardly larger than a stick of barley-sugar,
containing the badgers-hair brush for writing, and a tiny box in which is
enclosed a sort of sponge of rabbit's-hair soaked in indian-ink. These
quaint little objects, each made of two pieces of bamboo, had upon them
representations of children playing, drawn in black upon the yellowish drab
colour of the natural wood. There was nothing in any way unusual about
 the childish games, but somehow the little
set seemed to me to have the appearance of
an object of use in bygone times, and a long
inscription engraved on the box, and one of
those very undisguised mends seen in objects
of value in Japan, doubly confirmed my ideas.
I offered a price which was not accepted, so,
with no little disappointment, I left the writing-
set, having all the time that feeling of regret
one so constantly has when sacrificing some
fascinating object. However, in the evening,
I was seized with so great a desire to
possess the toy that next day I returned chez
M. Bing.
Alas ! it had already been sold to a well-
known collector of foreign curios, who, however,
in the course of a year or so, tired of his col
lection of Oriental objects, and, when they were
dispersed, I again came across the writing-set at
Yadsuama, one of the forty-seven Ronins, by the Frres Sichels, whence I at last secured it.
Kuniyosh,
The poor little thing remained in my house
some time, but little noticed, until at last Mr. Otsouka, a Japanese, recognised
that it was a work of the seventeenth century ; but no one in the world had
the least suspicion that it was the work of any illustrious hand. At last,
one day, M. Hayashi, as he was going through my collection, discovered the
writing-set in a drawer. I saw his fingers trembling with excitement as if
he were touching some precious relic ; at the same time he remarked to
me, Do you know that you have here a great curiosityan object made by
one of the forty-seven Ronins ? And, tearing a leaf from a pocket-book he
had with him, he directly translated the inscription on the box, as follows :

family name of the

lionin. aka
1 taka of the master of
the forty-seven Ronins.

nobu
4 %
Christian name of the
Ronin. shin j subject.
kiyo

ss
 I
^
horu

I koreo
sculpsit.

end of spring-time
number of series of
shun years

2nd month }
gntsu

Which translation may be put thus Carved by Otoka Nobukiyo, subject

of Prince Akao, in 1683, at the end of spring-time.*
Without doubt, then, this little writing-set, this tiny toy, was made by
a vassal of Prince Akaoby one of the forty-seven heroes who devoted
them'selves till death to the cause of avenging their lord and masterby one
of those men whose memory has become a form of religion in Japan ; in
that country where they worship chivalry and valour, and where, according
to M. Hayashi, of all our European literature only the plays of Shakespeare
and the tragedy of Le Cid, by Corneille, are considered worthy of attention.
A curious fact this, in the history of the human race, that this great
act of devotion, accomplished in feudal times by a family of vassals, should be,
for two centuries after, celebrated in the art, drama, and literature of Japan.
A Daimio of the name of Takumi-no-Kami, charged with a message
from the Mikado to the Court of Yeddo, was deeply insulted by Kotsuk,f
one of the great functionaries of the Shogun.
It is against the law to draw the sword within the walls of the palace,
and in doing so the risk is run of death and the confiscation of property.
Takumi was master of himself in spite of a first offence,; but at the second
he could no longer contain himself, and rushed upon his enemy, who, being
but slightly wounded, was able to escape.
Takumi was condemned to disembowel himself, and his family were
reduced to poverty, and his retainers fell to the level of Roninsrogues and
vagabonds, according to the Japanese expression. But Kuranosuk, the chief
councillor of the Daimio, and forty-six Samurai attached to his service, had
* The date of the making of the object, if it is correctthe Prince of Akao having executed in 1690seems to
indicate that the little writing-set -was manufactured*before Otoka was a Ronin. and a merchant of bamboo articles ; but,
according to the custom in Japan, people who had no idea of becoming professional artists carved netsuks to amuse
themselves, and so Otoka, as a merchant later on, may have made profit by the amusement of his younger days,
t Tales o f Old Japan. A. Mitford. Macmillan, 1871.
sworn to avenge their master, and this vow once made, these men, to calm the
suspicions of Kotsuk, who had them watched by his spies at Kyoto, separated
themselves, and went to various towns disguised as artizans of various trades.
Kuranosuk was also equally successful in deceiving Kotsuk. He
imitated drunkenness with such exactness that a man from Satsuma,> finding
him lying stretched out in a stream close by a tea-house and believing him
to be hopelessly drunk, spoke to him thus Poor wretch, unworthy of the
name of Samurai, who, instead of avenging thy master, givest thyself up to
drunkenness and wantonness ! And then he pushed him over with his foot
further into the stream.
The faithful servant carried his devotion still further. He apparently
deeply wronged his wife, and, as it seemed,cruelly drove her from his
house, only keeping his son aged sixteen with him. But one must read of
this wondrous comedy in the original Japanese of Tamenaga Shunsui,
which leaves very far behind it even the description of the degradation
of Lorenzacchio from Alfred de Musset.
SfS -jf jjf

Alas, unfortunate creature that I am, how happy were those bygone
days when there was no cause of complaint against his wife ! exclaims
the unhappy woman, who attributes her husbands brutality to madness
caused by the death of the prince, and she retires
sobbing wildly, having gazed with ineffable
sweetness on the apparently sleeping form.
Kuranosuk raises himself, and without a sign of
drunkenness in his manner, and which shows the greatest
emotion, cries Woe is me, this fidelity is more than
I can bear! And, as he spoke, tears fell from his
eyes. Here is a model wife ! says he. Instead of
reviling me for what must seem a crime, she finds some
excuse for my conduct, and takes on herself the cause !
This must cease. She shall not know the
part I must play to carry out my plan ;
my little children shall not remember me
only as a drunken old man !
I shall return her whence
she came. And yet, how
can I do this ?
 The brave man paced ' his room,
and in the agony of his grief he
wrung his hands and ground his
teeth. Full of wisdom as he was,
he had forgotten, when undertaking
the part of a drunkard, that he
would be unable to tire the devo
tion of his wife. His only means
were to give her a letter of divorce
and to send her back with his
younger children to her father, who
he knew would doubtless under
stand the real reason which caused
him to act so, and who would
console the poor woman and give
her advice.
At this moment he heard his childrens
One of the forty-seven Ronins, b y Kunxyoshi.
voices and then that of his wife, who was
speaking in low tones.
Hush, little onesyour father is illyou will disturb him !
Is he still as he was the other day? asked the eldest. He had
such a funny illness !
Your father has many troubles, and you must not speak so, is the
mothers answer.
The unfortunate man turned his thoughts to his dead prince, and,
arming himself with a heart of steel against all sentiment, he lay down
again and pretended to sleep.
About mid-day his wife enters. She kneels close to him and waits till
he opens his eyes, then she says Revered husband, thy bath is ready
for thee. *
He raises himself and takes a flute, which he commences to play, then
he says quickly I am going.
He goes towards the door, and his wife at once fetches his Ronins
hat and gives it him kneeling,
Revered husband, wear this, she says; you have enemies around
you here.
Kuranosuk turned towards her and said You talk too much; I shall
 give you a letter of divorce and you will be obliged to return to your
father. If'you wish I shall give you the permission to take charge of our
two youngest children. My servant will go with you.
Before she could answer he had put on his hat, and had staggered
down the path; his wife saw him gradually 'disappearing, and it seemed to
her as if she was waking from some dream.
* -* * . # # ' *

Then it is that Kotsuk ( he who has committed a great crime hears,

in the footstep of a mouse, the tread of an avenger )then it is that
Kotsuk, quite reassured by the degraded life of his enemy, discontinued
havino- the watch which he had ordered around his house, and dismissed a

portion of his guards.

The night of vengeance had at last arrived, and here is its description,
as taken from the pictures of an album :
One cold winters night, in December, 1701, at the hour of the ox
{i.e., two oclock in the morning), in a heavy snowstorm, the
conspirators, wrapped in black-and-white cloaks in order to re
cognise one another, and underneath coats of mail, made their way
quietly to the yashki of the man whose head they
had vowed they would place upon the tomb of their
prince. They scaled the outer palisades and forced
open the inner doors with a hammer. They cut the
throats of Kotsukes Samurais, and any who escaped
them they pursued even on to the roof, whence they
threw them.
But Kotsuk himself was nov/here to be
found, and they despaired of ever
finding him, until Kuranosuk,
plunging his hands into his bed,
found that the bed-clothes
were still warm ; he could not
be far off therefore, and, after
a careful search, his hiding-
place was founda chest for
charcoal with him, having
already been wounded in his
hip, concealed in it. (A coloured

Mass, one of the forty-seven Ronins, by Kimiyoshi.

 picture shows
us the old
man clothed
in white satin,
dragged all
trembling before the
chief of the conspirators.)
At this moment Kurano
suk falls on his knees before the
wounded man, and, after the ex
pressions of respect due to one of
superior rank, says to him Sire !
we are the retainers of Takumi-no-Kami. Your *
highness had a quarrel with him ; he was made
to die, and his family was ruined. As his good
and faithful servants, we would earnestly entreat you to commit hara-kiri
(disembowelling), and, having taken your graces head, I will go and place
it as an offering on the tomb of the noble Takumi. Kotsuk, not taking
advantage of the invitation, Kuranosuk cut off his head with the little
knife that had been used by his own master to disembowel himself.
Then the forty-seven Ronins hastened towards the temple on the Hill
of Spring, where rested the remains of the Prince of Akao beneath three
layers of stone, surmounted by a tablet, on which was his epitaph as
follows : The great Samurai rests here. He who enjoyed in life the
noble titles of Major-domo-general and Great-lord-of-the-privilege-of-audience-
with-the-Mikado. And, having made their offering of Kotsuks head,
they, counting themselves as dead men and beseeching the bonzes to bury
them, gave themselves up to justice. Condemned by Hayashi Daigaku,
Chief of the Academicians, who was consulted by the executive power, the
forty-seven Ronins disembowelled themselves, and, buried around their lord,
the grave of the Prince of Akao became aplace of pilgrimage.
Such is the legendary history of these forty-seven men, one of whom
 <u

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otsuTc discovered by the Bjiins, carrying lanterns, K unisada.

renown. After the disaster that befell the house of his master he came
to Yeddo, determined in his heart to have vengeance. But to the world
he appeared as an artist, and he was called among poets Shiyo, and a
great poet of this period, Kikaku, was his friend. He was admitted to
the tea-society of Tcha-noyu, and was pupil of Yamada Sohen, the cele
brated master of tea-ceremonies, who was intimate with Kira (Kotsuk).

He so contrived to put himself into possession of the knowledge of the

habits of his enemy. In order to become perfectly acquainted, he disguised
himself as a merchant of articles made in bamboo and of brooms, of which
he sold the finest sort; so he constantly visited the palace of Kira.
So it was that he learnt that the fourteenth day of the twelfth month was
the day of general cleaning, and that on this day all the people in the
palace were either drunk, or asleep from fatigue. So it was, also, that he
showed Oi'shi which was the night that an attack should be made. In
the combat he was wounded during the night, and it is believed that
Kobayoshi Heihate was his adversary. One remarks the words dis
guised himself as a merchant of articles of bamboo ; he must have
made them himself, as is proved by the little portable writing-set in
my collection.
EDMOND DE GONCOURT.

Tokuda, one of the forty-seven Ronins, by Ktmiyoshi,

 DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

The story of th e forty-seven Ronins is represented, beside the engravings in the text, by
plates H I and IJ, in colours, from the brush of Hiroshige, one of whose worksa landscape
we reproduced in No. I .
Plates H I and IJ are from a set of eleven engravings representing as many scenes in the
history of the Ronins. In plate H I the conspirators reach at the break of day the point of
attack, they pass a bridge covered with snow, while two of their party, recognized from their
black-and-white cloaks, wait for them in a boat which is to can y them over to one of th
least-guarded points of Kotsuks palace.
Plate IJ shows us Kotsuk seized in the Gardens of Yashki, whither he has tried to escape.
In the background the faithful followers continue the combat with the palace guards.

Plate D A is a reproduction of a hand-screen in bronze of a light patina of a recent date,

and which can hardly ever have been used to cool the face of any Japanese, for it weighs
nearly four pounds. The plate shows it three quarters smaller than its real size.
I t is formed of two plates so cleverly fastened together at the edges that no joining is
visible. Nevertheless, the two pieces of bronze represent in a wonderful manner the two
leaves, which in ordinary fans are glued on separate pieces split from the bamboo, which
forms also the handle ; and even the cleverest of our European workmen would find it hard
to say what means can have been employed to divide the bronze cylinder which is held in
th e hand ; how the sticks of the fan are cut, and how their ends are fixed between the
two plates.
T he artist, whose name is -un, has displayed a marvellous method of working the
metal into a novel form, but it would be difficult to find any practical use for the screen.
Fastened against one of the wooden partitions of a house, its patina would form a charming
point of colour, contrasting pleasantly with the scheme of decoration, and if some newly-
arrived visitor were to notice it, the host could not fail to be gratified by the admiration it
would cause. T he figure chased in relief on it, and afterwards cleverly touched up with some
sharp implement, represents a mendicant priest, tired out by constantly beating a drum in
order to draw th e attention of charitable passers-by.

Plate BD represents the mask of a N dancer (see the notes in No. 2 on the tenth plate
in No. i), in lacquered wood, making a grinning grimace, and showing two rows of teeth.
From time to time plates will be given representing these masks. T hey lend im portant aid
in establishing this im portant fact in Japanese A rtthat beauty is not always, in egular lines
and forms, but also, and very decidedly so, in the strength of the rendering of th e inner life,
and the expression of character. W ith us, many people are apt to be scornful when one dares
to call these objects beautiful ; but there is a great contrast between the taste foi Japanese
A rt and th at of the general public.
I t is always worth while remarking that, however exaggerated the features may be, there
is always a well-executed cast of the human face in these masks ; and even those which are
hideous and grotesque would serve a physiognomist perfectly in the study of the distinctive
characteristics of the race. _______

In Plate BA there are various decorative designs of the most simple description. T he
border of clematis flowers is from a page by Hokusai.
The stencil pattern in two tones consists of the nibbled leaves of the Potamogelon
fluitans, which grows, as its name indicates, in low and damp spots where the abundance of
snails causes the cuts which divide nearly every leaf.
T he artist has even been so bold as to reproduce the plant as .it is most commonly seen,
and he has had the double satisfaction of being true to nature, and at the same time, from a
decorative point of view, he has produced a design both novel and original, which pleases the
eye and is not the least monotonous. In this direction the Japanese artist considers he cannot
go too far.
The series of decorative motives in this number is completed by Plate FC, which is a
very simple arrangement of a few fans carelessly thrown down on a trellis-work ground, which
is already strewn with some dead rose-leaves. The fans themselves present various geometrical
designs, and a pattern of birds flying among branches.

Plate GA is composed of two portions, taken from Hokusais Sogona a source from which
we have already drawn specimens.
W e here again find expressed in quiet colouring the same ingenuity and the same love of
flowers and small animals which we have already so constantly remarked.
On a gray ground the great artist has drawn chrysanthemums and the double-pink, whose
loose petals and bending leaves he loves even more than the bright-coloured rose.
A t the top of the bunch are chrysanthemums, while below, the modest pink blooms, but
with double the five petals which are the sign of its kind. Two bees, in their striped armour
and with their great eyes, most truthfully drawn, give life to this tiny piece of nature.
The second portion is more full of movement one might almost say more lively, T he
 broad treatm ent of Hokusai is more especially to be noticed in his studies of birds ; broadly
expressed and well-sustained, his execution shows no slightness, and demands, in order to.
avoid heaviness, all the care of the great artist.

Plate F A is a study of irises, from an unsigned water-colour drawing, but most probably
dating from the eighteenth century. The artist, having endeavoured to give the suppleness of
the flower in the simplest manner, has been obliged to neglect the details of the structure,
but he has taken care to reproduce the tiniest ribs.

Plate IA shows a specimen of Ceramic art, from the hands of. the celebrated Kensan
(1663-1743), who worked first at Kyoto, and then at Yeddo, where he founded the manufactory
of Imado, which exists to the present day. Kensan endued the many works from his hand
with a strong originality, not only by the use of quite novel materials, but also by
' ornamentation of bold and strong designs very different to the thin work of his predecessors
in his art.

The vase represented in Plate IA forms part of a Japanese dinner serviceit is the
donbri, in which are served cooked fruits, and sometimes fish. It is in earthenware, covered
with green enamel strewn over with blossoms ; the upper part is open-work.
 Contents of Number 6.

A T R A V E L L IN G W R I T I N G - S E T , by E dmond d e G oncourt . . 57

D E S C R IP T IO N O F P L A T E S . 69

SEPARATE PLATES.

H i. S cen e from the History of the Forty-seven R o nins. By Hiroshig.

da . B ro n z H a n d -S cre e n . By Ko-un.

IA. S p e cim e n of C e ra m ic Art. By Kensan.

FA. S tu d y of Irises.

IJ. Second S ce n e from the History of the Forty-seven Ro nins.

By Hiroshig.

FC. Decorative Design.

CA. Flow ers, Insects, and Birds. By Hokusai.

BD. M ask o f a No Dancer.

BA. Model Industrial Design.

Leaves and Flowers (in stencil).

The Text of P art VII. will be by M. Thodore Duret ( Engraving in Japan ).

Grav. Impr. par (hutfr
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 design on to wood or copper ; and the printer, who produces from the wood
or metal the finished print. In Europe the de
signer and the engraver are generally artists, and
the printer is a workman who takes from a
machine any number of uniform proofs. In Japan
the printer, equally with the designer and en
graver, is an artist, working with an artists taste
and fancy. Having- only the most simple means
and materials, and no machine, he knows no
repetition or stiffness, but in the choice and
mixing of the colours on the plate he makes
endless variations, and so avoids all monotony or
uniformity.
In the selection of Japanese engravings,
taking those where the three artists de
signer, engraver and printerhave put their
very best work, one finds many specimens
perfect in their way, and which are practically
unsurpassable. In engraving, the Japanese
have always held to certain methods, which
give to their productions a certain special
originality of their own ; they have confined
themselves to the use of wood on which to
engrave designs, which have been drawn
by the artists themselves by means of the
brush.
When a European writes he employs a pen, and occasionally he may
use one for drawing ; but more often he uses a
pencil; but when he paints, he invariably
takes a brush. In Japan and China it is not at
all the same ; there, when one writes, draws, or
paints, the implement is the samethe brush,
held in the hand, raised up over the paper.
The result of the constant use- of the same instru
ment isgreat dexterity in the handling of it ;and as
the strokes of a brush filled with ink or colour make
lines and strokes that one cannot alter, certainty of
sign has been traced having been T n V. /Fjl
glued to the wood on which it is
to be cut, the engraver sets to
work to reproduce in the wood all
the suppleness and fulness which
the design on the paper had re-
ceived from the use of the brush as animplement. '
Japanese engravers have arrived at such clever- MenonaBalctmy- ^.
ness in this respect that even an experienced eye can hardly, detect designs
direct from the brush. When one adds that Japanese engravings are as
a rule taken on the very finest paper, and that in thefirst state they are
of great rarity, one can understand that they combine all the necessary
conditions to charm the eye of an artist, and to excite the covetousness of
collectors.
The art of engraving on wood came to Japan from China. As a means
of illustrating books it is comparatively modern; the Is monogatari of 1604"
is the first remarkable specimen of it. It is an illustrated romance. The
engravings in it are in an archaic and rather clumsy style, but already show

in conception and execution the characteristics of the art as it is in its

present development.
During the seventeenth century books with engravings were rare,
until the time of Ishigawa Moronobu, who flourished from 168.0 to about
1700. Moronobu has treated very nearly all the styles to which the art
at that time could be applied ; he illustrated romances meiskos or
descriptions of countries, a series of books with plates, some of types of the
 the broad treatment of the landscape serving for
background, make his work very important.
The larger coloured engravings of the present
century lose the great elegance which characterised
those of the last century. They have not the same
Decorationfor a Comb, designedbyisai. harmony of lines and soberness of colouring ; but
in spite of having become entirely popular art, they still maintain great
power and vitality, when treated by Toyokuni, the younger, Kunisada,
Kuniyoshi, and beyond all Hiroshige, the artist of landscape. Whilst larger
coloured prints were losing some of their refinement, another species full of
delicacy arose and developed itself. I allude to those refined compositions
called Surimonos, of which artists, in the earlier half of this century,

produced a very small number of proofs, and which they gave to their
friends or distributedamong the members of the little tea-drinking societies
on the occasion of certain ftes and anniversaries. Printed in the most
careful way, first in quiet and subdued tones, and later with metallic lustre
added, these survmonos were unequalled and unique in the
annals of the printers art.
Hokusai born 1760, died 1849 arrived as
a sort of giant to crown the art of printing in
Japan. He appeared at an early age under the
name of Shunro, and as he laboured without ceas
ing until his death, his works extend to a period
of over fifty years. He found it possible also to
take up every style of Japanese engraving, so his
productions are of an unlimited and sur
prising extent. Illustrations for
romances, history, poetry,
from the
tiny popu
lar books
to the edi
tions of
forty, fifty,
and eighty
volumes ;
endless books and
albums, showing in
every phase life in
Japan ; men, beasts, A Village in the Province at Shinatio, Hokusai.

and landscape, and

selections of ornament intended for trade purposes ; instruction by example
in the art of drawing, large coloured plates in every style, endless suri-
monos, notices, maps, and industrial engravings ;Hokusai has treated every
form with equal success. His work, overflowing with life and movement,
is full of truth ; it includes popular comicalities and pathetic scenesthe
grotesque and the terrible. -His work constitutes a monument complete in
itself, which embraces everything to be. seen by the eye or invented in the
brain of a Japanese.
THEODORE DURET.

Talcen from the Gakas':ib\

by Hokusai.
 DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

In the article on engraving which forms the chief ma.tter of this number, Mr. T. Duret has
drawn attention to three namesviz., Moronobu, ICiyonaga, and Hokusaiand these therefore
have the first place among our series of illustrations.
Plate HB is after an engraving by Hishigawa Moronobu, one of the earlier masters, who
at the close of the seventeenth century laid the foundations of an era of great notability in
the annals of book illustration in Japan, having given the best efforts of his genius to his art.
In hjs engravings the absence of colours and of every complicated method is noticeable.
The manner of working, alone shows the genius, and it does so with great decision, without
the help of any elaborate modelling, giving an almost sculptured appearance of relief to the
figures represented, enduing them with the appearance of life, and gathering them together
in groups full of movement representative of the heroic and popular characters of their era.
The Plate HB is from the Wakoku Hiaku Jo, literally Japanese Women, a work in
three volumes, which reproduces all sorts and conditions of Japanese women in their every-day
employments.
According to a common custom of the time a portion of each page of the book is given
up to the text, which offers some explanation for the picture, and is often some original idea,
expressed in picturesque language.

Plate IIII, after Kiyonaga, shows-us that eighty years of careful technical study certainly add
a charm to the severe formula he laid down for himself at the commencement of his artistic career.
A collection of charmingly subdued and striking bright colours has been created by his hands,
and he adorns his work with lovely combinations of them. His prints show complete mastery
over his art.
Torii Kiyonaga (about 1770) played an important part in the development of engraving.
He resolutely broke through the archaic style of the other Torii, his predecessors, as shown in
the figures of the actors of Kiyomitsu, of which a specimen was given in No. V. ; he reached an
advanced stage of art quite modern in style, in which we see landscapes representing great
stretches of country full of atmosphere and light, with various distances in perfectly correct
perspective, and animated by thoroughly life-like and strong figures. The one before us is a view
on the banks of the Sumida gawa (gawa means river), with its charming banks on which the
town of Yeddo is built, the home of hundreds of artists. This engraving only forms a portion
of the whole composition, which spreads over three leaves, of which each is double the size of our
reproduction. This jplate is not borrowed from any book, but belongs to a kind of engraving
that was published separately, called in Japanese, Ichi-ma-ye (pictures in one piece).

In Plate IE we are still on the luxuriantly planted banks of the Sumida, this time led there
by Hokusai. He shows us a small family of people making their way,-some autumn evening, by
the side of the river. First of all, there is a young widowthis shown by her girdle being tied in
front and two girls accompanying her ; while they are followed by a little street boy, who has
been hired to carry the purchases made, no doubt, by these young ladies, at some fte. On the
other hand, there is the river, with a curtain of trees beyond it, and behind them there are
seen some great white banners. The figures, rather awkward, and of an almost comical appear
ance, seem to be very different from the stately matrons that Kiyonaga has shown us. Hokusai
himself will also, shortly, alter the idea he has formed of women ; he will make, in time, heroic
figures to-people his romances of chivalry ; and when he has undertaken the portrayal of popular
life, he will discover models of more solidity. But in his earlier years, when the young artist
loves the poetry of refined forms, he cannot produce designs in which heaviness could be seen
and his hand has not yet that astonishing dexterity which will allow him to play wondrous tricks
with- his brush. But even now his execut ion is clever, and almost feminine in its refinement, and
modest in its pretensions. Do not let us regret this. In this early, rather timid, manner, the
artist has left us a world of charming beings full of poetic feeling, and which bring to our mind
the old nooks which Ghilandajo and Botticelli have drawn. These reminiscences are only appli
cable to the figures themselves, for the landscape in which they move surprises us by its modern
character and the method by which it is treated is entirely original. One great principle is
adhered to throughoutabsolute simplicity. The artist has firmly resolved to eliminate from his
sight anything that might have a disturbing effect in proximity to the particular subject he wishes
to bring before usa group of people, standing out clearly in the brightest colours against a vast
distance, bounded only by a well-defined horizon. This is the theme proposed for himself in this
instance. One can discuss, if one chooses, the object of this principle, but we ought at any rate
to do homage to a genius capable of putting a question to us so clearly.

Plate IC. Mandarin Ducks, by Hokusai. It is curious to come straight from the youthful
work of this master, to the page of birds which shows Us the handiwork of the artist towards the
decline of his life A s he has grown older, his ideas have enlarged themselves, and at the same
time his brush has acquired freedom, and a strength more and more master-likeand here
we see him at his greatest perfection. One point only still remains unchanged with the old
man among all those that we have seen altered since his early works ; that is, the empty space
round the subject presented, by which means it is shown with the greatest intensity. In the
plate before us, a shower of snowflakes fallen on the ground alone break the repose of the
surroundings, and in spite of a rather minute representation of -them, the impression conveyed by
the two birds, taking the whole page, is marvellously striking.
This engraving is taken from a volume containing only fifteen designs, all of this shape.
The book is considered the finest specimen of its kind. Its great rarity is to be deplored, but it
seems that only a very limited number were printed in the first instance. It is called Sha,shin
Gwafu which mean drawings from nature and the preface of the book accentuates the
meaning of the title. It was written by a friend of the artists, called Hirata, and drew great
attention to the . genius of Hokusai's work.
The preface bears witness, .besides, to the great estimation in which the artist was held, at any
rate, among some of his contemporaries, whose opinion of him seems to coincide with ours.
Hokusai, the writer says, is unlike any one else. While all his predecessors were more or less
slaves to classic traditions and hard rules, he alone has allowed his brush to draw according to
the feelings of his heart, and he executes what he sees with his eyes, which love nature. It is
certain- that this friendly admiration was but little exaggerated.

Plate A JA . Sparrows among bamboos, after a Kakemono by Nsan, school of Shijo.

Sparrows and bamboos in Japan are associated by nature, and every artist has depicted
them thus, and there is, besides, nothing more tempting to the master of the brush than this
plant with its supple and delicate branches bending in graceful curves at every breath ot
wind ; and nothing in the world could better complete the picture than its most customary
inhabitants, with their lively ways, hopping from branch to branch, in every imaginable
attitude, but with various changes which defy the sharpest eye. How wonderfully do the Japanese
depict these ever-altering poses 1 We hear of set rules, and it may be that the children learn
in their earliest youth to draw in various attitudes the body of a bird, just in the way that
they learn to draw the geometrical outline of a house. But it also seems that, in the most
diversified designs, here and there sections of birds are introduced in order to train the eye
in their anatomy. ______________________

Plate A JB . A piece of satin, date sixteenth century, with a decoration of peacocks. The
ground of it is worn and the colours are faded ; but, thanks to the excellence of the
manufacture, the design of the decoration still shows in all its original clearness. When one
looks at the strength of the outline and the correctness of the drawing, and the noble bearing
of the bird standing on the trunk of a tree, one feels as if one was regarding a picture rather
than a fragment of clothing, and that it had no other object but to take the place of some
water-colour drawing, with its fineness and delicate silky appearance. Such effects are hardly
to be recommended as examples for our workmen, except as decorations for our rooms ; but
they are appropriate to the grandeur of the dresses of the nobles in Japan, where, contrary to
our customs, materials of great width are worn, which lend themselves to the showing off of
large and handsome compositions for designs.
The pattern of the robe of which this is a portion represents a design formed of peacocks
on the branches of pine trees. It is made, to a certain extent, in the same way as the finer
European stuffs of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Plates DI, E A and HH show us a series of decorative designs. The first is a ray-like
design, consisting of the needlesof the pine trees, which are combined with round figures
with cut-out edges. A certain brightness is given by the star-shaped ornaments, which,
although they are somewhat stiff, remind one of petals offlowers.
The design (EA) of bamboos almost amuses one by the picturesqueentanglement of its
branches. Seen alone, on a white ground, this design shows imperfections, which, from a
decorative point of view, leave the eye unsatisfied, and it is certain that it was intended to
be shown on some solid ground which should bring the scattered lines together and display
them in their true beauty.

HH is a specimen of a very natural form of decoration. It is formed of trunks of

trees, with rough and cracked bark, and their branches cut offonly a few twigs carelessly
thrown, as it were, to break the monotony of the ground with-their delicate shoots.

Plate HF. Three vases in bronze, date eighteenth century. The centre one, and the
one on the right, are reproduced at half their real size, and the conical tube is reduced
two-thirds. The last-mentioned specimen loses, by reduction, the fulness of outline which
constitutes its particular beauty. The perpendicular ring which is noticed at the level of
the handles is for fastening the vase to the wall.
HB
AJE
. H O K U S A I S MAN-GWA.

Thou, whom w e call H okusai,

venerable artist o f this Japan that w e
w ould know and love, do thou impart
to us som e o f th y secrets ! T hou art
alw ays young, and w e grow prematurely
old. W e hear that thou hadst the w eight
of fifty-four -years upon th ee when
thou didst com m ence th y M an -gw a,
but we know that thou created it in the spirit of a youth of twenty
years. Repeat to us, Genius of the North, that thou hast always
loved Nature tell us that she is a sweet mistress ! One will perhaps
look at her with more loving eyes when the age of spectacles is
reached. W hat tender feelings must she have for him who, since
his first youth, has given himself up to her worship !
Is it merely a love-affair or a solemn marriage ? It argues,
somehow or other, that Nature and the Japanese must be very
opposed in sentiment to each other that we should be in error
when we state that they had formed a love-match, an indes
tructible and passionate alliance.
W hatever may happen, whatever discovery may be made,
whatever the yet unknown, the extreme East, may have in
reserve for us, we shall always be sure that the Japanese have
been real lovers of nature, and that Hokusai is a charming enter
tainer. One might well have carved on his modest tomb the verses that the
scholars of the Renaissance composed for the tomb of Virgil, Here
rests he whom Nature feared as her rival, and whose funeral seemed, as
it were, her own.
If it is admitted that Hokusai is worthy a place in the first rank o f inde
pendent and original artists, one must assign to him immediately a characteristic
which he shares with the most highly inspired o f the masters of our W estern
Art, namely,unconsciousness. It is clear that this wonderful man never knew
his own value. W e know that he lived in poverty, died at an advanced age and
full of years that he worked for trade purposes, did much book-illustra-
tion, and changed his residence and his name according to his fancy.
From this we gather, that he was a philosophical and simple
artist, applying himself to all branches of art, identifying
himself with no particular one in fact, an inspired being,
a nomad of the great artist-family. I f we could have
paid him a visit some fifty years ago, perhaps in
some little room in Yedo, and if we
had told him that what came from
his brush would in the hereafter
be an invaluable and world-wide
lesson he would in all probability
have laughed at us. A nd perhaps

Fishers, taken from The -undred. Views

o f F u jiya m a , Hokusai.
we might have done him harm we might have altered his
simplicity.
Japan was in his time in a healthy state ; but there were
evidently then, as now, various forms of public opinion. T h at of
the old school attached itself to ancient forms, as a protest against
the popular school which also had its public. T he genius of Hokusai
pleased the humble mind, whose instinctive criticism appreciated the
novelty of his manner an stheticism more liberal, with stronger lines
and greater wealth o f fancy combined with a thorough intention of fol
lowing Nature in her most rapid changes, than the schools which preceded it.
Hokusai worked because of his personal desire to do so because
he longed to createlike Rembrandt when he engraved on copper
without thinking o f himself. H e threw to the winds his lovely works,
which disappeared it mattered not where. They now return to
us, forming hundreds of volumes which we do not hesitate
to add to the library of A rt which includes the
whole world.
t
It is not our purpose now to study Hokusai as
a painter he was a great painterbut as a designer
of illustrations ; and as such his Man-gwa is doubtless
his greatest work. Man-gwa means literally rapid sketches,
and we have fourteen portfolios of these, containing some
thousands o f varied subjects, printed in the simplest manner at a
minimum of expense. No one can pass over the marvellous effects
produced by the Japanese in wood-engraving and coloured printing. In
the last number of this magazine we gave a lengthy explanation of their
method of work.
It is curious that the Japanese have never taken to engraving on copper.
T h e reason in all probability is because their only instrument for writing is
the brush, charged with Indian-ink at the same time the freest and the
broadest of all writing appliances.
Hokusai had the good fortune to have his originals beautifully engraved
as facsimiles o f brush-work nothing can equal a good copy of the Man-gwa;
it seems as if they were the original drawings from the artists
hand. &
T h e Man-gwa is, as it were, an encyclopaedia. T he Japanese, ^.}
imitating the Chinese, appear to have always taken pleasure in (jj V
repetitions, and their methodical minds delighted in classifica
tion and information set out in regular order. Thus it is
that they were induced to make a species of index
to Nature herself. T h e Man-gwa is neither the
first or the only dictionary of this description.
Beginning in 1745, Morikuni published, in nine ! Veiseu,

volumes, the J ik i-S h ih o , an encyclopaedia of the

designers art. One finds there examples of the methods of
drawing flowers, birds, trees,. landscapes, or gro u p s; and there
are other collections which resemble celebrated works by
Japanese and Chinese artists of later date. Scenes of popular
life and theatrical incidents were collected in the Im but-su-
sogwa (1722), in the Ycihon Yamafo-Ziiji, besides a quantity of
other volumes. According to local custom, collections such as
these and the Man-gwa are intended for instruction, and may
almost be termed school-books. T h ey are intended to pass from
hand to hand, to be useful to young people, artists, and more
particularly to artisans.
It is impossible to repeat too often that the union of the
artssmaller and greater is perfect in Japan ; the study of
nature is their common base. Drawing is thus the foundation
of the industrial arts themselves. In the famous epoch of
Genroku (1688-1704), Korin, a thoroughly impressionist artist,
and making lacquer himself, gave designs for lacquer-makers.
\ His family revived the Ceramic Art. T h ey who engraved
sword-guards were painters in their way ; and such were the
designers for the cotton-weavers and embroiderers Moronobu,
Goshin, Toyokuni. Hokusai 'himself gave models for china-
manufacturers, lacquerers, and decorators of every sort.
L et us see Hokusai such as he is, when depicted by him
self in a little preface which he wrote, and which is ju st what
we can imagine of him. Since I was six years old, says
the painter, I have been in the habit of drawing the shapes
of objects. Towards my fiftieth year I published an infinity
o f designs ; but I am not satisfied with anything I produced
before my sixtieth year. It is at my seventieth year that I am
more or less able to understand the forms of birds, fishes, etc.
 This preface finishes in the hope that at the
age of a hundred and ten everything from my brush,
whatever it is, may be full of life.
Let us picture him to ourselves at the edge of
a rice-field, out for a walk, enveloped in fog,
or leaning out of his window. The world seems
to him a diorama. Exterior objects all strike
him with an almost equal intensity; he has
not the idea of things that are worth and that
are not worth reproducinghe loves all
things equally ; and all he sees, feels,
breathes, dreams, he draws on paper.
He jots it down, and then has it en
graved. With us this would be con
sidered presumption. It is not so
with him in Japan. When one of his
portfolios was full, he made of it a
Wild Geese, taken frjm The Hundred Views o f Fujiyama,, by Hokusai.
volume of the Man-gwa, and number
less artisans took advantage of his great talent.
It is from the jMan-gwa and similar collections that the endless variety
of ornamentation on Japanese nicknacks of modern make is borrowed.
According to thoroughly trustworthy authorities, Hokusai commenced
about 1810 the series of the Man-gwa. According to his idea, the first
volume was destined for his pupils and for schools and workmen. He was
not well known at this date as a painter. On the very finest paper, fastened
to a block of cherry-wood, he sketched down all that passed through his
mind, without ambition, without interest, without haste. It took him thirty
years* to publish the four
teen volumes of the Man-
gwa, designing at the same
time an immense quantity
* The first volume is dated 1814,
and the second, third, and fourth all
appeared in. order after that. From
the fifth onwards Hokusai was assisted
by his son-in-law and one or two
pupils. No. 8 dates from 1819, and
Nos. Hand 12are after 1830. Nos. 13
and 14, interrupted by the death of
the artist, were published in 1849 and
1851.

Taken from The Hundred Views o f Fujiyama, by Hofcusai.

o f illu stratio n s for th e p rin cip al b o o k se lle r in Y ed o . B u t th e
success o f th e- M a n -g w a w as p h en o m en al.
W ith th r e e tin ts a black, a so ft grey , a n d so m etim es a
lig h t b ric k -re d th re e little cups p la c e d b y his side, th e a r tis t
p ro d u c e d effects ' p e rfe c tly im ita tin g n a tu re . I t seem s a n d on
th is su b ject w e sh o u ld lik e fu rth er k n o w le d g e th a t th e J a p a n e s e
p a in te r h a d so m e p a rtic u la r e d u catio n o f th e eye, a n d th a t h e
w as a id ed by it and a tra in e d a n d care fu lly -in stru c te d m em o ry .
T h is will e x p la in th e a p p a re n t e m p tin e ss of his o u tlin es, th e
sim p len ess of h is decorations, and th e d re a m y lo o k of h is
d raw in g o f so lid objects. O ne n o tices th e sam e w ith a rtis ts
w ho g e t q u ite fam iliar w ith som e su b je c t a n d th e n tu rn th e ir
b ack on it in o rd e r to re p ro d u c e it b e tte r. In fact, th e ir e y e
is n atu rally p h o to g ra p h ic , and ta k e s, as it w ere, a tw o fo ld n o tic e of
o bjects.
L e t us g la n c e a t th e ra p id s k e tc h e s . G ro te s q u e a n d g rin n in g g o d s,
scen es o f e v e ry -d a y life,p le a sa n t a n d o th e rw ise ty p e s o f a rtisa n s, je s te rs ,
conjurors, ju g g le rs, b eg g a rs, b ath ers, tra v e lle rs, b irds, b e a sts, fishes, in s e c ts, a n d
flow ers view s o f m o u n tain s a n d seascapes, s tu d ie s o f tre e s a n d g ra sse s, b u ild
ings, a n d la n d sc a p e s th ese, a lth o u g h o n ly in o n e volum e, a re a lm o st a
su m m ary of th e w ho le series ; a n d th e r e a re m o re th a n th r e e h u n d re d
sk etc h e s on fifty p a g e s. I t is, in fact, a n e n tire rev iew o f th e J a p a n e s e
people. T h e p erso n a g e s a n d th e o b jects re p re s e n te d a re h a rd ly tw o in c h es
high, an d a re th ro w n carelessly from top to b o tto m o f th e p a g e s, w ith o u t
g ro u n d to s ta n d on o r
b a c k g ro u n d to g iv e
th e m relief. B u t th e y
a re in su ch th o ro u g h ly
n a tu ra l a ttitu d e s , e ach
h a v in g its p e c u lia r
m o v e m e n t a n d c h a ra c
teristics, t h a t th e y see m
re a d y to m o v e, and
on e m ay tru ly s a y th e y
a p p e a r full o f life. In
th is first v o lu m e o f th e
Man-gzva, too, th a t

idge, b y H iro sh ig .
deep sense of humour, which is one of the most striking traits of the
Japanese and which Hokusai shared so strongly that it is shown on every
page of his illustrations, is most strongly revealed.
In quickly analysing the subsequent volumes, we may mention, in No. 2,
dragons, reptiles, recluses working miracles, scenes of manufacturing business,
wrestling contests, physiognomies reproduced in masks, effects of snow
clouds, the aurora borealis, natural curiosities, rare animalsa museum of
endless variety widiout method or choice.
In No. 3, semi-human monsters, a terrible figure of a Japanese Gorgon,
chaotic landscapes and hideous combinations of the elements evolved in a
delirium unknown to us.
No. 4 appears Jto be one of the most interesting, with its demonology,
its sketches of trees seen by night, full of snow,
whipped by the 'wind, beaten by the rain, and with

m w z u iL
its airy landscapes, mingled with clever reproduc
tions of life.
No. 5 contains pages full of theatrical scenes,
romantic pictures, and striking views of architec
ture gathered together on some journey.
Somehow it seems as if they had been
copied from Chinese models. This, also, is
noticeable in No. 6 ; but this number also
contains wonderful studies of movementsome
handsome horses, and a whole collection of people
fencing, shooting with cross-bows, and wrestling.
No. 7 contains hardly anything beside
landscapes and aspects of nature. One
finds in it geological curiosities and quaint
effects of cloud and fog, far-stretching
landscapes, and birds - eye views of
whole countries. It belongs to the sort
of book called Meisho- a species of
travellers guide-book which teaches one
all that is to be considered interesting
in a country.
Every province has its Mnsko ; and
Hokusai himself, when he designed the

Taken from Yoshivara, by 0 Utamaro.

 Fugaku Hyakukei, or The Hundred Views of Fuji, did
not intend to do more than add a volume to this
series of picturesque guides.
' In No. 8' there are some very remarkable grotesque
faces, and some studies of very fat and very
thin men, which are full of vitality ; in No. i
some very graceful figures of women, some
battles, and some imaginary
battle-scenes. Hokusai now
enlarged the size of his books,
and produced some genuine
works of art.
There is in No. 10 a
By Toyokunu
wonderful series of prodigies
shown at fairs, and little people making speeches ; and besides these, my
thological creatures that make ones flesh creep, and many fanciful drolleries
in fact, a surprising collection of the real and the
unreal. In the n th and 12th numbers is a capital
collection of painters at work, actors, clowns, men
making grimaces with hideous appearance.
Lastly, Nos. 13 and 14 are quite up to the
standard of the rest; no weariness shows itselfone
finds the same lovely figures and charming landscapes
sketched with the same firmness, with the same freeness
of hand which characterises the former numbers.

' ARY R E N A N .

{To be con United in jY o , 9,)

go

Fishers, .
 D E S C R IP T IO N OF PLATES.

Plate E F is taken from the first volume of the Man-gvoa, by Hokusai. From the same
source we have already taken other plates for this Magazine.
Hundreds of pages might be reproduced before the limit could be found of this wonderful
collection, with its endless variety of subjects, of which every one is so lively and so true in its
feeling that the most inexperienced eye grasps its character at once. On the page under
noticeat the top, to the leftis a man stirring some compound, the odour of which seems by
no means to please his neighbour. Next, we see a young woman engaged in the arrange
ment of her hair always a most complicated business for a Japanese lady, and which, in the
case of the working classes, is not always undertaken every day. Most elaborate preparations
are made, including a good wash of the oil of camellia, and the hair is made sufficiently greasy
to remain unruffled for some long time, even during the night, when the head is supported by a
pillowmost inappropriately thus named, for it is in fact a little curved block of wood which
is placed horizontally under the nape of the neck. Against the toilet-box, placed in front of
the lady, there rests the metal mirror, of which, in the drawing, one only sees the curved top.
Next, is a peaceable personage listening in an attitude of philosophic resignation to his some
what severe wife ; while, in another familiar scene, a good-natured father, pretending to be some
hideous monster, only partially succeeds in frightening a knowing little lad, who, covering his
eyes behind the broad sleeves of his coat, laughs loudly. Now comes a performer on the samisen,
with his face hidden by means of a mask made of a piece of paper, with holes cut for his nose
and eyes. A procession of pilgrims, with the great hats they regularly wear, is seen walking
away from the spectator. A juggler is catching a sak bottle and drinking-cups, and beside
him a Samurai seems to equal him in dexterity, for he is doing the conjuror with the lance of
his honoured Daimio.
The other portion of the page, always commencing from the leftcontrary, it is true, to the
usual Japanese custombegins with a wonderfully foreshortened sketch of a child-priest, over
come by the soporific effect of the prayers that he has to learn. Of the two people who turn
their back on the young neophyte, one is blind and the other paralytic. These are some of
the repulsive beggars that used in former times to infest the great roads of Japan, and which
one only meets nowadays in the towns of Northern China. Those who have not found them
selves side by side with them in a crowd, can hardly imagine the sensation produced by the
contact, or, in fact, only the sight of their emaciated forms, nearly always entirely naked.
The squatting figure is a priest begging the charity of the passer-by. He arrests attention
by beating a small copper gong that he carries with him.
 This same method is resorted to by the other Bonze, of a superior grade, whom we ntige
in the middle of the page ; but this one is followed by his servant, both of them wearing
round hats like mushrooms.
A more pleasing picture is that of a young female strcet-musician who faces them.
A shopman, clad in a straw kilt, who seems passing on with hurried footsteps, bears on
his shoulder the symbolic pestle, decorated with a fringe of paper, which from time immemorial
has figured in certain popular Buddhistic fetes. Lower down, a jovial fellow empties the liquid
contents of a pail over his head. This is an act of penitence, d o n e to move the tutelary god
Fudo, who cures maladies, protects against fire, and brings luck in commercial enterprises.
T h e penance is practised in the winter time, when the weather is coldest, and with water
almost iced. Warriors, it seems, with a similar propitiatory object, take ultra-refreshing baths
before a battle. In the case before us, the man seems to be very delighted at having so treated
himself; for we see him in the next sketch balancing the empty pitcher on the end of his
thumb, to the inexpressible delight of a collection of children, who surround him, uttering cries
and making gesticulations.

Plate GI. In No. 4 of this Magazine we gave a landscape borrowed from the series of the
thirty-six views of Fujiyama by Hokusai, which was distinguished by the great richness of its
colouring. The present engraving is taken from a work by the same artist, also given up to the
celebrated mountain, but printed in gray ink, and having for its title, The I lit m l rad Views
o f Fujiyama.
Nowhere more than in these charming pages is the gift of humour, caustic wit, and the
power of depicting the bright side of things noticeable, and the sym pathetic tem peram ent which
is able to choose the most charming aspect of a subject, and at the same tim e to capture
its most original and freshest appearance, is here easily to be recognised.
We now find the artist at work on the curious task which he imposed on himself. It
seems as if he must limit himself to going round the immense peak and studying its various
configurations, planning for himself an interesting study in the changing lights and shades of
the day. But we must not forget his temperament and his desire for original effect, avoiding
commonplaceness as the most humiliating of all signs of weakness.
If the celebrated mountain is always the chief subject, he determines jt shall be also the
single point round which shall centre the varied actions of divers beings he will depict, and
interest shall be added by the large collection of accessories he collects, all full of life and
interest owing to his clever draughtsmanship.
Now we see the mountain beyond a stretch of transparent reeds ; now it is conccaled in a
fog, which has the effect of bringing out upon its sides outlines of dream y shapes intangible
and fastastic ; now a little cloud hangs over the crest of the mass, and our artist shows us
Fuji with his hair done, as it is called in Japan when so seen ; or, again, he chooses the
precise moment when the round sun seems to form, with the cone-shaped crater, a mirror
with its handle. Further on, a submerged field reflects the whole mountain reversed, which
he names the Volcano in the W ater, and then Fuji is en fte on the seventh day of the seventh
month Tanabata, when it is looked at through the bright-looking- masts decorated with streamers,
which seem to bend themselves before the majestic giant. The fresh green grass seems to
elothe it with its charming covering, and wonderful is its peak when it emerges from behind
flowering trees in the foreground ; yet again it will appear thrown in shadow on a screen, the
partition in a house, as if it were a kakmono fastened on the wall, thus showing the probable
origin of these decorations. A fisherman holds high in the air his net before he drops it into the
water. This is just the right framing for the wonderful outline as seen through the meshes, and
nothing can be greater than the astonishment of the man drinking, when he finds, just as he puts,
the cup to his lips, that there is a miniature reflection of the same Fuji which shows itself again
here on a tiny scale. Another page is entitled the three whites the snow, the stork, and the
mountain. Three framings are improvised for this picturethe wide mouth of a cavern, the arches
of a bridge, and the stretched-out legs of a cask-maker, standing upon the edges of a great
barrel, in order to make it circular by striking it with his hammer.
Other remarkable pages to be mentioned are Fuji seen through a cascade, and through
a spiders-web, with one or two comic ideas, such as that of Fuji through the keyhole,
and that of the comparison byr some facetious traveller of the swollen appearance on the
mountain side the day after an eruption with the enormous goitre in the neck from which
his companion suffers.
Thus one sees- that, if ever there is any occasion for the primary subject of the picture to-
be of little importance, this is counterbalanced by other matters of interest, and invariably by great
animation. Everything lives and moves, and all the scenes are rendered with a truthfulness
which is striking in the extreme. In this book we begin to understand the genius of Hokusai ;
and it is to it that the lover of Japanese A rt returns with the greatest pleasure after having,
surveyed the immense quantity of the productions of this artist.

Plate IH. A night fle at Yedo, by Outamaro. This subject is eminently worthy of
representation.
No fte we have ever seen in Europe can compare with the spectacle formed by the
Sumida-gawa on a lovely night, when its waters are literally covered with a mass of every
variety of boat, all illuminated in the most artistic taste.
From one bank to another all is gaiety. The boats touch each other, and the merry
makers speak to each other, or address each other without any former acquaintance and with no
regard for caste or other exigencies. A thousand jests are exchanged ; and, when the fireworks
rise into the air, there are immense shouts and deafening cries of delight. On the river banks-
the tea-houses, glittering in the light of their great bright paper lanterns, are filled by a crowd,
no less lively than that on the water, and the samisen adds its classic sound to all the babel
which is kept up far into the night It is not only artists of the popular school who have tried
on various occasions to reproduce this spectacle ; one is almost astonished at the various
repetitions, and the constancy of the public to them.
 The same feeling strikes one with regard to a great number of other .subjects which one
notices constantly, and which have been produced and reproduced for centuries.
This is the result of a very characteristic peculiarity of the doctrines of Japanese A rt
teaching, and one of those which throws a bright light on the degree of artistic education
among the masses. With us, that which in all new works first takes the fancy of the public
and which attracts their attention most, is some subject with a story in it ; the examination of
the qualities of the work are constantly only thought of as secondary details. In Japan, some
pleasant subject is taken, and it is the manner in which the artist treats it which, in the
eyes of the people, shows the talent. It matters not to the artist if the subjcct of his picturc
is as old as the world itself ; indeed, it seems that the more it is taken from populartraditions,
the more sympathetic is it to the public taste.
What is necessary, however, is that the work should be harmonious in effect, both as to
its lines and its colours ; and it must be shown how the subject lends itself to the particular
style of work of the artist producing it in order to distinguish if it is well or ill executed.
Briefly, what is wanted is, first of all, a satisfaction given to the artistic feelings of the eye ;
and then attention paid to the analytical eye, which affects to be knowing in all the details
of execution of a work. One may make the objection that such criticism is apt to pass
over the ideal qualities which give rise to elevated ideas of genius and sentiment. That is true
up to a certain point in the case of popular art, whose principal object is the representation
of exterior life, and which aims more particularly at brightness of decorative effect which is
the chief object of the plate before us. It is not for us, at the present moment, to trespass
into the domains of another style of art, of which we shall shortly give some examples, which
is less brilliant, but of a far more sthetic feeling and full of the poetry of form. But each
artistic style has its particular merits, and the popular school is at its highest standard under
Utamaro.*
We have, on other occasions, drawn attention to the strong artistic feeling of this artist in
his grouping of a number of personages, or plants and insects. In the case before us we can sec
and admire him in one of his large compositions, of which, however, the size of our publication
allows us only to give a portion on a much reduced scale.
Night is the time chosen for the picture ; but, far from hiding in its darkness the figures
in the drawing of which he excels, the artist makes the obscurity a convenient tone on which
to bring out in the foreground his ladies, who are depicted in the brightest colours. Nothing
could be more unnatural, according to the laws of logic; but it would be difficult to pitch on
anything more ingenious from an artistic point of view, which is the first object at the present
moment. One is charmed at the first sight of them, before one has time to recognise the trick
which has been played.

Plate CJ reproduces a study of the wild vine, painted in water-colour by an unknown

artist. We have chosen it on account of its extreme fineness of tone and execution, the
singular absence of detail in the work, and the great simplicity of the design.

* We have explained, in an earlier number, the chief points of this art of what we call the popular school, which is
Iut a poor translation of the word Uloy.
 Thoroughly understanding his subject, the brush of the artist has been directed over the
paper with a touch as dclicatc as it was certain.
It is remarkable how clcvcrly the roundness of the stalk is represented, with its bends
and how gracefully and naturally the stems are joined tothe chief stalk. Observe the truth
of their curves, which are always varied, and the suppleness of the thin leaves waving lightly
in the air. It is this unconventionality and freedom from stiffness and dryness, so noticeable in
the original of our plate, which are the essential points nccessary in reproducing the charm of
subjects from nature.

Plates CC and K J form part of our scries of decorative designs. Plate CC shows us a
pattern of waves, another formed by repetitions of the sacred gem, and a third devised of
girdlc-bo.xcs on a ground sprinkled over with cherry flowers. Plate E J gives an example of
the possibility of making a decorative design from the most commonplace materials, the one
we illustrate being simply the combination of spiders-webs.

Plate HA. Four sword-guards. That formed of beans is in cut iron, one of those numerous
productions which bear no artists signature, but which at the same time may be taken as
models of good taste, invention, and perfection of workmanship. In this case there is no
added ornament of encrusted metals, but the iron itself is sufficient; and here, as in many
other cases, it is in the highest style of finished work.The number of sword-guards of
every variety of style that have been manufactured for the last four or five hundred years
must have been very large. Every imaginable device has been made use of: plants, animals,
household articles, religious and legendary subjects, familiar scenes, and landscapesin fact, the
whole world in epitome, as the Japanese secs it day by day. Nothing that an artistic mind
can think of has been left unappropriated, or has not been conventionalised, turned and
twisted in such a clever manner as to be possible of reproduction in the narrow space of a
sword-guard.
The guard, with two storks in full flight (again in plain, unadorned iron), belongs to the
same date as the first. It is signed by Kinai, an iron-worker of the eighteenth century.
Quite in a different style is the next, with the form of a toad cut through it, bearing the
signature, Takahaslii Toshikivo, and which was made in the last years of the existence of old
Japan,* when the refinement and beauty of art-work was at its greatest height.
The border of this piece is the only part in iron, and from working and polishing it has.
lost its usual appearance.
As. smooth to the eye as it is to feel, it cannot rust, and it presents an almost silky
appearance. The body of the guard isin shibuichi, and into it the toad is cut, its outline
being of shakudo, and its eye added in gold.

* W e only consider as modern those objects which have been made since the opening up o f Ja p a n to foreign nations
that is to say, since 186S.
 The animal is in the inspired attitude of a poeta comic idea which i.s carried over on to the
reverse of the guard in a most clever way. The toad is there shown brandishing a golden
brush, while at his feet there is unrolled a sheet of paper on which he has just written a well-
known poem (composed, in reality, by Basliio, a sevcntcenth~cen tin } poet, when he was on
the banks of a fish-pond where the croaking race was dispoiting itself). On the side of the
guard turned towards us is represented, to the right of the animal, <i book, and to the left the
stone on which is rubbed the Chinese ink that is used for writing.
The guard with a fish is scventecnth-century work. The \ citic.il lines cngwued on the
lightly-embossed plate represent a cascade; and the association of the tu.) idea.i calls to mind
the popular picture of a carp jumping up a waterfallwhich is intended as a s\ mbol of great
energy and courage, and as a compliment paid to the warrior whose swoid thi.s guard will
encircle.
The metal is bronze, of a white patina, the fish is in gold, with eyes encrusted with
silver.

Plate BC, a Ni-6 mask, in red lacqucred wood. 'I lie Ni-oliterally, two kingsare
two colossal statues, which are placed before Buddhist temples, on either side of the entrance-
door, and which are supposed to act as guardians of the place. Ih e expression of their
figures, terribly menacing, is according to traditions dating from the seventh century, when
Buddhism was introduced into Japan.- The first sculptor gave them this appearance, and it is
the same type which from generation to generation has been handed down with but small
alteration. Originally, one of the two figures was supposed to represent the god Brahma (it
must not be forgotten that the divinities of the Brahma worship were added to the Buddhist
Pantheon), while the other, the subject of our plate, is Indra. This mask, which shows traces,
unfortunately, of its great antiquity, was used in the semi-religious plays which were originated
at a later date under the name of the N dances. It plainly shows the energy and strength
which characterise ancient Asiatic sculpture, and gives the highest idea of this little-known
branch of art.

Plate ID. It is strength which imparts the chief merit to the specimen before usa
sak bottle made at Sto, in the province of Owari, where the earliest Japanese pottery was
manufactured. There is strength in the composition of the paste, in the lines of the shape, and
in the rich colour of the enamel. It is recognised at once that we are looking at a work at
least three hundred years old, because it is according to the strength that one can calculate the
age with almost perfect certainty. Our subject has no other decoration beyond the brightness
of the lustre of its enamel, which is allowed to run freely over the sides. I f decoration,
added by a clever hand, gives the beauty which, according to the very general idea, is
the chief object to be attained in pottery, ornamentation based on richness of tones of
enamel produced in the firing arouses none the less admiration from an artistic eye. The
Japanese have so thoroughly appreciated this fact that their greatest potters, even after
having lent themselves to the imitation of painters work by the application of vitrifiable colours
in all sorts of designs, have always been attracted back again towards the ancient manner
of strength and simplicity shown in the work of early masters. From the colourists point of
view, the superiority, in the present case, is undeniable ; and when one takes in ones hands
one of these brilliant pieces- with, imposed upon it, layers of rich enamel, highly polished and
of the finest quality, when one feels the velvety surface, the sense of touch is as delightful
as the vision.
We have specimens from all the manufactories of Japan of these pieces of agate, jasper,
and variegated ware, and it is only the Satsuma factory, celebrated for its exquisite products,
with its delicate crackling so fine as to be like jewellery, which has noti reproduced
specimens of the ancient traditionary decoration in coloured enamels. *
 Contents of Number 8

H O KUSAIS MAN-GWA, by A ry Re n a n ........................................................... 83

DESCRIPTION OF P L A T E S ................................................................................91

SEPA RA TE PLA TES.

id . Sto w areSak Bottle.

E F. TW O Pages from the Man-gwa. B y Hokusai.

IH. Double Plate Night Ite. B y Utamaro.

CC. Three Industrial Designs.

GI. View of Fuji-yama. By Hokusai.

HA. Four Sword-guards.

E j. Decorative Design.

CJ. Study of Wild Vine.

BC. Buddhist Mask.


13rav, .impr. par Gillot
 HOKUSAI'S MAN-GWA.
(Concluded.)

Alas, our enumeration of the contents of the Man-gwa must be

but dry and much abridged ! The Man-gwa is a whole world. One
asks what Hokusai can possibly have forgotten. There are no repetitions,
no omissions, and the volumes seem of a perfect equality.
How plainly it shows that, throughout, Hokusai had the intention of being
useful! He devotes several pages to studying the draughtmanship of rocks;
elsewhere he interests himself in the eddies _ in water, in the manner that
leaves are connected with stalks, and in the veins of these leaves. He
designs European firearms, carronades, and pistols ; he consigns to his sketch
book studies of the effects of ice, mysterious grottoes, tidal waves. He
struggles with the rapidity of nature, in portraying geysers, a cyclone, clouds,
 flames, and even lightning. One sees how he loved move
ment, he who determined to draw life from beginning to
end. To represent motion was his great ambition. It
is not correctness, effect, harmony, but movement itself
which he so desperately pursues, sacrificing all to attain this
object. This in reality is the chief characteristic of the work of
Hokusaithis it is that strikes us most, andlet us confess it at
once is this that puts us Westerns out of countenance. Our
art is entirely opposed to this. It is constructed on the absence of
movement, on a sort of perpetual retouching from nature. Move
Woodman and Child,
by Hokusai. ment seems to us a burden upon truthwe mistrust it as an excess,
a danger.*
Movement! It is everywhere in Japanese Artin architecture, in sculp
ture, in drawing. Only the Great Buddha is quiescent, and he is so
eternally ; but at his feet life multiplies itself, and works in immoderate haste.
A swarm of pigmies moves round himone might say the same of a mad
flight of insects dancing in a ray of sunlight round a lotus bloom. Japanese
artists delight in liveliness. Stiffness, heaviness, straight lines, logical and
carefully set rules are their aversion. They throw themselves recklessly into
amusement, only to stop when destitute of breath. Their means of expression,
simplified as much as possible, lend themselves admirably to rendering hurried
movements and spontaneity of action ; as they are minute observers, so they
reproduce actions that we take no cognizance of.
There is nothing in common between the art of the
extreme East and ours. The primary matter is different;
curved lines abound, and, above all, perfect symmetry,
which is a powerful decorative medium, and con-stitutes
life, movement, freshness, and naturalness. The Japanese
paint the physical part of the universe without regarding
the fact that they are dealing with the moral part. They
do not portray joy, sorrow, love, faith, as we do; they
paint strife, excitement, tragic and comic grimaces. Humour
is with us reserved for the lower styles of art ; in Japan it
is one of the elements of the highest art, because humour
is produced by movement. The heroes of Japan, the

* I have explained my meaning on these questions in I)A rt Japonais, Paris, Chamcrct,

 personages of romance, like the gods of the
Japanese Pantheon, have huge shapes, distorted
faces, and highly-strung nervesall their animal
machine participates in action. It is evident that
there are two men in the author of the Man-gwa
the naturalistic and the idealistic. One must not be
startled by this latter term. Hokusai is not only a
lover of visible nature ; he is a dreamer also, an
imaginative painter.
Bucket of a Well, hy Hokusai.
One is inclined, onsuperficially knowing the
art of the East, to consider the great Oriental races
as no more than industrious swarms of bees and with but limited intel
ligence ; a common instinct, we think, animates every individual, but there
isnothing out of the usual. The artists in those regions must produce
their works, as beesmake honey, by some unknown means. Nevertheless,
when a personal wish is felt there, it is the shadow of a thought. The arts
of the East are naturalistic, and, above all, decorative, yet in certain cases
they play animaginative part; In the Man-gwa these are side by side
with specimens of realistic work, sccnes of imagination. T.he imaginative part
has two sources :
1. The ancient religious legends. There 'exists in the Buddhist religion
so full of serenity and. beauty an unlimited seriesof demon gods, a
Pantheon haunted by infinite devilry.
2. The artificial want general in all races, but
greatly developed in the Asiatic, to equal Nature
in her productions, not being able to equal her in
her forces. Such, it seems, is the origin of
caricature, which is an idealistic manifestation of
art. By a great psychological effort, the Asiatics
have created the hideous by studying the laws
of the beautiful. They have dreamt of the
monster, and have created him also ; they have
delighted in their work as a sort of defiance to
nature ; they have taken pride in giving the life
of artistic workto that which never existed, to
fantastic animal forms, and to human shapes
convulsed by unnatural passions.

Edge of a We.!, by Hokusai.

3f Travellers in tbe snrttfnc foot of Fujyama, by Hokus:
cumstances, may be counted in thousands. The
Japanese artist is like a good, well-educated, honest
and light-hearted child. He has a joyous faculty
of loving, observing, and remarking, which ancient
and worn-out races lose through the pre-occupation after
the work and toil and thought of centuries. The smallest Design, i.y issai.
thing amuses himthings which we pass over without noticing. He opens
his great intelligent eyes before the splendour of nature. At the age of
eighty was not Hokusai as rcccptivcto employ an ugly modern wordas
a young child ? The exuberance of the old man surprises us ; it ought also
to touch us. Nothing has tarnished the brightness of his gaiety and his wit.
The world is a great garden in which he plays in innocence, making
charming posies and watching the flight of the butterflies.
Every one must at any rate gather from the Man-gzua the two following
lessons :
I. The union between the greater and the industrial arts should be of
the closest, and be in no way humiliating
to the painter.
2. Love of nature and a continuous
study of the humblest objects in the
world make art fruitful and render it
infinite, A quarter of an hour of real
emotion is worth a whole day of over-
scrupulous study. Flowers are as worthy
of study as men.
ARY RENAN.
 D E S C R IP T IO N OF PLATES.

While M. Renan continues his study of Hokusais Man-gtm, we continue our reproduction of
some more of the endless scenes reflected in this mirror of Japanese life.
Plate D F combines two pages of the Man-gwa. That on the left has all the character of a
leaf torn from a pocket sketch-book, on which one has jotted down the image of every living thing
that had been seen during some long country walk. First we see the grasshopper, bending
his long legs before he makes a leap, and next an uncommonly large earwig makes his way
along with every appearance of elasticity. In a corner of the page there are grouped a spotted
spider, a humble bee with short wings, and some thin-bodied insect. A silkworm extends his
ringed body as he awaits his coming transformation. Lower down is a woodlouse, a chrysalis, an
ant, and a salamander, and, governing all of these, the form of a long snake marks the page with its
bending and graceful curve ; and at the bottom a space has been left just large enough for the fat
toad, in a quaintly foreshortened attitude with one foot lifted, thus showing the under part of its.
slim}- body. While, in drawing animals, Hokusai allows himself no freedom, and never considers
that he can follow nature too closely, it is quite different when he applies himself to his fellow-man.
He very willingly gives full play to his lively imagination and his caustic wit. The second half of
the present plate gives us some delightful examples. We are in the land of thin people, and before
us is a group of wrestlers. The great comicality of the picture is in the fact that Japanese wrestlers
(Sumos) are remarkable for their colossal size and fatness, the weight of the body being a
formidable point in a wrestling contest. At the same time, it would be judging Hokusai most
incorrectly if we considered that in a case of this sort also he allowed himself to dispense with
strict correctness in his representation of his subject. The personages, in spite of their unnatural
thinness, arc anatomically perfect ; the intertwining of the bodies is marvellously represented, and,
under the desperate strain, the bones seem ready to break. The judgeto be recognised by the
traditional fan which is used as the signal in the contestwatches, attentively every movement, and
seems vastly amused by so strange a spectacle. Two other wrestlers, not less emaciated than the
first, await their turn outside the sanded arena, which is bounded as usual by a circle of rolled up
straw'.
Just as uncommon is the lower scene, in which the series of thin people is continued.
Dissension has arisen between man and wife in this case, and has degenerated into a
ferocious battle. Each one of the combatants has taken some household utensil ; already the
ground is strewn with broken earthenware, and matters might have become tragic had not
two officious neighbours run and separated the couple. Their task seems no easy one between
the enraged husband and wife. The confusion becomes general, and, as a result, we have most
original grouping and contortions quite fantastic.
 Plate CF. Arc they still more caricatures, these twenty-four types of blind people that Hokusai
shows us on the curious page before us ? One might be tempted to believe so at the first glance, and
if one only judged superficially. M. Renan has proclaimed this truth, that those accustomed
to a too discreet reserve in the study of Japanese Art have naturally a tendency to mistake for
caricatures what are, with the Japanese, no more than the vigorous expression of some rapid
movement: The same feeling comes when they find themselves in the presence of some strongly
characteristic specimen of facial expression. Let us beware, then, of misconstruing the intention of
our artist, who has evidently in the present case applied himself to a most serious study. It is to
trace the effects of blindnessthat infirmity so common in Japanon the visages of different
individuals according to the variations in their temperaments, their ages, or even their social status.
Here there was a wide field for observation, and doubtless most tempting to an artist no less
skilful in remarking the most subtle shades of character than in rendering them with wonderful
truth. How striking is the variety in the types represented ! And one discerns easily the attitude,
the character, and the expression which the malady has given them, changing the original
appearance of each person. With some the effects have been less severe, for they seem to submit
comparatively calmly to the ailment ; with others, in the place of gaiety, the intellect has remained
no less lively, but more inclined to iil-humour, to judge from .their features. Other faces show
resigned sadness, stupefaction, and, almost, half-wittedness ; in fact, the whole plate is a truthful
picture of an interesting, but, unfortunately, far too numerous class.

Plate IB, by Hokusai, shows a pheasant in full plumage, preening his brilliant and luminous
feathers. Our plate is taken from the celebrated album, Shashin Cioafu, of which wc have already
spoken (No. 7). We mentioned how rare it was to find proofs of this lovely book, of which few
of the great European libraries can boast specimens. Amongst these may be cited the Royal
Library at Leydento which Baron Siebold bequeathed his Japanese library at the very time that
the Shashin was publishedthe National Library of Paris, as well as the complete and splendid
private collections of Messrs. Louis Gonse and Th. Duret. Our principal collectors consider this
book the most remarkable specimen of Hokusais engraved work ; and this opinion is justified
by the splendid broadness with which the very varied subjects in the volume have been treated.

Plate A JC reproduces the subject of a kakmono from the brush of Teho-Sui, who belongs to
the Shijo School, as did the author of another kakmono representing sparrows and bamboos,
given in No. 7.
Is it necessary to again draw attention ft) the mastership of Japanese artists in such subjects
as that before us? Do we want once more to demonstrate the variety and freshness of the
different aspects under which the same bit of nature, already treated a hundred times before,
presents itself from the artists brush ? Here, unlike the companion-scene that wc have already given,
it is not the gentle fall of snow which, in Japan, ushers in the spring ; it is really terribly cold
in this grey atmosphere, and it seems not by accident that the artist has chosen such an effect. It
IS his object to draw the sparrow, avoiding the affectations of its ordinary movements, and
searching for some shelter against the rigour of a wintry temperature. Huddled as close together
as possible, the little birds sit on the snowy branch fighting amongst themselves for the best place.

Plate B F is a portrait of an actor playing a womans part, painted by Shunyei, of the

Katsukawa School. We have before remarked that all the artists of this school adopted the
prefix Shun, from the founder, Katsakawa Shunsho. Shunyei was one of his greatest disciplesy
and in portraits of actors he excelled. We do not consider it speaking too strongly when we
say that, among artists of every school, no one better than he could dress a personage : the folds
of his garments fall in complete ease, and the representation of the material itself is marvel
lously realistic. We shall be able to further prove this by more representative specimens of
his work than that before us. It is, of course, necessary to explain the presence of the pipe in the
hands of a personage dressed as a woman. Every one knows these tiny utensils, indispensable to
every Japanese of either sexindispensable, in fact, in the midst of a life of pleasure, where
manual labour is of secondary importance, constantly relighted in order to draw from them the few
puffs of smoke that so small a receptacle can give, then tapped in order to empty out the
remaining ashes before being replaced each time in its case, whence it is drawn again in a very
short space of time. Not even the shopman in the town or the labourer in the field dispenses
with this national habit, which produces a respite in work and produces perhaps some brief but
pleasant dreams.

A Design fo r Printing on Stuffs is composed of branches of chrysanthemum of different

varieties, from the commonest species, stiff and tight, to the most straggling sort, whose shrivelled
and tangled petals hang so picturesquely, and form a most graceful and original motive for
decoration. ________________

Plates I and DC are models of a like nature. The first is formed of the bold and beautiful
peony, of which two fragments are sufficient to cover a whole page. Plate DC represents a pool of
water furrowed by some rose-branches, over which a swarm of butterflies hovers.

In Plate HD three new forms of bronze vases are reproduced from the originals. That to the
right, with the tapering shape, is decorated with palms engraved in the ancient Chinese manner, and
is curiously enough only provided with one handle, which is decorated in a similar style.
The vase to the left has, on a flatter bowl, a most elegantly turned neck, whence project from
chimeras heads two graceful square handles.
The piece in the middle is in strong contrast, on account of its bold lines, which are continued
up to its brim, which is of a wide circular shape. This vase has neither handles nor decoration of
any sort. __________________ _

Plate F E reproduces some old patterns of leather. The engraved book, whence these
specimens are taken, was published in 1844 by a collector of the name of Yokeda Yoshinobu. The
specimens were copied from authentic pieces in his collection, which arc supposed to date from the
tenth to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. These leathers have at all times been made for
belts for armour, and one is astonished to see how advanced was the art at a very early date.
It is not less interesting to note the sort of design which was used for these kind of accessories.
A certain geometrical regularity seems to preponderate, and lends itself to the representation
of legendary animals, the guardian genii of the brave. Such is the dragon with the serpents body
armed with scales emerging from a pattern of waves conventionalised, and bearing on its head,
furnished with powerful horns, the sacrcd pearl of the Buddhists. Such is also the traditional
Dog of F6, sometimes represented in an attitude of quiet, and sometimes gambolling on a bed
of peony leaves. A ll these are original in composition, but in a severe ar.d bold style, thoroughly
in harmony with the use to which they were destined. The author of the work mentioned goes so
far as to state the names of the heroes who bore the armour from which these fragments came ;
and we remark among others, that the leather, decorated with chimeras and peony leaves, once
belonged to the famous Minamoto Yoshi-tsun (twelfth century).
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 THE SWORD.

<6
i. , u R larg i< :-sizi< :d s w o r d .

In the History of the Empire o f Japan, contained in the

Leiters i f lirais Caron. President o f the Duteh Colony in this
Country (France), (revised, added to, and published by Melchi-
sedech Thvenot, 1696), Mons. Caron says:
Once when two Japanese gentlemen met on a staircase
in the Emperors palace, their swords clashed against each other.
He who was descending was displeased because the other had
struck his sword, and said some words to him. The one ascending
apologised for the mishap, but at the same time added that
it was, after all, two swords which had touched each other,
and one was of equal value to the
other.
I will make you understand,'
said the quarrelsome one, 1what
is the difference between the
two ; and he straightway
 proceeded to commit hamkiricutting of the
stomach.
The other one, jealous of this advantage
that his enemy had taken of him, hastened to
serve on the table before the Emperor a dish
that he had in his hands, and returned to find
him who had made the quarrel dying of the
wound he had inflicted on himself ; having in
quired of him if he still, lived, he killed himself
in a like manner, saying to his comrade that he
would not have forestalled him had he not been at
the moment occupied about the service of his king;
but that he might die happy, for he had shown
that his sword was of equal worth.
The story, retold more recently in the Forty-
seven Worthies of Assauo, confirms the tradition
of ferocious susceptibility in heroic times.
In our daysor, at least, before recent legislation- the sight of arms
invariably excited the Samurais.
In Satsumaa province whose inhabitants are considered quarrelsome
and ill-humouredif a man in public, no matter for what purpose, has
drawn his sword against any one, he is not allowed to return it to its
scabbard without having terminated the combat by a death ; according to the
.law, he is obliged to fight until he has killed his adversary or fallen mortally
wounded himself. It is by virtue of these rigorous injunctions in times of
peace that the display ofevery kind of weapon is prohibited. The lance
and thedagger-blades must be in sheaths ; the barrels of guns are carefully
covered up, only to be removed in the case of an expedition into a hostile
country, or when escorting a criminal to the place of execution. So it was
that Sir Rutherford Alcockwho made it a custom to be accompanied at
Ydo by some lancers of his own nationwas requested by the Japanese
Government to hide the lance-blades of his escort, in order to avoid engendering
a supposition in the minds of the inhabitants of hostile sentiments.*
A young Japanese, a page in thehouse of a prince before the revolution of
1868, told me that sometimes a man in shabby and stained clothes appeared
at the gates of the castle, and begged for a hearing. He drew from his
* K . Lindau, 1864 ; Un Voyage autour du 'Jnpoiu
 belt his two swords, placing them in the hands of the pages, and was in a
short time allowed entrance. The younger people smiled at his strange
appearance, and then hastened to examine his swords, which were placed
upon a rack of lacquer decorated with armorial bearings. When the man
retired, he received back his swords, which were presented to him with
the greatest respect. Their exquisite quality bore witness to the fact that
they alone remained as relics of the former exalted position of their master,
the solitary witnesses of his fortune, spent often under a feigned ancestral
name.
A visitor of this sort could never have been an impostor. Stories are
indeed told of swords belonging to the nobles having been dishonestly acquired,
but they had invariably the effect of bringing ill-luck, and, besides, were
dangerous to possess, for they had a vindictive spirit in them.
It was in the endless and bloody feudal wars from the thirteenth to the
sixteenth centuries, between the Taira and the Minamoto families, that the
worship of arms came into Japan. The metal-workers in these times forged
armour, and suspended from strings attached to it pieces of paper as charms
against evil spirits, and they caused their finer works to be blessed by the priests
of Bishammon. The god Inari, who lives in the fir woods, and whose image for
this reason is often accompanied by that of a fox, on some occasions came
to help the forger in the making of his finest
swords.
These had names of their own, and
endued with magical powers. As an exanipl
their names, the little may be ta
One day a prince was pursued by his enerr
they had set fire to the grass on a hill
which he had taken refuge, and he was
rounded by a circle of flames ; but his m
sword sprang from its scabbard, mowed d
the dry grass, and prevented the fire reac
him.
But let us leave the enchanted king
dom of legends to inquire whence and
by what ancient and mysterious methods
arms reached the Islands of Nippon. What
were the tribes that first of all landed

Warrior in Ambush, after Hokusai.

there ? From what continents were
they brought by the unconquerable
currents and the storm-winds ?
Whence come. the rumours, trans
mitted from mouth to ear, that they
were dark-skinned, with their teeth
stained black (married women to the
present day stain their teeth black
Later on other strangers came,
and the first - comers
were driven up into
the mountains of Oho-
ye-yama. They then
became demons and
eaters of women; and
were armed with great
polished wooden clubs.*
The Stone Age, as it is
usually termed, is shown
by numerous examples.
In the second century
before the Christian era,
according to the Chinese
historian Ma-tuan-lin,
who published his Pro
found Researches in
Ancient Monuments in Nasuno-Yotti : an episode of the Wars of the Taira. After Hokusai.

the thirteenth century,f

the Japanese had only lances and bows of wood, with bamboo arrows,
which had sometimes bone tips.' Seibold, in his admirable study on Japan,
both ancient and modern, reproduces a fine suit of prehistoric armour. I
purchased in London an arm for throwing, or hand-to-hand fighting, in
green stonesuch as a Japanese saw in the hands of Coreans in the quite
recent war with that country ; an axe, found while excavating for the railway,
in green serpentine, of the most choice colour, and of a fine polish, and.
* The Story o f the Demon Shiuten D ji ; by F . V . Dickins. Triibner, London.
t T h e Uen-hien-toug'Kao was the subject of a paper read in 18 7 1 at the Academ y o f Inscriptions, Paris, and
translated in two volumes which were published by M. Turetiini of Geneva, in the AtsumJ-gusa.
 with the perfect outline of (/reek work, and with modifications at the angfles
which make it an object of art; and, lastly, some beautiful little arrow-heads
and fragments of knives, which are curved, and remind one of the flexibility
of a sword.
At the commencement of the seventh century of the Christian era,
Ma-tuan-lin states, on the authority of an ambassador sent to China from
Japan, that they have swords, lances, and axes as arms.
In this long interval, extending perhaps over a thousand years, who had
taught the. Japanese to work in iron? For we know from the annals of the
I airas that they had for a long period imported their iron from foreign countries.
At this time the Indian apostles, who .spread the gospel of the Sakyamuni,
were crossing the seas. Dharma, for instance, is often represented sailing on
a branch of the tea-plant, or on a sword-blade floating on the waves. Coinci-
dently with the arrival of the Buddhist religion through India, China, and Corea,
a great advance occurred in the manufacture of arms. Among temple treasures
are shown ancient sword-blades, misshapen and oxydised with agesuch as
are brandished by the four guardians of heaven who watch by the temples
and oversee the evil genii of the cardinal points.
I he real Japanese arm though is the katanaa sword slightly curved,
with one edge only, and sufficiently solid for use with both hands.
It is probable that before the discovery of the iron mines found in the
eighth century, Japan got iron already worked from Coreaabundant in
minerals anti more advanced in civilisation.
W e must here remark upon an unusual circumstance in the history of the
industrial arts, and that is, that the names of the makers who invented or
carried to perfection the forging and tempering of sword-blades are knownfor
instance, Masa-nobu and San-nor in the tenth
century. The quality of their work is of the finest,
and of an unequalled resistance. The Kami'sor
spirits of their ancestorscame to their aid \yhen
they hammered the pieces made of old nails, put
them in the furnace, annealed and tempered them, and, lastly,
they sharpened and polished them, and added the signature.*
The Japanese were, originally, careful not to divulge
M . Montefiorc possesse.-. in his wonderful collection o f arms a blade signed Sane-M ori.
T h e mounting, as nbu tlmt o f the little sword, issign ed Itijo-G ot (about 1840). These blades
are usur.lly provided with a groove fur the escape o f the blood. It w as necessary to clcan them
at after an action, as Wixxi causes indelible stains if not at once removed.
their secrets to other nations. Kaempfer tells ( a . d . 1755) how,,
in the year 1676, a Daikwan or administrator of the imperial
estate of Nagasaki, named Si-Tsugu-Feso, was convicted for
having collected together some swords which he proposed to-
secretly send into Corea. This was enough to cause his
death and . that of his whole family, which was a large one.
He was condemned to crucifixion, and his house was razed
to the ground. The Jesuits sent some swords to Louis XIV.,
which were preserved for a long time in the Petit-Bourbon..
Rembrandt had some which the captain of a Dutch ship had
given him in exchange.
The Dutch, in their first reports addressed to the directors
of the East India Company, drew attention to the immense
prices at whichthe Japanese princes valued their arms. They
have (.Memorable Embassades, Amsterdam, 1660) the same
madness for the jars for tsia (tea) and for kakmonos as they
have for their swords and daggers, which are often priced
at four or five thousand florins when they are the forging of
some celebrated workman. With regard to the fortune of a
Mikado, who died in 1631, Melchisedech Thvenot gives us-
the words that he uttered on his deathbed : I have always
held in great reverence these things as much as my ancestors
and you should make a rule to do so for this reason. Among
other precious articles, he gave to his son a sword curved in a
semi-circle with the signature Dzouky Massam; another
signed Samoys; another smaller, which bears the name
Bungo-Dyssero ; another, Massam. He left to his second
brother a sword signed Ozu-Massam ; to his third brother
(both princes had provinces of their own) a sword, some
pictures (kakmonos), and a little vessel for preparing tsia (tea)-
in, called mara-issiba.
At the close of the seventeenth century, the taste for luxury
and adornment had degenerated to such an extent with the:
Samurais, that they ornamented and painted themselves like
women. A certain Yodora Fatsyro, son of one of the rich
merchants in Osaka, ruined himself by wanton extravagance
and was exiled, and the Government confiscated his goods.
 In the list of his effects there
are mentioned a hundred and
seventy swords of all lengths.
It was the height of fashion
to match the pair of swords
with the dress worn. The
excellence ol the swords and
the art displayed in their
mounting were mentioned by
the Jesuits in their Le.'ftiy,
which were abundantly cir Wata-kousi
culated over Europe. To the (" Tcar-flesh*'),

reverend Fathers is due the

praise of having first admired them. They had sent to Saint-Sio-e an
embassade, which leaving Xagasaki in 15S2, arrived at Lisbon in August 1584.
These nophytes, belonging to the greatest families, were the object of the
greatest curiosity, and were treated magnificently. Philip II. received them at
Madrid with a familiarity of which he was not lavish. l ie addressed them as
"his cousins ; he sent them his carriages to visit the Escurialthen recently
finished showed them his treasures, his stables, and his armourv. **
Dunno-
o
one of these receptions, the King, to the great surprise of the Court, stood
for a whole hour asking a hundred questions, examining their silk robes,
their girdles, which he called scarves, and stopping to look at their
swords. What a scene for a painter of historical subjects ! The draperies
for ceremonial use, with their broad folds and great designs, the King always
in black, always grave, touching the rich materials, or remarking upon the
brightness of some sheath inlaid with mother-of-pearl.*
Three suits of armour, which formed a part of certain presents which
were sent to the King of Spain, are preserved in the Royal Armoury at
Yassaghi.ha
(Willow Leaf), Madrid; but they were much damaged by the great fire in 1885. A good
-Ahrow-).
idea, however, of their value and interest can be obtained from the etching
by Mr. H. Gurard, in Mons. Gonses IS A r t Japonais. They came from
the studio of the Miochins, a family noted during several centuries for their
manufacture of weapons of war. Dr. Mne has some magnificent specimens
of their work in his collection of armour and helmets ; these will be exhibited

* T h e Quinci Museum coniains a lacquer and giit screen, upon which is p ortrayal the Jesuits and, probably,
Fran cis X a vie r disem barking at Jap an .
 adroitly handled are brittle, and will not bend in the
manner Europeans are accustomed to.
Colonel le Clerc, who has collected at the Museum
of Arms a most interesting series of the war costumes
of every race and age, has kindly assisted me in my
experiments by sending to the Small Arms Factory at
Chatellerault some of the blades which the Government
received at the time of the French Exhibition of 1867 from the Prince
of Satsuma. The following are some extracts from his valuable official
report
I have submitted the blades to the examination of the master workmen and
superintendents of the Small Arms Factory, who you kn:jw are most experienced in all
questions of forging, tempering, and sharpening. They have brought to bear upon
them such searching tests that they must furnish us with useful information as to
the method of manufacture.
The blade presents two noteworthy peculiarities : the tongue is large and strong,
thus allowing the hilt, as well as the numerous mountings, to be stoutly fastened ; the
blade has a very thin section, both lengthways and sideways, which very much facilitates
the different stages of fabrication, as to which we can award nothing but praise to
Japanese artificers, for they accomplish with very rude appliances wonders which arc
beyond the possibilities of our very best workmen, assisted as these are with all the
resources of perfected machinery.
In order to examine the structure of the metal, a blade has been broken in
three different places. It has thus been easily ascertained, by means of a magnifying
glass, that the core is formed of a sheet of very wiry iron, covered on its two principal
faces and edge with a coating of steel ; the grain of the steel upon the faces is less
fine and close than that of the edge, which circumstance may probably arise from the
method of tempering. One may assume that the forger covercd a mould of iron on
three of its faces with a coating of steel, and that he then managed to attach the surfaces
which were in contact by means of a regular and methodical hammering, which produced
a kind of welding. The thicknesses of the two metals is most
regular, the welding is perfect, without any appearance of cracks or
indentations. This operation must present enormous difficulties
to be successfully and perfectly surmounted, as they are : often our
forgers could hardly believe their eyes. The raw material, too, must
be of the best quality, to judge from its grain and physical properties.
The tempering ought not to present many difficulties, when one considers
the tnickness of the blade and its lack of rigidity. A s it is, the maker is
content with tempering the edge only, to a width of about a quarter of an
inch: this is clearly visible after an examination of the grain, and by the
cracks which show upon the surface when the blade is sharply bent.
The sharpeners are even cleverer, if it were possible, than the forgers:
the shape and size of the blades is kept with the greatest exactitude, all the
 ridges have a perfect regularity ; the edge is wonderful, and the polish
very fine.
To sum up, the materials are excellent, and the workmen who have
worked them have been real artists. Such is the opinion of our most
capable experts. We can learn nothing that is profitable for our own
armament from the blades which you have sent to us ; but if you could
induce the Japanese workmen to come and give us their assistance as
forgers and sharpeners, I believe that they could instruct our master-
workmen in many ways.

Here I must stop for the present; another day I will

take up the subject again as regards the small-sword.
Bow Kxcrcsc, after Hokus
The great Iyyasu spoke as follows concerning this noble
weapon : For a Samurai to forget to wear his sword is an
unpardonable act ; the sword in the girdle is the soul of the Samurai. This
aptly sums up the whole matter.
PHILIPPE BURTY.

A Sword Swjlluwer, by Hukusai.

 D E S C R IP T IO N OF PLATES.

Plate A A H is the reproduction of a kakmono by Ganku (1750-1838), who was the

founder at Kyoto of a rival school to that of Shijo, established shortly before his time by
Maruyama Okio in the same town. Following the example of the last-mentioned artist,
Ganku professed the doctrines called realistic, which were destined to drive out the
academic method in the representation of living beings. But with this difference, that
he did not aim at attributing to his own epoch the exclusive ment of this innovation.
Going back in the history of Art, as far as theChinese masters of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, he proclaimed that similar lessons might be learnt from the work ot
early masters. It is thence that he drew the highest of his inspirations, and it is their
influence which is so evident in the celebrated pictures of tigers, which have gone so far to
perpetuate the renown of Ganku. One can judge by the present kakemono of the pcifection
the artist was master of in rendering the strength and ferocity of the animal.

Plate A JE , by way of contrast, gives us a pleasant specimen of the Shijo School to

which we have just alluded. These two pages of birds proceed directly from Okio. The
bamboos and chrysanthemums slightly bend beneath the weight of the tiny creatures which
have alighted on them. Nothing is more beautifully represented than the effort of the bird>
fluttering its wings and endeavouring to keep its balance on the flowering branch. The plate is
taken from an engraved album, of which the reproduction is in every way equal to the designs.
The stroke of the brush charged with Indian-ink, which in one strong line has traced
the foliage of the bamboo, is reproduced on wood with a truthfulness that deceives the
eye ; and, in the other drawing, the freeness of style which constitutes its chief merit is
not less admirably rendered. The book is without the signature of its author ; but these
sketches seem to us worthy to be placed among the masterpieces in their style.

With plate A BB we find ourselves again in the midst of a lower form of Art, whence we
have already borrowed specimens. This time we renew our acquaintance with one of the
last artists of note known in the era of decadence, Kuniyoshi ( 1800-1861), originally a pupil
of Toyokuni, but nevertheless largely inspired by the work ot Hokusai, as the engraving
before us shows, as the reproduction of one of the best compositions of the artist. It
would be almost impossible to go further into the popular style. The three men in the
plate, lost in the pleasures of angling, their characteristic type and familiar attitudes,
which could not be seen in any other employment, the simplicity of costumeall combine to
give this scene a feeling of absolute realism, and, although there is no poetry in the composi-
tion, no one can say that the vulgarity of the subject destroys the striking' impression of the
picture. The line of the horizon is immensely developed and bathed in the rosy rays of a sun
that is nearly set : a few white sails alone are seen in the distance on the surface of the
water. A spot of land, already made dusk by the rising shadows, seems to. taper off
gradually, while a few boats at anchor make a striking effect on the opposite shore. Nearer to
us there comes a boat, the occupants of which have carefully hidden themselves from the gaze of
inquisitive strangers beneath the .shade of an enormous umbrella, leaving us to guess their
occupation ; while quite in the foreground is a great eddy in the water round the pointed
rocks on which are perched with miraculous balancng-powers our persevering anglers. A ll is
enveloped in the limpid atmosphere of a calm spring evening. The scene represents the
mouth of the Sumida-gawa, in the bay of Yedo, near a place called Tpozu.

Plate , two designs taken from the Umpitsu Sogwa, by Tachibana Morikuni (1670-
1748), a work in three volumes, published after the artists death in 1749. The title, which
may be translated as The Book o f Quick Sketches, justifies itself by the examples we have
taken from it. They represent exactly the manner of the master, who by the simple
dexterity and certainty in his management of the brush,arrived at giving the desired form to
everything he jotted down on paper, in simple Indian-ink outlines. Each of the rough,
strokes thrown here and there pell-mell upon the paper, every one of the jagged and broken
lines, form a being or a thing constantly full ol lifewe were almost going to say of soul.
The contrast of the white space between the outlines constitutes an cffect of light which
represents modelling in a surprising manner. Would it be possible to imagine a more supple
effect than that given by the body of this squirrel, arrived- at by the ingenious use of the
brush ? The artist was supposed to be a wonderful caljgraphist, and we can easily give credit
to the notion.
Morikuni is worthy of an important place in Art. Amongst a great many works
illustrated by him, he created a highly valuable series of models for artisans, by whom
they have for more than a century been constantly used and applied in chasing and lacquer
making. ___ __________ ______

Plate A B F is a motive of decoration for stulfs or paper of a most elegant description.

Plate A j J is the reproduction of a small piece of a robe of biocaded silk of seventeenth

century make. On a checker pattern of various colours a flight of white cranes is displayed,
which break what might be monotonous in the geometrical ground. The design is of the
most imposing style, the colours are harmonious, and the whole effect is that of the grandeur
which characterised the lordly draperies of feudal times.

Plate A C C represents a bronze flower vase of eighteenth century workmanship, with a

granulated surface of green patina. It rests on three little lobsters, which, in spite of their
apparent fragility, give a solid substructure for the body of the vase, and form with it a
well-balanced whole. It has been all made in one mould, and oncc more shows us the
technical ability at which the Japanese had arrived in this sort of production. How natural
are the little beasts which curve and bend, forming the stand of the vase, and how much
more picturesque they are than the three commonplace feet which so often serve us for
supports in our objects of the same nature !

Plate A B J, a hanging vase in the shape of the pulley and the buckets of a well. It
is in the pottery made at Awata, a suburb of Kyoto, and dates from the commencement
of the eighteenth century. The chains of metal, necessarily shortened to carry out the ^
reproduction, somewhat mar the graceful effect of the object. They are easily unwound
from off the pulley, and so allow the little buckets, in which the flowers arc placed, to
have their respective positions arranged according to taste. The sort of pottery o f which
this piece is made was first manufactured by Ninsei, a celebrated potter who lived about
1700, and since then it has become almost customary to call all the specimens of this fabric
Ninsei. It is this sort which was formerly known in France as "vieux truite'' on account of the
minute crackling which is seen in the glaze, which is of a fawn colour more or less decided. In
the decoration blue and green enamels predominate, and they are frequently enhanced by the
addition of burnished gold ornaments. The first kiln at Awata owes its existence to Ninsei,
as do a certain number of others established by the master-potter in different parts of the
suburbs of the ancient capital. Before Ninsei, pottery decorated by means of verifiable
enamels was unknown ; it was he who first applied this decorative principle, which up to his
time had been used only for the ornamentation of Japanese porcelain.

Plate A C J is a group in porcelain. In spite of its considerable size (in the plate the
reduction is to a half), it is what we may call an ornament for a cabinetthat is to say, that
it has no practical use. The Japanese design a piece like this under the name of Okimono,
literally, object to be placed, which, in this acceptation of the word, means an ornament. The
specimen is in the porcelain of Hizen, probably manufactured towards the end of the last
century in a kiln belonging to the prince of Nabeshima. What gives it its character is the
soberness of the colouring and the absence of gold decoration. The subject, a very favourite
one in Japan, represents some pigeons perching on tiles broken from the roof of a temple:
it is round the temples that pigeons flock in hundreds. In the object represented in
the plate the tiles become blue in the burning ; one of the birds is pure white, while the
other has delicately tinted plumage. The kilns of Nabeshima were not used for commercial
purposes, and their productions were reserved for the royal palaces or the Shoguns Court.
vv
ABG
AJE
ABB
,
VT"
 family, taking rank only next to the Mikado, but which, since the rising
into power of the Tokugawas, whence came the Shoguns, had fallen in its
fortunes. He was intended for the diplomatic service, and was thoroughly in
favour of the European reforms which the younger generation demands. He
evinced not the slightest enthusiasm for my sword. Besides, he assured me
that the attendants of the ministers carried weapons exactly similar. One
day in October, when I should have expected him to. be engaged with a
sparrow-hawk that he was training to catch small birds in the fields in the
same way as a falcon, he made his appearance holding a long parcel wrapped
in white silkcontaining two swords rolled up in antique brocade*the beauty
of which I had often heard of from his friends. He said to mehis usual
politeness having something more of gravity than usual that his father had
chosen these arms himself before his departure for Europe ; that they would
be in much safer custody in my keeping, than in a bachelors chambers. That
the Katana was in perfect preservation, but the Wakizashithe small sword
had become slightly blunt.
He proceeded to' explain to me the rules of fencing, which are entirely
different to those of our masters of arms. Then every portion in detail he
named, commenting, if necessary removing, weighing in his hand, and care
fully replacing them. I was struck, as may be imagined, by so much friendli
ness and politeness. The friends of Prince S told me later, when
congratulating me on my good fortune, that on one lively occasion they had,
when opening some champagne bottles, cut the wir with the end of the
Wakizashi.
I willcommence mydescription of these swords by the Katana, but I
shall not tie myselfdown always to giving the technical terms. The sheath
{saya), in light wood, is lacquered in black. With the handlewhich is of
shark s skin (shark s palate)it measures rather more than thirty-eight inches.
The strongly-made cord ( tusaki) of black silk, passed through the suspending
ring lower down than the guard, formerly held the broad and flowing folds
of ceremonial robes. The end (kashirct) of shibuichi (an alloy of copper, the
tone of which can only be compared to
the light and shadow thrown by the
moon) and the oblong ring (fuchi) above
the guard (tsuba:) have, as a decorative
* T h e pair of swords which are worn in the belt, and w hich
constitute the distinctive m ark o f nobles and soldiers, are called
Daisko.

Experts examining Swords, from an Encyclopaedia of the Seventeenth Century.

pattern, petals from cherry blossoms in gold
carried down the meanderings of a stream.
The guard {tsuba) is of iron decorated on
each side with gourds hanging, with their
buds, their flowers, and their tendrilsit
is signed: n a r a , sah i (saku is the
Japanese equivalent of the Latin fecit).
Travelling Merchant of Old. Swords; from The Celebrated Spots in Kyoto,
A channel is cut along the whole length
of the blade on each side, which has the effect of reducing the weight without
lessening the strength. It has a grey tone without high polish, but at the
same time bright and gleaming as a block of ice straight from a glacier.
The edge is of a duller tone, and does not give back the bright reflections
of the light, and the sharpening is carried to such absolute perfection that
it proves the possibility of the legend, which tells of a sheet of paper being
cut through as it came across a blade held in a stream of running water.
The forger has inscribed his name on the part to be slipped into the handle,
which has never been steeled, and which is pierced by a hole, through which
a peg of bamboo is driven at right angles. His name was Kane-Tsugu, and
he lived in the sixteenth century. Arms which are distinguished by the title
ancient date up to the end of this century, since when collectors style
them modern. The polish, which has been remarked upon with the
greatest admiration by the chiefs of the Chtellerault factories, must have
been arrived at by means of patient and methodical rubbings with cloths
soaked in the sediment of grindstone troughs, whereby the blade was
gradually sharpened. It is evident that the making of selected weapons was
trusted by the nobles only to experts. In our climate all that is necessary to
keep it bright is to rub it from time to time with soft Japanese paper, and
never allow it to be oiled, or be touched by people who have not dry hands.
Occasionally these blades have
Sanscrit characters inscribed in the
hollow channel. It is no easy matter
to translate them ; they are abbrevia
tions of sacred signs, the names of
the five great Arias, or perhaps of
star constellations.
The small sword, which was with
the Katana and its inseparable com-
 panion in the life of a Japanese, gives rise to more varied con
sideration.*
The mounting is signed, Goto Mitsu Masa. The Gotos con.-
stitute a family of makers of sword mounts (the forgers themselves
in ancient times were sometimes also mounters), who have come
down in regular succession from the middle -of the fifteenth century
to our day. Without a single exception they have worked for the
Shoguns alone. Some of them have attached the name Goto to their
finest pieces of chiselling, modelling, and alloying of metals, but not one of
these could have been mistaken as coming from any other studio, so clever
and ingenious are they all. The Gotos worked in gold and shakudo in the
same manner as the ancient masters in iron, brass, embossed work, and trans
lucent enamels.f The series of signatures of the members of the head and
collateral branches of the family, with representations of imitations and
forgeries, formed two volumes even before the end of the eighteenth century,
issued for the use of collectors, who were passionate collectors of their work.J
Goto Mitsu Masa has put on the Kashira, or pommel, a branch of a
cherry tree half hidden by a notice, on which is written a warning to passers-
by : He who cuts a branch from this tree shall have his own fingers cut off.
Two gold ornaments (menukis) bound by and partly under a black
silk cord, which is wound round the sharks-palate skin covered handle,
and which were in the first instance meant to prevent the hand slipping,
represent the merciless chase of a crane
by a falcon. Close to the end a kind of
hook in silver, is intended to secure the
sword in the girdle (akisashi). The
guard, which projects but little, is oval
and of iron with incrusted decorations,
pierced with holes for the Kodzuka and
the Kogai to pass through. These
guards, of which the decorative variety
is almost endless, give the strongest
* See an article in the Ethnographical Review, Berlin, 1882,
by M. G-. Mller-Beeck.
t A volume upon The Sword is in preparation
Mr. Marcus Huish ; it will be published by the Fine Art
Society. .
See the index to the Lectures on Japanese A rt Work
by Mr. Ernest Hart ; delivered before the Society for the En-
coftragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce,* May, 1S86.

Workshop of a Sword Forger, from an ancient Encycbpxdia.

 ARTISTIC JAPAN.

proof of the genius of people.

The most astonishing, to my
mind, are those of hammered
or cut iron ; but we must
not allow ourselves to linger
on this subject, it is worthy
of a particular study to itself.
Moreover, they have been
brought into our modern com
merce by the importations of
A young Samurai trying on Armour after Hokusai,
our great merchants. Every
Samurai wearing by right two swords, had to have as a change several
sets of guards, each more or less valuable, more or less simple. Hence
the large quantities that have been sent over, although at the same time
they have nearly all disappeared in the torrent of circulation. Even the
most simple appeal to an artistic taste, covered as they are either with
bas-reliefs, or cut through with the greatest ingenuity ; they form an infinite
repertory of historic legends, or motives from nature, interpreted without
exception with taste and spirit. *
On the left side of the scabbard there is slipped into a groove a knife ^ V
(the A'odzukii) of which the blade is hidden, but the handle projects. On a V *
ground of shakudo (nauafco) with a hammered surface, having the appearance,
as it were, of a coating of caviare, the artist has continued the decorative
motive which is seen on the other parts of the sword, even on the least im
portant portions, such as the rings (the fuckis )a crescent moon emerging
from vapours in gold and silver, blossoms of flowers, and snow crystals.
jr -
The light snows of spring-time, buds bursting into flowers, and the silence
of the moonlight, are the triple theme of the Chinese poets ; here we have
them with the added grace of the Japanese artist.
The blade, often of flexible steel, is sharpened two-thirds of its length ;
on it we have only the makers nameNobu-Yoshi, at Myako. Occasion- .
ally these blades, decorated with transversal lines on> the reverse
side, have written on them the name of one of their early owners,
buddhistic prayers, short poems, or even series of landscapes such
as the Eight Views of the Lake of Biwa. These marks of
the graver on a material most difficult to work on, are of a
fineness and fidelity which are surprising to a degree.
 The kodzuka, I have heard said, was pushed into the fringed hair
which the warriors they have for ages worn flowing locks fastened up
before going into action. At the time of the American expedition under
Commodore Perry, 1852-54, in the islands of Liou-Kiou (which were perhaps
the cradle of the conquering Japanese), the chiefs still carried short arrows
through the knot formed by their twisted hair. In fact, the soldiers who
had wide lacquered helmets, wore them somewhat in the same position that
ladies wear Rubens hats to-day.
The kodzuka, besides being used to fasten the heads cut off in battle
to the saddle bow, was also a missile weapon whose special practice has
been represented by Hokusai in his Man-gwa, and which appears very similar
 one of the two grasps his shield, while his comrade
cuts his throat by throwing his kodzuka at it. At
all times it serves as a paper cutterJapanese paper,
being made of vegetable tissue, cannot be torn. The
1'oga.i (head-pin) balances the kodzuka on the opposite
side of the guard. It is formed of a
long blunt blade. The oldest that I
have collected are of iron sharpened on
two sides. It helped to mend the rents
in the leather belts that
have already been men
tioned.*
At a later date, when
horses had been imported
from Corea, the kogai
served for grooming their
hoofs, horses never being
shod in Oriental countries.
Also, at times it was
divided into . two longi
tudinal parts, and these
two narrow instruments
could be employed for
eating rice. One hears it
affirmed that one of these
An Attack, after Hokusai.
head-pins was stuck in
the scalp of an enemy by his victor in action, and that the proofs . were
collected when the engagement was completed victoriously, *
The mounting of the most ancient swords has but rarely been preserved,
as it is the custom to change them every twenty-five years. It is difficult
to form any definite opinion on the subject. Nevertheless, I have in my
collection a sword with mounts in cut iron, which is from the buddhistic work
shops at Nara, about the tenth century ; and it has a typical kogai, as, also,
has a sword from the arsenal of the Prince of Kaga, with a blade dated 1190.
The blade of the small sword,f whose description I shall now briefly
* See a Separate Plate in the last number of Artistic Japan.
t I prefer to use the words ** small sword," as the Japanese names are varied.
give, measures rather more than eleven inches. It is of a somewhat
bluer hue than that of the Katana, with a solidity which one can only
compare to natural crystal. It bears the signature, Haru-Mitsu,
inhabitant of the province o f Bizen, o f the village o f Osa-Fune,
and the date 1522. The clouds are the traces of the steeling,
and they reveal the methods of some special time, province, and
workshop. This complicated science should be studied by ex
perts.
The Katana was the fighting weapon. The Katana watched
over the life of its owner. The Wakizashi, on the other hand, was
the guardian of his honour, in the past, the present, and the future.
In the home it occupied a place designed for it in a special room,
on a sword-stand placed in a niche. It consummated the death of
Kpisode in a Siege, after
its conquered or insulted master, unable to do justice himself, or Hukusai.
condemned by law, but with the privilege of not submitting himself
to thesupremeterror of the executioner. It was the special weapon used
for Hara-kiri or seppu.Originally, vanquished warriors would not surrender
themselves to their conquerors.
The Hara-kiri was not officially recognised till the time of the Taiko-
Sama. In a chosen part of the house the family arid friends gathered
together, and in presence of an officer appointed by the prince, the doomed
one was clothed with a white robe open from the chest to the waist ; the judg
ment was listened to ; the witnesses were addressed, and the last injunctions
given. The small sword was taken, lying on a small tray raised onfeet. It
was covered in white silk as far as the edge. The man inflicted onhimself a
gash upwards, and at the moment that the features contracted themselves, at
the moment that mental power ceased, a friend, standing behind, cut off his
head. Count C. de Montblanc in 1865 thur,
concisely described itI quote his own
words : In Japan, the man who desrves
death, and dies by his own hand, is preserved
from the shame entailed by his crime. In
bravely accepting the responsibility of his
act, he, so to speak, destroys the guilt.
He bequeaths to his family the memory
. of his courage and dignity ;. it weighs in the
balance with the recollection of his crime,
and thus the moral position which was his right, and the respect in which he
had been held arc preserved.
Such is the moral signification of the Japanese small sword whose use
might be an honour to the most advanced civilization.

PHILIPPE BURTY.

- beneath the Cherry 'frees, after a Romance illustrated by Toyokuni.

 D E S C R IP T IO N OF PLATES.

Plate A E E . The Sword for ceremonial use and for combat, that is here reproduced with all
its accessories and separate parts, has a highly decorative effect It is a typical specimen of the
arms which the Daimios used in their courtly functions and their every-day life. It was called the
t i i -t a g a m a . Siebold has given a drawing of one, but does not name it. The blade is one-third
of an inch thick, is lightened by a deep channel on each side, is one inch and an eighth wide, and
fifteen and one-third inches long from the guard, which is of shibuichi. It comes from the forges
of Bizen, probably before the seventeenth century, but it is unsigned. The absence of any signa
ture on exceptional pieces was the special affectation of certain forgers. Their work was to be
recognised, however, by the various cloudings upon the surface. In the specimen before us, there
is no clouding. The mounts are also without signature, and are entirely of silver. They
must have come from an artist living on the estate of some daimio, or some master who
supported him. They appear to date from the middle of the eighteenth century. B y the
simplicity of effect, and the breadth of workmanship, they remind us of goldsmiths work
o.f the time of Louis XV. The mon or crest of the first possessors has been repeated in
twenty places on it, ingeniously chosen so as to prevent monotony. This armorial bearing is a
slight modification of that of the powerful family of the Arimas. The handle of the kodzuka ,
the kogai divided into two, the tip of the sheath pierced for a cord with double tassels, the
kashira, the upper part also pierced by a heart-shaped hole, the reason for which I am ignorant,
and a sort of hook which prevents it falling through the girdle when a deep bow is made,
are also all ornamented with it. The sheath is of lac, the colour of a raspberry, lightly sprinkled
with gold in flakes. The colour blends happily with the metal, and the beauty of the handle
adds greatly to the general effect of perfection. P h . B.

Plate A C F is the reproduction of a painting by Ogata Korin (1660-1716). Korin is, beyond
.0 Japanese^ artists, the one whose work is marked by the greatest originality. It is a rare
thing to find growing in the domains of art, a newly-created style, not the result of logical and
ordinary development, but the effect of successive methods. I f one is inclined to investigate in
this direction with regard to Korin, one will find oneself entirely on the wrong tack. His art came
from no outside source, he created it in its entirety. According to the rule jj s t laid down,
one might truly consider him as a pupil in painting of Sotatsu, an adept of the Tosa school,
tor from this master were derived the effects in mother-of-pearl, which characterise Korins work.
.But here is the limit of any visible signs of likeness, for, from the fulness of his compositions, and
the brightness of his tor.es, from_ the extreme originality of his interpretation of nature, which he
sees sometimes from some entirely novel point, even representing it with a conventionality,
intentional and strangely striking, it would be difficult to discover any forerunner of his work.
In many cases the apparently extravagant excess of his designs is carried to such an extent as to
disenchant his most passionate admirers. But in considering the brilliant execution and master-
hand shown m such passages, and by reference in another direction to works where the brush of
t e artist is more serious, and has complied with a wish for perfect correctness, it is impossible
to doubt that there is the profoundest calculation in the eccentricities which have at first surprised
S l ey and ,whset object _one now feels obliged to inquire into. This is not a difficult
, + oc,casion hen the name of Korin appeared in these pages (No. 5),
hJ ? ac nf t0 ,,him- art shouId ot retreat before certain exaggerations, when
muct Ke _ j j j . ,s , ow ? 1 ^ such a peculiarity of a subject. To this explanation a second
to deternine exactly the genius of the artist. I f it is true, as Mr. Gonse in the
o fT h f n so decidedly affirmed, that the feeling for decoration is the very essence
bPr n l ! f f asceticism, m order to understand its necessary and fundamental condition,
r ? every artist must do some decorative work. Not one of them could
race Knrin TToL0 *1 " f .runnin? th? risk of belieing the inborn temperament of his
>perhaps, submits to the rule in a manner entirely unconscious. The decorative
idea flashes out in His work very visibly, it haunts it without ccasing', and comes before any
other consideration. I lie most celebrated works of the artist, his larger compositions, of which
one alone serves to cover the entire surface of a whole screen, are simply a sort of defiance
flung at all exact analysing. But the effect of the colour becomes dazzling, and the power
of the drawing is wonderful. More modest in style is the page that we have reproduced. It
is taken from a set for a screen with eight leaves. In these paintings of flowers the effect,
although it is intense and original, is obtained without sacrifice to truth. To the decorative
idea, an attentive observation of nature, freely interpreted, is added knowledge of rendering,
and a complete knowledge of form.
Plate A CG. ^ I wo birds (the curucca or garden warbler of Japan), among rose trees by
moonlight ; by Sugakudo, taken from an album of forty-eight engraved plates of birds and
flowers, which appeared in the middle of the present century. Was Sugakudo, when he
designed these pages, following the example of Korin, moved by a preconceived desire to
fill them with the intensely decorative feeling which makes them stand alone in their beauty?
We cannot know, but it is certain that, consciously or not, he succeeded in producing an
extremely beautiful .series, as well from this special point of view, as with regard to the truly
lifelike representation of a collection of birds of various kinds, of which each is given in its
natural surroundings. From every plate in the series, our decorative artists might find
some thoroughly interesting studies, and we propose to make more than one reproduction for
their benefit.
The Plate F J, after Harunobu, will be recognised as the fellow to an engraving reproduced
in No. 3, accompanied by explanations with regard both to the work and the artist; to this
we would refer our readers.
Plates A D and AD I). Our series of industrial models continued. Plate AD represents a
quantity of leaves from the maple, with those of the ghinko biloba, but the latter treated in a
fanciful calligraphic manner. Plate A D D shows branches of bamboo mixed with full-blown
chrysanthemum blossoms.
Plate . Six sword guards in iron, each executed by a different hand, and for this
reason calculated to lend themselves well to study and examination, inasmuch as a similar
subject is treated in different manners. Within the border of one of the guards are a shrimp
and a fish of the family of the cyprinoides, lying on rose leaves. Close by is a lobster, bent
so as to form by itself an arabesque ; and, in another, there is a carp fighting with the
foaming waves. A t the foot of the page a silurus, with its smooth skin, finds itself arranged
with a gourd. The series is completed with a guard formed of a dragon with curving body, as
artistic as it is lithe, and lastly with a sixth guard, decoratedtruly no subject is despised by the
Japanese, even as a decoration for his deeply venerated swordwith a common turnip, with" boldly
treated foliage.
Of these six swords, four are signed : that with the dragon bears the name of Itshiriu-Uki ;
that with the lobster was made by Xori-Hid; Hana-Fussa forged the polished iron silurus, and
the gourd ; and the one with the shrimp and the fish together, is the wrork of Kinai.

Plate A B C represents a vase of earthenware, decorated with a flowering plum branch, and
made at Kyoto in the eighteenth century. The style of decoration is that of Kenzan, some clever
imitator seemingly having finished the work.
Ogata Kenzan {1663-1743) was the celebrated potter, one of wrhose productions we showed
in No. 6. We may here mention the fact that this artist was the younger brother of Korin.
Both of these men were distinguished by a universal genius. Korin added to his celebrity
as a painter, that of being a wonderful lacquerer ; having produced boxes the possession of
which causes such warm discussion at the present time ; while Kenzan was the potter that we
know, as well as one of the most refined painters, and sometimes also a lacquerer.

Plate A B I is the reproduction of a bottle in bronze of a dark patina, dating from the
seventeenth century. It is Chinese in style ; the gracefully curved neck resembles the head and
throat of a swan, so completing by a motive from nature an outline entirely the idea of the artist.
The piecc is unsigned.
 Contents of Number

T H E WAKIZASHI (Small Sword), by P h ilip p e B u rty

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES . . .

SEPARATE PLATES.

AEE. Sm all Sw o rd, with Sheath, Kodzuka, and Kogai.

A B C .; F lo w er V ase in Bizen Pottery,

AD. Decorative Design. Flowers and Leaves.

C F. Kakm ono. Poppies. B y Korin. (Double Page.)

CA. S ix Sw o rd G u a rd s.

F J. A Y o u n g G irl. By Harunobu.

ADD . Decorative Design. Bamboo and Chrysanthemums.

CG. B ird s in the Bam boos. Moonlight.

A B I. Bronze V ase w ith S w a n s N eck.

GfUV. IMP. lMl liU.UfT.
ADD
 R IT S U O AND H IS SCHOOL

C o m p a ra tiv ely fe w y e a rs h a v e p a sse d sin ce J a p a n ese A r t w a s first m ad e

know n to u s in E u r o p e b y its b e st a n d m o st ch aracteristic e x a m p le s ; for
u n til 1830 n ea rly a ll th a t h a d b e e n s e e n in E u r o p e w ere th e form al and
b a sta rd p ro d u cts d e stin e d for E u r o p e a n con su m p tion , an d m an u factu red for
E u r o p e a n u se, w h ic h w e r e e x p o r te d d u rin g th e 18 th cen tu ry b y th e D u tch ,
to m e e t th e c o m m e r cia l rath er th a n th e artistic E uropean d em an d . The
 study of Japanese Art has therefore had to be recommenced
and reconstructed during the last
few years ; and although we possess
already the larger outlines of its
history, and the means of identify
ing certain of its masterpieces (of
which many are in private hands
in Europe), a large field
remains open to investi
gations. We have yet
much to do to define the
Drawing from an Album, by Hoetsu (School of Ritsuo).
individuality, the tempera
ment of its masters, and the history and characteristics of its schools.
The history of the Art of the West has been handled in every sense :
its psychology and its technique have been studied, and even its degeneration
and its counterfeits have been analysed. Not only have the lives and the
influence of each of the masters of Western Art been closely followed up, but
their artistic descendants, the influence which they have undergone, or which
they have exerted, the comparison of their works and the changes of their
style, have been the subject of deep study. To the names of Holbein or of
Palissy, of Grinling Gibbons or of Wedgewood, of Albert
Durer or of Benvenuto Cellini, are attached in our minds
the association of periods accurately classified, and of
styles definitely recognised. On the contrary, except
among a small number of Japanist experts, the name of
a Japanese artist is nothing more than the shadowy name
of an unknown being ; at any rate it does not excite the
idea of a period, of a style, or of a personal genius.
Japan, for us, was born yesterday; although its distance
from us has been relatively annihilated, its difficult and
complex language separates us from it, and it is not easy
to obtain the information which would make the name
of each of its masters a flag under which would be ranged
epochs, styles, and preferences.
To attempt such a work with any completeness or
extension is perhaps rash at the present time, for certain
documents are still wanting ; nevertheless we have been

Portrait Statuette of Tenjin, by Rtsuo

(Hart Collection).
 front rank. Ile showed himself under very divers aspects: he
touched almost every branch of art, and succeeded in all that he attempted.
We find him as painter, sculptor, lacist, potter; and the clay which he
modelled, the lacs which he polished, the ivory or the wood which he
carved, the panels which he decorated, are counted to-day among the chefs-
d'uvre of art.
Ogawa Ritsuo, of Kuwano, province of Is, held the rank of Samurai,
that is to say of the knightly warrior, but he early renounced the career of
arms to turn towards art. In Japan the class of nobles had but one
occupation under the Shoguns, that of war. It was a degradation to
occupy themselves in agriculture*, and especially so in commerce :
these were considered occupations unwo-*"1 ' " - r"11 u''~
but the noble, even were he prince
laid down his sabre to take up the b
not derogate from his dignity. His i
artistic achievements greater lustre an
The netsuk, skilfully sculptured, counted
tion even more than a head courageousl
Thus ,it may be understood that I
birth, remained none the less samurai
complished his chefs-d'uvre. Nay, n
were not highly born, but who were
court of a great daimio in virtue of tl
were frequently ennobled, and took
amongst the two-sworded men. I pos:
siderable number of objects of art signet
accompanied with the titles of Hogen
(lord); among them masks of No, sig
No-Wasa, a princely title, and not only

Statueite of a 4 in lacqnere wood (Hart Collection).

 but I am sure also in many other collections in this country, there exist
kakmonos, netsuks, sword guards, and masks of N, of which the authors
were ennobled for ,their artistic eminence.
Ritsuo, already celebrated as a soldier, and even as a tactician, made it
his glory to become an art workman, and it is as such we have to study
him.
It has already been said that if our middle ages were familiar with
artist workmen such as the Benvenuto Cellinis and the Maestro Georgios, a
wide separation subsequently opened between art and craft, between great
art and minor art. In Japan no difference was known between great art
and minor art ; art was never separated from craft. The people had such
a craving for, and such a sense of art in their private life, that they applied
it to themost ordinary objects of domesticity. Their sabres, the medicine
boxes and netsuks which hung at their girdle, the toilet utensils of the
lady, the writing and despatch boxes, the tea jars, the letter presses and
the manuscript boxes, contributed to the ornament of the home or the
costume. In the work of Ritsuo this constant intimate union of art and craft
shows brilliantly.
As a sculptor he is seen in many works, some of which are here illus
trated from my collections. One is a statuette, a portrait figure, of the
Minister lenjin, in full ceremonial dress, grave, sedate,
life-like, full of dignity and grace. Another, a pair of
Nis (guardians of the temple), reductions of the cele
brated N10 at Nara of the iith century. Minus cuius
colossi, a little less than a foot highthey preserve all
the characters and much of the grandeur and strength
of the celebrated originals. Or again, this Shoki, the
warrior of Chinese antiquity, the legendary persecutor

Medrcine Box incrustcd in Mother o Pearl aad Ivory,

by Hanzan (Pupil dfiRitsuo).
 the human form, but are
instinct with force.
Ritsuo, while following
these antique models, develops
his genius in the energy of form,
the strength of modelling, the
truth of expression, and the skilful arrangement
of draperies. He has known how to put a
personal mark upon his work, and has succeeded, in
a miniature statuette, in producing much of the striking
effect of the huge and grandiose originals. Such is
of dai- the opinion of eminent sculptors to whom I have
mios. shown these works. Neither in the Shoki nor the
The an portrait statuette of Tenjin has he preserved the
cient tra natural colour of the wood. The artist has skil
ditions of japan fully covered it with .a chocolate lac, with
loved these fantastic touches of delicate gilding of miniature finish
forms of animal such and elaborately graceful scrolls on the robes,
as the chimra on and with roseate colour on the face.
which the Shoki is After the sculptor we see the lacist
mounted. To the Euro appear, and thus we can follow him and
pean eye they present but see him pass to another branch of art
little attraction, and while under the impulse of the need of new
the amateur trained in the decorative effects. The lac work of
traditions of the far East these figures would, however, give only
becomes familiar with them, an incomplete idea of the skill of
and with the quality of mind Ritsuo, if other objects issuing from
which begot them, the public his hand did not test, in the deli
generally are still somewhat dis cate management and decoration
concerted in the presence of these of the lac, his science of com
strange and fantastic types. The position and his profound
Ni are exact reproductions of works knowledge of the craft. In
of an ancient date ; secular manifesta his love of subtle and varied
tions of strange vigour, born under decoration, one material
Chinese and Buddhist influences ; they are applied alone,
treated according to the convention which or two
was then accepted in the representation of materials

Dcoration of a P*nel incrusted with Lac, by Ritsuo

( CoHectioa).
 in juxtaposition do not suffice. Everything comes
under his hand and seems good, provided that
the substance employed concurs in perfecting the
effect soughtmother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, pot
tery, metals, and enamels contribute to enrich his
palette. He incrusts, he models various tinted
compositions, he damascenes, he solders and rivets
with marvellous character. I select from the
examples which I have at hand almost at random.
Here is a little panel in which we find expressed
a fable analogous to the legend of the fatal box
of Pandora, a universal myth which haunts all
literature. From a background of black lac the
Medicine in Lac by Ritsuo (Hart Collection).
demon emerges, modelled in a special composition
which recalls the gesso of Italy. The mask and the bton are in green and
blue gesso, the shell is encrusted in white pottery, the armorial bearings are
in mother-of-pearl, and all these substances, far from being discordant, melt
into a learned harmony and produce a very sober effect. It is here that
Ritsuo shows himself a true ini
tiator. No one before him had
attempted the combination of such
a variety of materials. By the side
of mother-of-pearl, of lac, and of
goldof which the whole gamut
was probably already known in
Japanhe quickly perceived the
varied resources which the use of
clay and the introduction of kera-
mic- effects permitted, and so he
becomes a keramist who models
and bakes in a little oven con
structed in his workshop ; at first,
small pieces expressly for the pur
pose of enriching his lacs by in
crustations, and then, tempted
and drawn away by the pleasure
of the craft, we see him treatino-

Shoki by Ritsuo (Hart Collection). Page 14a*

 clay alone and enamelling it.
He becomes a potter. On a
panel of wood hanging before
me, as I write, the soft parts are
skilfully rubbed away so as to
show all the beauties of the
natural grain, and producing the
hard veins in relief, giving a
solid decorative effect by their
undulating lines. He models
on this, or in very low relief,
Lac , by R hhuo {Han Collection). and boldly foreshortened, an
Apostle of Buddha in an atti
tude of ecstatic prayer ; the figure a harmony of brown and chocolate gesso,
clothed with diapers in pale green faience. In another panel on my walls
a fish and weeds in gesso, and shells in faience stand out in relief on a
background of red and low-toned gold.
The gold of Ritsuo, like the gold of Korin, would deserve a special study
of itself, so full is it of novel and rare effects, and so capable of running
through a whole gamut of sober but yet brilliant tones of red, yellow, and
green. A magnificent writing-box was shown in London by Mr. Hayashi ;
a ceremonial elephant in brilliant colour, with
incrustations, made the cover one of the
most beautiful pieces of decoration
which can be seen. Mr. Bing
possesses a cabinet charmingly
decorated with a kingfisher, of
which the design is reproduced
here. It is a panel of brown
wood with the veins in relief ;
the bird is polychromatic faience
in one piece ; all the gamut of
reds, greens, blues, and greys are
employed in it. The inro en
graved in the text from my
collection, showing the portrait of
Daruma, is also in coloured gesso

Box ia Lac, by Ritsuo (H art Collection).

 in low relief incrusted on natural wood. A manu
script box reproduced in Mr. Huishs work on the
.Arts and Crafts of Japan is decorated with temple
tiles in green faience, one of them showing a demon s
head in black, grey, and gold. A small box belong
ing to Mr. Bing is in pottery. One might be
tempted to push with the foot this broken end of
tile, so well are the characteristic ornaments imitated,
and so plainly do the broken edges seem to show
(where their varnish is artfully worn away) the
rough grain of a block of baked clay. On the
lower surface of this little box Ritsuo has imitated
his own seal, which seems worn and broken,
although in reality it is perfectly complete.
It is here that perhaps the fissure in the armour of a great artist is
seen. He loves to play with his material. He pushes his virtuosity to the
point of deceiving the eye of the amateur as to the substances employed.
He amuses himself with making (and with what astonishing ability ! ) a piece
of pottery which is in reality a piece of lac, or a quasi sculpture in wood or
in bronze, which is really made of potters clay. We may fairly ask our
selves whether an artist of ability ought to descend to this trifling ; but we
may remember that amongst ourselves also certain artists of the 18th century
committed themselves to this form of illusion. Carlo Crivelli painted broken
marble so that the eye might well be deceived. Ritsuo, playfully handling
his brush, amused himself with this innocent pleasantry. On two grand
screens, with the background of gold, he has painted appliqus of ancient
images, the torn remains of antique pictures, and with such truth, that
amateurs and painters, assembled to examine it, could not believe their eyes,
and that even the touch hardly sufficed to convince them of the humorous
and brilliant illusions in which the master delighted. But, outside these
tricks of skill, Ritsuo knew how to be a painter of consummate science.
More than one kakmono in European collections show his mastery of
delicate drawing, of exquisitely graduated colour, and his intimate knowledge
of the various schools of Chinese and Japanese painting. Around such an
artist a school grew up, although none of his pupils, reached the mastery of
Ritsuo. Among those who became followers of his style, must be men
tioned especially Hanzan, Zeshin and Kenya for their lacs, and Hoitsu for
lus paintings. Hanzan came next to the master as a lacist in certain effects
of great brilliancy ; in decoration of warm colour. A large manuscript box
by Hanzan, incrusted with fishes and shells, and crustations in proper colours
upon a background of rich avanturine gold, shows a mastery over the broad
effects of form and skilful tintings of lac and of pearl, which not even
Ritsuo excelled, and which no one else has approached. But these are
qualities more easy to imitate than vigour of drawing, fecundity of invention,
passion and originality, or profound science in arrangement of the qualities
in which the painter, sculptor, and keramist, to whom I have devoted
these imperfect lines, show among the most brilliant of his fellows.
Hoitsu, like Ritsuo, was bom of noble family (i 760-1827). He was the
son of Prince Sakai, but left the aristocratic world to devote himself to art.
The specimens of work which I possess seem to me to savour of the
inspiration of Korin as well as of Ritsuo. It has the qualities of brilliant
colour, and original, but fantastic invention and a purposeful disdain of
naturalistic effect. Zeshin has only just ceased to work. Like Ritsuo, he
wielded the brush and the graver, as well as being an accomplished lacist. He
has a wilder and less restrained fancy than the illustrious master who seemed
in no small measure to have inspired his work ; and he inherited, or
adopted, the fancy for imitating in lac every other kind of material. You
take up a plaLe which shows all the golden sombre browns and yellows of
an ancient bronze. You find it light as a feather. It is made of the finest
lac, perfectly reproducing all the lustre and subtle varieties of colour of a
bronze discoloured by age. His surimonos are especially celebrated, and
are distinguished by an inexhaustible fancy, but are often disfigured by care
less drawing and defective sense of beauty.
Kenya is another Hanzan, but feebler in colour, and far less skilled in
the intimate marriage of material, in firmness of outline, and in richness of
pictorial effect.
 D E S C R IP T IO N _ O F PLATES.
Hokusai gives us a subject for Plate ABA. We again find him taking a careful study
from Nature, in this one of the Thirty-six Vieivs of Fujiyama, from which book we have
already given a specimen in No. 4 of Artistic Japan, and we would refer the reader for fuller
details to the last mentioned number. The Thirty-six Views constitute a series of landscapes
printed in colours, and of a size larger by one quarter than our reproductions. Landscape is here
the single object in the mind of the artist, in contradistinction to the Hundred Views (whence we
have also already taken pages) which combine in their composition also scenes of Japanese Life,
and where Fujiyama is hardly more than a shape in the decorative idea.
Plate A B A shows a deserted portion of the province of Soshin, or Sugami, called Umazava,
in the neighbourhood of Yedo. Fuji raises his snowy crest above the pine forests which clothe
his sides, and craves search at their leisure in the pools among the marshesthe lowest slopes of
the mountain are cut into broad tracts by a mist whose surprising thickness will not surprise those
who have been able to put themselves absolutely in the presence of one of the remarkable fogs
which at times envelop the narrow islands of Japan. The cover of this number also reproduces,
one of the Thirty-six Vieivs, this full of an even more strikingly impressionist feeling, in which
the immense mountain Fuji against a blue sky is all red from the rays of the setting sun.
Side by side of Hokusai the landscapist, we have Hokusai the popularist, whom we have
seen before.
Once more we give some pages from the Man-gwa reproduced in Plate .
On the left hand we have f a t people, a comical contrast to the thin ones ; of which one can
see a series of specimens in No. 9.
In the first scene a wrestling master is pummelled by his pupil, the -former seeming to be
half asleep as he calmly smokes his pipe. The judge patiently awaits the resuming of the real
contest. In the second scene two men, about to enjoy themselves at the fair, sing to their own
accompaniment on the samisen, much to the amusement of the servant girl who brings them their
tea. The three personages in the last scene are bathing ; a woman is already in the wooden tub,
another bather is washing his head, while the third, who is already leaving, is still holding towels in
his hand, and seems to inhale the fresh air with no little delight.
On the other page an oil merchant waits, in a melancholy mood, for customers ; glass-blowers
apply themselves to their business ; and two makers of a dainty similar to the French berlingot,
stretch out the sweetmeat, while a third cuts it into little sticks.
Below the person who beats so energetically with his hammer on a block, was occupied in
making a paste of rice, which he would have cooked in the little oven to be seen to his left j a
joker has come, and, unnoticed, has removed the compound, so that the poor man strikes a
violent blow upon the empty block, to the evident and exquisite delight of the two assistants.
Plate A A A , taken from the same album, whence we have already borrowed Plate A J E
in No. 10, represents a sparrow, or perhaps a flycatcher, perching on a brier (Rosa rugosa).
Painted wood objects such as this one (Plate IG) are among the first manifestations of artistic
taste to be found not only in Japan, but also in our western world. Before the invention of
improvements which allow the working of stone or metal, wood was the material which best
lent itself to the imperfect instruments, and varied tintings satisfied the primitive taste. Colour
struck the eye more vividly than even a bronze or marble statue. Single tinted specimens
of plastic art necessitate a certain amount of education, which only comes after years of
civilisation.
It is said that, as in the western world, there is found in Japan, painted wood at the very
commencement of all artistic production. The temples of Shiba and Nikko possess some dating
to the seventh century.
This personage is the hero of some forgotten legend. On an ordinary tree trunk which
he both impels onward and guides with a bamboo, he faces waves which are foaming all around
him. I he conventional clouds are arranged for a decorative effect, and may have formed the
crowning of some panel which decorated the upper -part of a temple wallthe specimen is
reproduced a quarter of its size.

1 lie ail of wood carving presents itself in a very different form in Plate A EG , where we find
eight n tsukcs, the tiny objects on which the Japanese so admirably work with all the refinement
of their character, their gracefulness, and their care. The netsuk was used as a sort of button
on the silken cord which suspended through the girdle the medicinc box, the tobacco pouch,
or the pipe-case. It was for the Japanese, who were unacquainted with ornaments, precious
metals and gems, one of the rare objects of personal decoration which they could be proud
of. fine: netsuk in the girdle was the object of general admiration, collectors possessed
series of them, which were worn in turn, in the way that Samurais had for the same sword
a whole collection of guards, which were used one after the other. There arc existing netsuks
made of various materials, china, metal, lacquer, but most arc in wood or ivory ; those in
wood are generally the most perfect.
The largest represents a Ni. Mr. Hart, in his article appearing in the present number
having explained what a Ni was, there is no reason for a repetition. The object is reproduced
in company with the seven others, at three-quarters of its real size. The wood has in time
become of a beautiful brown tint, which seems to lend itself better to what makes it more than
an ordinary image, the details of bones, muscles, as well as the arrangement of the draperies.
The other personage seems to be, judging from appearance, an exceedingly old piece of
work, it is scratched, and the brown tint has only remained in the crevices ; it is the image
of the ancient inhabitants of Japan, of a savage, according to the definition of the Japanese.
The artist must have expressly given to his work this look of antiquity, for the invention
of netsuks does not date back more than two hundred years. He had certainly not set his eyes
on the living beings whom he has represented, and this netsuk is probably a copy of an ancient
statue, like those preserved still in the temple at Nara, where are kept at the present time the
wondrous gems of secular art due to the primitive inspiration of the Buddhist religion.
The squatting personage who stretches as he yawns represents Dharma, one of the chief
saints of Buddhism. The legend states that Dharma, in a spirit of humiliation, condemned
himself to remain for ever sitting ; his legs became eventually dried up. He also allowed himself
no sleephence the energy, carried almost to caricature, which the artist has put in his yawning.
Also, one day, as I>harma was napping in spite of himself, as punishment for his laxity he cut
off his eyelids ami cast them away. Bhudda made to grow from them the tea plant which
destroys sleep. We shall find on more than one occasion in Japanese art the legend of Dharma
as a theme for varied interpretations. The four little masks represent specimens of one of the
subjects to which the makers of netsuks take with the utmost kindness.
The exaggerated expression seized by the observing eye of the Japanese, and given with all
the spirit of mockery which is at the very foundation of the race, is most strikingly noticeable
when one sees a whole collection of different masks together. The general cffcct of them is so
highly comical, even when some of them express an aggravated grief, that one cannot help smiling
at the silent corned}-, and there is an irresistible laugh in store for those who have the chance of
seeing a whole collection of such objects.
Two very different kinds of them have been made, some like those at the foot of the plate,
being their productions of theatrical masks, legendary beings (that to the right), or traditional
personages (that to the left, which is some noble of the theatre), while in others, the artist has
determined to inspire an intense life-likeness into the face he carved.

Plate A F J represents a temple candlestick in china, designed from the acrobatic performances
of three monkeys ; the last of which has a lotus leaf on his head to hold the spike on which the
wax light was held.
 Contents of Number 12.

RITSUO AND HIS SCHOOL. By E rnest H art 139

DESCRIPTION OF P L A T E S ............................................................. 14S

SEPARATE PLATES.

A BA . Landscape, from the Thirty-six Views of Fujiyama.

AEH . T w o Pages of the M an-gw a. By Hokusai.

AAA. A Bird, and Flow ers. Schoolof Shijo.

A D I. Industrial Design. Bamboo.

A A I. Night Fte. By Utamaro. (Double Plate.)

BF. Industrial Design. Flowers.

AEG. Eight Netsuks.

A F J. T em p le C a n d le stick , in Po rcelain.

IG. Coloured W ood-C arving.

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