Fig. 124.—Teapot with Peach Decoration.
A pair of vases belonging to Mrs. James, of Cambridge, have a picture of a gentleman and lady, above whose heads is seen a canopy or roof. The meaning is thus explained by a Japanese gentleman of this day, who was in Boston:
The figures represented are a nobleman and his wife, one of the five hundred families of the flowery class; they are dressed in the ancient costume of Japan, now no longer worn.
The part of a tent or pavilion indicates that they are out-of-doors, at a picnic; the white blossoms of the cherry which surround them show a favorite tree in Japan; the color of this vase and the kind of crackle prove its age.
All is suggested; the imagination is spoken to, not the intellect; the artist feels, and makes us feel.
We are forcing ourselves and our civilization upon the Japanese who do not want us, and we curse them. We have attacked the simplicity of their lives, we shall increase their immorality, and we shall degrade their art. Twenty years hence, artistic and patient work will have disappeared from among them.
Good work has almost disappeared from among us, as well as from Europe: we do all in a hurry, all for cheapness, all for money. The artist, the workman, delight no more in perfect work, which is Godlike.
“Progress,” they tell us, requires us to force the Japanese to trade with us. It is a much-abused word; in the hands of plunderers and traders it means only—“You shall give us the opportunity to cheat you.” We have demanded that, and have succeeded; but we shall be none the better for it, and the Japanese will be the worse. They will learn, do learn fast, to cheat back; and already we see signs of it in their demoralized productions. They are already making copies—counterfeits of some of the high-priced porcelains of China—and putting on these the marks intended to deceive.