A Handbook of Modern Japan

by Ernest W. Clement

5. Absence of chiaroscuro, and the employment of notan, or contrast between light and dark.

6. Skilful generalization of forms.

7. Poetical conception.

8. High development of the sense of harmony in color.

Any such summing up is, however, necessarily imperfect. It is not feasible to give here any account of the various schools and artists, and the reader desiring more extended information is referred to the sources indicated in the bibliography appended to this chapter. Before leaving this branch of the subject, mention should be made of calligraphy, which, although justly regarded in Japan as an art, is not so much a separate art as the art of painting applied to writing the Chinese ideographs. It will not appear strange, therefore, that masterly writing should be esteemed equally with painting.

An art closely allied to painting is that of chromoxylography, or color printing from engraved wood blocks. Nothing could be simpler than the method employed, the sheets of paper being laid face down on the block which has been previously inked with a brush, and pressure is then applied by rubbing the back of the sheets with a pad held in the hand of the printer. Nevertheless no greater triumphs of the printer’s art have ever been achieved than the beautiful color prints of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries after designs by Harunobu, Koriusai, Shunsho, Kyonaga, Toyokuni, Utamaro, Hokusai, and other noted artists of the Popular school. Though still in use, this process is largely being superseded by the cheaper, if less artistic, processes of lithography, collotype, etc.

In glyptic art the triumphs of the Japanese have been little less than in that of painting. The most remarkable specimens are the ancient figures in bronze and in wood which are preserved in the temples. The Daibutsu, or gigantic bronze statue of Buddha, at Nara will serve as an example, having been illustrated so often that all the world is familiar with its appearance.

The objects upon which the art of the Japanese sculptors has been exercised are many. Particularly in the carving of the masks used in the Nō dances, and the little ornaments called netsuke, the skill and artistic qualities displayed are often of the highest order. It would be difficult to overpraise the best work of such artists in this line, as Deme Jikan, Minko, Tomotada, Miwa, and many others. As in the case of painting, the method used by the carver must be direct and masterly to satisfy Japanese taste. Only clean, strong strokes will pass muster. There must be no niggling nor retouching. Visitors to the shrines at Nikkō will be impressed by this quality in the remarkable works to be found there by the famous seventeenth-century sculptor Hidari Jingorō, that is to say, “Left-handed Jingorō.”

One of the most ancient of the arts of Japan is that of the potter. It is also one of the most profitable for study. The principles which have been enumerated as applicable to painting will be found carefully embodied in the fabrication and ornamentation of keramic wares, the variety of which is endless. In some instances these wares are known by the names of the makers, as Ninsei, Kenzan, Kozan, Seifu, and others; but in general they are designated by the names of the provinces wherein they are made. Thus we have the wares of Satsuma, Hizen, Arita, Imari, Kaga, Kyōto, Owari, Bizen, Iga, Ota, Soma, Izumo, and many more. Occasionally the name of a particular locality is used, as for instance that of Seto in Owari. Here it was that Shirozaemon, called “the Father of Pottery,” established himself in the thirteenth century; and such was the repute of the products of his kiln that Seto-mono, or Seto ware, became a generic name in Japan for all keramic productions, quite as in English we use the term “china” for all kinds of porcelain wherever made.

Unfortunately the Japanese potter of to-day is largely under the influence of foreign markets, to the great degradation of his art. The condition is well portrayed by Huish, who says: “The wealthy ‘red-hairs’ who came to him from the West could see no beauties in the objects that had given the greatest pleasure to the men of refinement of his own country; and in order that the potter might participate in the overflow of silver dollars with which the foreigners were blessed, he was obliged to put aside those principles which he and his father before him had looked upon as the fundamental ones of their craft, and produce wares totally at variance with his preconceived ideas of the right.”