In regard to painting moving waters, whether of deep or shallow, in rivers or brooks, bays or oceans, Chinanpin declared it was impossible for the eye [pg 62] to seize their exact forms because they are ever changing and have no fixed, definite shape, therefore they can not be sketched satisfactorily; yet, as moving water must be represented in painting, it should be long and minutely contemplated by the artist, and its general character—whether leaping in the brook, flowing in the river, roaring in the cataract, surging in the ocean or lapping the shore—observed and reflected upon, and after the eye and memory are both sufficiently trained and the very soul of the artist is saturated, as it were, with this one subject and he feels his whole being calm and composed, he should retire to the privacy of his studio and with the early morning sun to gladden his spirit there attempt to reproduce the movement of the flow; not by copying what he has seen, for the effect would be stiff and wooden, but by symbolizing according to certain laws what he feels and remembers.
In work of this kind there are certain directions for the employment of the brush which can only be learned from oral instruction and demonstration by the master.
In [Plate XXXVIII] a, 1, the method by which waves are reproduced is shown, the circles indicating where the brush is turned upon itself before again curving. On the same plate (b) waveless water, shallow water, and river water with current are indicated at the top, middle and bottom, respectively. In [Plate XXXIX] a, we have the moving waters of an inland sea; in b, the bounding waters of a brook; in [Plate XL], the stormy waves of the ocean.
We will now consider another unique department of Japanese painting in connection with the garments of human beings. The lines and folds of the garment may be painted in eighteen different ways according to what are known as the eighteen laws for the dress (emon ju hachi byo). I will mention each of these laws in its order and refer to the plate illustrations of the same.
The floating silk thread line (kou ko yu shi byou) ([Plate XLI] upper). This line was introduced by the Tosa school of artists eight hundred years ago and has been in favor ever since. It is the purest or standard line and is reserved for the robes of elevated personages. The brush is held firmly and the lines, made to resemble silk threads drawn from the cocoon, are executed with a free and uninterrupted movement of the arm.
The Koto string line (kin shi byou) ([Plate XLI] lower). This is a line of much dignity and of uniform roundness from start to finish. It is produced by using a little more of the tip of the brush than in the silk thread line and there must be no break or pause in it until completed. This line is used for dignified subjects.
Chasing clouds and running water lines (kou un ryu sui byou) ([Plate XLII] upper). These are produced with a wave-like, continuous movement of the brush—breathing, as it were. Such lines are generally reserved for the garments of saints, young men and women.
The stretched iron wire line (tetsu sen byou) ([Plate XLII] lower). This is a very important line, [pg 64] much employed by Tosa artists and used for the formal, stiffly searched garments of court nobles, samurai, no dancers, and umpires of wrestling matches. When this line is painted the artist must have the feeling of carving upon metal.
The nail-head and rat-tail line (tei tou sobi byou) ([Plate XLIII] upper). In making this, the stroke is begun with the feeling of painting and reproducing the hard nature of a tack and then continued to depict a rat's tail, which grows small by degrees and beautifully less.
The line of the female court noble or tsubone (sou i byou) ([Plate XLIII] lower). This line and the preceding are much used for the soft and graceful garments of young men and women and have always been favorites with the Ukiyo e painters.