Plate 28. A DWELLING HOUSE
SIDE ELEVATION and FRONT ELEVATION.
Plate 29. SECTION OF A HOUSE
I have dwelt so much on the reservedness and seclusion of Japanese dwelling houses. Once again I take up this point and call the attention of all Japanese. Works of art, no matter what they are, should express the sentiment or impression of the artist. The work which has beauty as its object should call forth the sentiment or impression of beauty to the observer or hearer. If the aim and object of any work of art cannot be recognized by others the work is nothing but failure. As the work of domestic architecture is a part of architecture, which has beauty as one of its objects, all possible efforts to beautify a house are quite rational. One might say that our houses being far from gaudiness do not aim to attract attention by showy colors like European houses. Still if attractiveness is an important element to be observed in domestic architecture, our way is one of the methods of treatment which is sufficient to charm admirers. This might be true if a house be built with the aim, among many other aims, to give pleasure to the eye. Japanese houses are uniformly of the same pattern and it seem as though they were not intended to beautify. Well, we might call them beautiful, yet if one get used to one thing continually he will get tired; variety is necessary to give pleasure to the eye.
I must add one more word in regard to the love of nature and simplicity. “In fact, Art”, says Goethe, “is called Art simply because it is not Nature”. A bird, a flower, we use them as materials to give a sensation of pleasure to the eyes, there the fine arts exist. To treat them with taste and refinement needs experience and an educated eye. Japanese domestic architecture, in a word, is, I believe, good in its spirit but leaves a large field to be cultivated in its treatment. If the remark that “Art nouveau” has its source partly in Japanese art is true, why may it not be true that the general adoption of straight lines, which has lately been much preferred by certain European architects in interior decoration, owes its origin to Japan? We furnish a spirit and general idea of treatment to European artists and they well digest them completing in perfect shape, and are kind enough to teach us how to imitate; just as we furnish raw materials of manufacture to Europe and she export them back to this country after working them up into manufactured goods. Most of the imitations of European houses in Japan which have been produced of late like shoots of plants are mostly of the nature of hybrid works and fail in the design; no truth being noticeable in their features; it is altogether too expensive to do such a ginger-bread work with cement and plaster.
My object is not to suggest the imitation of palatial European houses which are beyond every man’s reach: but to propose certain plans, though they may be commonplace character, under the guidance of principles involved in the house planning, which I presume to be practicable in this time of transition: and also I would aim to bring our houses more nearly up to the universal stand.
[Plate 30.] ELEVATION OF DOZO, DOOR, WINDOW