ingenious kind of work the design appears to be growing up from the
depths of the metal, and a delightful impression of atmosphere and
water is obtained. All these processes, as well as that of repoussé, in
which the Japanese have excelled from a remote period, are now
practised with the greatest skill in Tokyo, Kiōto, Osaka and Kanazawa.
At the art exhibitions held twice a year in the principal
cities there may be seen specimens of statuettes, alcove ornaments,
and household utensils which show that the Japanese worker in
metals stands more indisputably than ever at the head of the world’s
artists in that field. The Occident does not yet appear to have
full realized the existence of such talent in Japan; partly perhaps
because its displays in former times were limited chiefly to sword-furniture,
possessing little interest for the average European or
American; and partly because the Japanese have not yet learned
to adapt their skill to foreign requirements. They confine themselves
at present to decorating plaques, boxes and cases for cigars or
cigarettes, and an occasional tea or coffee service; but the whole
domain of salvers, dessert-services, race-cups and so on remains
virtually unexplored. Only within the past few years have stores
been established in the foreign settlements for the sale of silver
utensils, and already the workmanship on these objects displays palpable
signs of the deterioration which all branches of Japanese art
have undergone in the attempt to cater for foreign taste. In a general
sense the European or American connoisseur is much less exacting
than the Japanese. Broad effects of richness and splendour
captivate the former, whereas the latter looks for delicacy of finish,
accuracy of detail and, above all, evidences of artistic competence.
It is nothing to a Japanese that a vase should be covered with profuse
decoration of flowers and foliage: he requires that every
blossom and every leaf shall be instinct with vitality, and the
comparative costliness of fine workmanship does not influence his
choice. But if the Japanese sculptor adopted such standards in
working for foreign patrons, his market would be reduced to very
narrow dimensions. He therefore adapts himself to his circumstances,
and, using the mould rather than the chisel, produces
specimens which snow tawdry handsomeness and are attractively
cheap. It must be admitted, however, that even though foreign
appreciative faculty were sufficiently educated, the Japanese artist
in metals would still labour under the great difficulty of devising
shapes to take the place of those which Europe and America have
learned to consider classical.
Bronze is called by the Japanese kara-kane, a term signifying “Chinese metal” and showing clearly the source from which knowledge of the alloy was obtained. It is a copper-lead-tin compound, the proportions of its constituents varying from 72 to 88% of copper, from 4 Bronze Casting. to 20% of lead and from 2 to 8% of tin. There are also present small quantities of arsenic and antimony, and zinc is found generally as a mere trace, but sometimes reaching to 6%. Gold is supposed to have found a place in ancient bronzes, but its presence has never been detected by analysis, and of silver not more than 2% seems to have been admitted at any time. Mr W. Gowland has shown that, whatever may have been the practice of Japanese bronze makers in ancient and medieval eras, their successors in later days deliberately introduced arsenic and antimony into the compound in order to harden the bronze without impairing its fusibility, so that it might take a sharper impression of the mould. Japanese bronze is well suited for castings, not only because of its low melting-point, great fluidity and capacity for taking sharp impressions, but also because it has a particularly smooth surface and readily develops a fine patina. One variety deserves special mention. It is a golden yellow bronze, called sentoku—this being the Japanese pronunciation of Suen-tē, the era of the Ming dynasty of China when this compound was invented. Copper, tin, lead and zinc, mixed in various proportions by different experts, are the ingredients, and the beautiful golden hues and glossy texture of the surface are obtained by patina-producing processes, in which branch of metal-work the Japanese show altogether unique skill.
From the time when they began to cast bronze statues, Japanese experts understood how to employ a hollow, removable core round which the metal was run in a skin just thick enough for strength without waste of material; and they also understood the use of wax for modelling purposes. In ordinary circumstances, a casting thus obtained took the form of a shell without any break of continuity. But for very large castings the process had to be modified. The great image of Lochana Buddha at Nara, for example, would measure 138 ft. in height were it standing erect, and its weight is about 550 tons. The colossal Amida at Kamakura has a height only 3 ft. less. It would have been scarcely possible to cast such statues in one piece in situ, or, if cast elsewhere, to transport them and elevate them on their pedestals. The plan pursued was to build them up gradually in their places by casting segment after segment. Thus, for the Nara Daibutsu, the mould was constructed in a series of steps ascending 12 in. at a time, until the head and neck were reached, which, of course, had to be cast in one shell, 12 ft. high.
The term “parlour bronzes” serves to designate objects for domestic use, as flower-vases, incense-burners and alcove ornaments. Bronze-casters began to turn their attention to these objects about the middle of the 17th century. The art of casting bronze reached its culmination in the hands of a group of great experts—Seimin, Tōun, Masatune, Teijō, Sōmin, Keisai, Takusai, Gido, Zenryūsai and Hotokusai—who flourished during the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th. Many brilliant specimens of these men’s work survive, their general features being that the motives are naturalistic, that the quality of the metal is exceptionally fine, that in addition to beautifully clear casting obtained by highly skilled use of the cera-perduta process, the chisel was employed to impart delicacy and finish to the design, and that modelling in high relief is most successfully introduced. But it is a mistake to assert, as many have asserted, that after the era of the above ten masters—the latest of whom, Sōmin, ceased to work in 1871—no bronzes comparable with theirs were cast. Between 1875 and 1879 some of the finest bronzes ever produced in Japan were turned out by a group of experts working under the business name of Sanseisha. Started by two brothers, Oshima Katsujiro (art-name Jōun) and Oshima Yasutaro (art-name Shōkaku), this association secured the services of a number of skilled chisellers of sword-furniture, who had lost their occupation by the abandonment of sword-wearing. Nothing could surpass the delicacy of the works executed at the Sanseisha’s atelier in Tōkyō, but unfortunately such productions were above the standard of the customers for whom they were intended. Foreign buyers, who alone stood in the market at that time, failed to distinguish the fine and costly bronzes of Jōun, Shōkaku and their colleagues from cheap imitations which soon began to compete with them, so that ultimately the Sanseisha had to be closed. This page in the modern history of Japan’s bronzes needs little alteration to be true of her applied art in general. Foreign demand has shown so little discrimination that experts, finding it impossible to obtain adequate remuneration for first-class work, have been obliged to abandon the field altogether, or to lower their standard to the level of general appreciation, or by forgery to cater for the perverted taste which attaches unreasoning value to age. Jōun has produced, and is thoroughly capable of producing, bronzes at least equal to the best of Seimin’s masterpieces, yet he has often been induced to put Seimin’s name on objects for the sake of attracting buyers who attach more value to cachet than to quality. If to the names of Jōun and his brilliant pupil Ryūki we add those of Suzuki Chōkichi, Okazaki Sessei, Hasegawa Kumazō, Kanaya Gorosaburō and Jomi Eisuke, we have a group of modern bronze-casters who unquestionably surpass the ten experts beginning with Seimin and ending with Sōmin. Okazaki Sessei has successfully achieved the casting of huge panels carrying designs in high relief; and whether there is question of patina or of workmanship, Jōmi Eisuke has never been surpassed.
Occidental influence has been felt, of course, in the field of modern bronze-casting. At a school of art officially established in Tōkyō in 1873 under the direction of Italian teachers—a school which owed its signal failure partly to the incompetence and intemperate behaviour of some of its foreign professors, and partly to a strong renaissance of pure Japanese classicism—one of the few accomplishments successfully taught was that of modelling in plaster and chiselling in marble after Occidental methods. Marble statues are out of place in the wooden buildings as well as in the parks of Japan, and even plaster busts or groups, though less incongruous perhaps, have not yet found favour. Hence the skill undoubtedly possessed by several graduates of the defunct art school has to be devoted chiefly to a subordinate purpose, namely, the fashioning of models for metal-casters. To this combination of modellers in European style and metal-workers of such force as Suzuki and Okazaki, Japan owes various memorial bronzes and effigies which are gradually finding a place in her parks, her museums, her shrines or her private houses. There is here little departure from the well-trodden paths of Europe. Studies in drapery, prancing steeds, ideal poses, heads with fragments of torsos attached (in extreme violation of true art), crouching beasts of prey—all the stereotyped styles are reproduced. The imitation is excellent.
Among the artists of early times it is often difficult to distinguish
between the carver of wood and the caster of bronze.
The latter sometimes made his own models in wax,
sometimes chiselled them in wood, and sometimes had
recourse to a specialist in wood-carving. The group
Carving in Wood
and Ivory.
of splendid sculptors in wood that graced the 11th, 12th and 13th
centuries left names never to be forgotten, but undoubtedly
many other artists of scarcely less force regarded bronze-casting
as their principal business. Thus the story of wood-carving is
very difficult to trace. Even in the field of architectural
