FINE ARTS (JAPANESE)
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FINE ARTS (JAPANESE)
barous and semibarbarous races, art in all its stages of development.
ORIENTAL ART.
Japanese Pottery. Probably there is no other place in the world where art is so much lived and lived with as in Japan. Every article of religious, military, domestic or personal use is produced with a special view to its being beautiful, not only in workmanship, but in its design and its adaptability to its use, by a class of artisans whose craft has descended through many generations, and thus represents an accumulated skill that is quite impossible under the factory-conditions which force each workman to execute only a part of the product. Things do not go out of style in Japan. The few things that are necessary are chosen with the utmost care, and, being hand-made and well-made, last a long time. The Japanese excel as metalworkers, enamelers, lacquerers, wood-workers, textile-makers, printers and potters. As space is so limited, the last named craft is the only one which will be treated here.
Japanese pottery is distinguished for refinement of form, varied and wonderfully executed design and unparalleled range of color. The most famous potteries are those of Arita, Kyoto, Kaga, Satsuma and Awari. Satsuma and Arita have produced both pottery and stoneware that compare favorably with anything of the kind that has been made anywhere in the world. The rudiments of this art as of many others were learned in China, and the Chinese influence is frequently traceable in the design. Japan is richly endowed by nature with all the materials in the form of clays and minerals that are used in the making of pottery and its colors, both of which they have used in bewildering variety.
In the 13th and i4th centuries there was a preference for the iridescent black, red, brown and dark-green of the Raku ware, but late in the i6th century, when the tea-ceremony became popular, taste in the matter of pottery underwent a marked change. Ninsei founded the kilns that produced the Awata, Kiomidzu and Omura wares. Ninsei was very skilled in the use of the brush, and decorated his wares with birds, flowers and human figures in creamy blue, light green and coral glazes. Kenzan and Yeiraku were famous potters who worked during the latter part of the zyth and the early part of the i8th century. Both were great colorists, but somewhat neglected form.
Japanese pottery can best be identified by its color. A soft gray-green is characteristic of the kilns of Sanaa Seiji; grays and salmon of Haji; yellow-brown of Oki; and drip-glazes of Oriba. Satsuma is the most popular of all. It is famous for its
soft, creamy-white backgrounds that are like old ivory and for its soft colors and
SDld. The i Qth century produced the izen ware that is remarkable for its wonderful metallic brown and blue glazes. At the present time the development of pottery is at a standstill, and many of the kilns are producing inferior articles for the foreign market. See Bower: Japanese Pottery and Hartmann: Japanese Art.
Japanese Painting and Sculpture. Sculpture and painting may be said to have had their beginning in Japan between the seventh and ninth centuries A. D. They were derived from China, as were the initial movements of all Japanese culture. The earlier phases both of painting and sculpture show, very distinctly, an Indian influence, and this is explained by the fact that Japanese art had its inspiration in the introduction of Buddhism that came into Japan from India through China and Korea. The native religion was Shintoism which is little more than a system of ancestor-worship. Its sacred colors were red and white, and its temples were extremely simple in construction, with no decoration worthy the name, and contained little else than the sacred mirror. Hence this form of worship oifered few inducements for the development either of an architecture or design. Buddhism, on the other hand, had a well-developed ritual and an organized priesthood, and was rich in its system of symbolism of form and color.
We find that sculpture, except as it is used in decorative wood-carving, was not a natural means of expression, and it was soon abandoned in favor of a form of art that could be expressed with the writing-brush. Sculpture, therefore, must be placed early in the history of this art. It is restricted, almost entirely, to huge bronze statues of Buddha, prominent among which are the Buddhas of Nara and Kama-kura, the latter of which is a seated figure nearly fifty feet high. It was completed in 1252, while the former was finished in 750. Besides these and other colossal bronzes there are many gigantic wooden temple-statues of Buddha and other gods and goddesses. This sculpture is frequently very vigorous in treatment, and emphasizes spirit rather than form. The sculptured decoration of the temples and temple-furnishings is lavish in its design as well as in its use of symbols and color.
The painting of Japan may be classified into seven distinct movements, namely, the Buddhistic from the ninth to the twelfth centuries; the Yamato-Tosa from the tenth to the fourteenth century; the Sesshiu from 1421 to 1507; the Kano from 1400 to 1750; the Okio or Shi jo from about 1750 to the present period; and the Ukioye from about 1640 to the present time. The last-named school, which produced the color-
