'KAKEMONOS:' A STUDY IN JAPANESE ART.
HITHERTO, ill thinking about Japanese art. a great many people have been content to accept it as a thing from which Httle or no individuality was to be expected, and from which very little ))ictorial satisfaction was to be derived ; especially as it is mani- festly without that knowledge of perspective, which, from the complex and European point of view, makes all the difference between a picture and a diagram, or wall paper. But granting that the Japanese painter has contentedly ignored such scientific aids as linear perspective and anatomical study, and assuming that he has evaded the most difficult and intricate problems to be reckoned with in the artistic arena — seeking neither by infinite gradations of colour nor the resources of light and shade to effect anything like a solid and realistic ensemble — it is none the less a fact that in decorative art, that is to say, in an art which is at once a convention, and an abstract of the essential character- istics of beauty and variety of form, the art of Japan has attained a perfection scarcely to be parallelled throughout the West. Its unique character, with which refinement of line and form have so much to do — the outcome of thoughtful study and patient obser- vation of the vital principles of motion and life as seen in natural forms — has made of it a potent factor in revolutionising to no small extent the decorative side of European art. Apart from that brilliant, yet sensitive perception of colour which distinguishes Japanese painting, what is even more remarkable is its absolutely artistic character, as shown in its power of design, and the decision and terseness with which a thought is expressed, be it the vivacious movement of flying birds, or the swaying grace of the living plant as it bends to the wind. Whichever it be, the motif is suggested with sure and delicate indications of colour ; witii a precision of touch and concentration of aim which at once reduce tlie idea to its simplest and most condensed form. And although the Japanese, like the Chinese from whom their art sprung, were utterly ignorant of the laws of linear perspective, yet their landscapes, many of them, evince a considerable know- ledge of aerial perspective, a fact which renders their deficiency in the other direction perhaps the more evident, though not the less difficult to account for. But the main thing to remember about the art of Japan, is the fact which struck Mr. Mortimer Menpes, the impressionist painter, on his recent visit to that countr}', that it is a living and popular realit}', the only living art form, perhaps, in the world ; sufficiently simple, as it is sufficiently beautiful, to charm and refine educated and uneducated alike ; a thing to enter into everyday life ; unpretending, but bearing with it an educative value as well as supplying a source of mental delight, and not, as with us and the rest of the civilised world, an exotic to be sought after and understood only by a cultured minority. Art to the Japanese is what it was to the old Greeks and the Egyptians before them, the outcome of their own thought, habitude, and peculiar civilisation; a spontaneous and natural growth; entirely in harmony as an artistic expression with the architectural character of their dwellings and temples. as it is fundamentally in accord as a decox'ative factor with their traditional ideals and their present environ- ment. Now, therefore, that there have been two fine collec- tions of Japanese paintings in London — one, lately closed, at Dowdeswell's Gallery in Bond Street, the other at the British Museum — it is only reasonable to hope that few will remain long insensible to the beauty and refinement of design, and the general artistic scope, which are the definite characteristics of this people's art. These 'Kakemonos' or 'hanging pictures' as they are called, some of which date from the eleventh and twelfth centm'ies, are to the Japanese what our oil and water colour paintings are to us, but with this difference: their pictorial treasures are exhibited only on particular anniversaries or special occasions, each ' Kakemono ' bearing for them a specific meaning, or at any rate being relevant to the season at which it is exhibited.
Thus at the waking of the year, when life and hope quickens, and the dormant buds begin to peep from the dark earth, these things are symbolised for them by the mythic representation of ' Shoki the Demon-expeller,' who is supposed to cast out all bad luck with the old year, making way for good in the year to come. So, at their festival 'Hinamatsuri,' given especially in honour of the young girls, pretty scenes, and bright flower subjects, chosen in reference to these little people, are brought from the treasure store ; or again, on such an important occasion as a marriage, a ' Kakemono ' is hung up in the reception chamber, typifying long life and a happy future to the newly-married. It is usually a representation of the god ' Jurojin,' associated with the figure of a white deer, and branches of the pine, bamboo, and plum tree, all emblematic of longevity, prosperity, or happiness. Sometimes with them are represented the ' Takasayo ' — the figures of a little old man and woman gathering fir-cones, with a stork and tortoise. Nevertheless, setting aside the quaint custom of exhibiting allegorical representations, mainly interesting to us as throwing a light on the traditions and folk-lore of this curiously civilised and conservative people, an especial trait of the Japanese is that sense of congruity which forces them to maintain some sort of ajsthetic fitness of relation between even the changes of the seasons and their paintings. By this I mean that their susceptibility of taste, which appreci-
