Though it is a little aside from our subject, we may perhaps state here that Shiba Kōkan, an artist who flourished early in the nineteenth century, learnt from the Dutch a smattering of the principles of linear perspective, and is said to have introduced engraving on copper, in which, however, his countrymen have done little worthy of note. At the present day lithography and all the newest inventions in collotype, photogravure, etc., etc., etc., are availed of, and some slight reflex of the artistic spirit ani mating their forefathers in a more favoured age may be traced in the treatment, by such men as Ogawa, of these mechanical processes. See also Articles on Art and Printing.
Books recommended. Japanese Wood Engravings, by Wm. Anderson, published as No. 17 (May, 1895) of "The Portfolio," of which the preceding article is a partial précis. The Colour-Prints of Japan, by E. F. Strange. Japanese Wood Cutting and Woodcut Printing, by Tokunō and Koehler, published by the Smithsonian Institution.
Wrestling. The wrestlers must be numbered among Japan's most characteristic sights, though they are neither small nor dainty, like the majority of things Japanese. They are enormous men, mountains of fat and muscle, with low sensual faces and low sensual habits, enormous eaters, enormous drinkers. But their feats of strength show plainly that the "training" which consists in picking and choosing among one's victuals is a vain supersitition.
The wrestlers form a class apart, divided into grades, and having traditional rules for their guidance. The most important of these refer to the forty-eight falls which alone are permitted by the laws of the sport, namely, twelve throws, twelve lifts, twelve twists, and twelve throws over the back. The matches take place in a sanded ring, encircled by straw rice-bales and protected from the sun by an umbrella-like roof supported on four posts. The wrestlers are naked, but for a gay-coloured apron. An umpire, who bears in his hand a fan, stays in the ring with them, to see that there be fair play and strict observance of the rules. The spectators are accommodated in the boxes of what resembles a temporary theatre surrounding the
