Studio: international art (2.1894)

New Publications

Transactions of the Japan
Society, Vol. I. (C. Kegan
Paul, Trench & Co.)—This
handsome volume with its
numerous well-executed plates
is worthy of the popular and
energetic Society whose work
it records. In its editing and
its general appearance it could
hardly be improved. One
might fill a column in praise of
its lucid plan and admirable
arrangement. As, however,
space forbids adequate men-
tion, a mere list of the literary
contents must suffice. These
include a very interesting de-
scription of fu-jitsu, the ancient
art of self-defence by sleight of
body, illustrated by original
drawings by R. Isayama, a
Japanese artist residing in this
country; Tlie Uses of Bamboo
in Japan, a paper by Mr.
Charles Holme, illustrated
with many examples from his
collection; a valuable essay on
The Naturalistic Art of fapan,
by Mr. W. Gowland ; a paper
on The Genealogy of the Miochin

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Family, armourers, sword-
smiths, and artists in iron of
the twelfth to eighteenth cen-
turies, by Mr. E. Gilbertson;
and a paper on Crepe Prbiters,
by Mrs. Ernest Hart. Although
at least two of the others con-
tain illustrations and matter full
of interest to all workers in the
fine and applied arts, here we
must limit our notice to the last.
When that paper was read, it
was a surprise to many of the
audience to find crepe-printing
was actually stencilling, and bore
no relation to any system of
printing from blocks, plates, or
stones, as we understand it in
Europe. Perhaps no fine art is
so limited to a particular nation-
ality as that of stencilling in
various colours, which the Japa-
nese have carried to the highest
degree of excellence, both in the
technique and in its artistic de-
velopment. Three of the plates
we are permitted to reproduce
suggest to some extent the ex-
quisite manipulation of the stout
waterproof paper in which the
elaborate pattern is cut; these
also show the arrangement of