Studio: international art (46.1909)

PVestern Influence upon Art in Japan

“SHOWERY WEATHER'’ BY HACHIRO NAKAGAWA

But one of the great characteristics ot the
Japanese nation is its untiring application and
perseverance. Once it has set its mind upon a
certain ideal, no difficulties or discouragements
daunt its ardour. Each failure only seems to add
fresh fuel to the fire of its endeavour, and, little by
little, sure advance is made and the goal of its
ambition is more nearly approached.

It is not surprising that certain elements of
opposition to the changes make themselves felt in
Japan. Native connoisseurs and lovers of its
traditional arts view with not a little disfavour the
leanings towards Western methods, and they cling
with fervour to the ideas
and the conventions of
the old Kano and Tosa
schools. Others, and
these are among the more
thoughtful critics, while
greatly admiring the sculp-
ture and paintings in the
National Gallery, the
Louvre and the other great
collections abroad, seem
to believe that the under-
lying conditions of char-
acter and tradition, which
in the course of ages have
called into being that which
we know as Western Art,
are so at variance with
Eastern character and tra-
dition that the grafting of
the arts of the West upon
those of the East cannot

be accomplished without
extraordinary difficulties.
They say that painting,
from their point of view,
means the expression of
that which has entered
into the soul by the obser-
vation of the senses ; that
a painter should paint
from what is within him,
and not directly from ex-
traneous sources; that
Nature must have so fil-
tered through his senses
and become so incor-
porated with his inmost
self that his eye requires
no further recourse to
external objects to enable
him to record his soul-pictures.

The Western method of painting direct from
Nature, while admittedly of extreme interest, is
believed by these Japanese critics to be totally at
variance with the traditional conceptions of art as
held by their countrymen. They therefore argue
that the art of the West cannot be satisfactorily
amalgamated with that of the East. But in their
efforts to solve this problem, these gentlemen
should not fall into the mistaken impression that
because some men are unable to paint unless they
see their subject actually before them, such proce-
dure is the universal rule and absolutely necessary