Studio: international art (51.1911)

Japanese Art and Artists of To-day.—IV. IVood and Ivory Carving

degree not generally permitted to others. This is
accounted for, by some, by the fact that from
childhood the Japanese are taught to train and
educate this sense. Girls are trained from infancy
to sit before a display of dolls on their festival day
on the 3rd of the 3rd month of the year, while
boys learn to admire warrior figures on their
festival day, the 5th day of the 5th month of each
year, from the time when they have not yet learnt
to talk. These institutions and customs of the
people, and the country itself, where hills and
pine trees are extremely picturesque in growth and
shape, have undoubtedly had a great deal to do
with their artistic temperament, and enabled them
to appreciate more fully the products of their artists.

This digression will, it is hoped, serve to give
some little insight into the inner life of the people,
thus enabling the reader to understand better the
spirit of the Japanese arts.

As an article on Japanese bronzes
and work in other metals by an
abler critic is to follow this con-
tribution, the writer will here confine
himself mainly to modern wood and
ivory carving. “ In Japan the art of
wood carving has probably been car-
ried to a greater degree of perfection
than in any other country in the
world,” says Mr. Charles Holme in
his opening lines in “ A Course
of Instruction in Wood Carving
according to the Japanese Method.”

Then, as in painting, so in wood
carving, there is a vast difference
between the methods of the East
and those of the West.

Glyptic art in Japan originated
in the carving of Buddhist images.

The best works executed in early
and mediaeval times were intended
for the temples and shrines. We
know in history that the Emperor
Shirakawa, in the eleventh century,
ordered 3,000 Buddhistic images to
be made to adorn the places of
worship. Emperor Kameyama, in
the thirteenth century, caused
33,000 of them to be made for
similar purposes. Shogun Hidetada,
in the seventeenth century, issued
an edict to the effect that every
household throughout the country
was to possess a Buddhistic image.

Here then was a large demand for
106

works of art and for objects of a distinct and
definite purpose. They were desired for rever-
ence, and this being so it was but natural that
they should be highly idealistic in character. Fur-
thermore, many of these sculptors were priests
themselves, who put their whole soul into the
work of producing an object of worship.

In the creation of these images the Japanese
sculptors made it their rule to avoid as
far as possible all essentially human features.
Thus the figure of Kwannon (Goddess of Mercy),
as executed by Japanese sculptors, has the
graciousness of a woman, the resolution of a man,
and the purity of a sexless being. Not only were
these early artists guided by the idealistic purpose,
but they placed a great importance on chisel
strokes, just as the painter places so much stress
upon the force and strength of the brush-work.

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