Studio: international art (59.1913)

Reviews and Notices

knowledge of our old masters as well as an apparent
imitation of the European style. It must be noted,
however, that the superficial resemblance to the
European style observable in various paintings does
not imply that there has been any conscious imita-
tion. Thus Kobayashi Taiun’s way of painting the
ocean is entirely different from the traditional
Japanese method, but this is merely the result of
the effort to represent in his own way the object he
wished to draw.

Then there are some artists who are deliberately
trying to take the best from Occidental painting
with the view of harmonising it with the best
of their own. This movement is by no means new.
Some ten years ago, after inspecting the exhibits at
the Osaka Exhibition, the late Emperor, a great
patron of art, is reported to have asked why no
Japanese paintings were present, for he had failed
to recognise the traditional qualities of native art in
the work of modern artists. Certainly our pictorial
art, as well as other things intellectual, is under-
going a great change, causing much comment both
at home and abroad. A lengthy argument is
impossible here, but attention may be drawn to the
history of our painting and the changes which the
influence of Chinese, Indian, and Persian art has
wrought. It is reasonably asked, “What is true
Japanese painting ? Is not Yamato-ye [Japanese
pictorial art] a result of the assimilation of other art
than that of Japan ? ” One cannot help recalling the
struggles of the new thinkers with Sung suggestions
in the Kamakura period, and the horror caused by
the daring departure of the Maruyama school from
traditional methods. Is there any danger of our
losing the guiding spirit, the inherent nature of the
race, which has permeated our art all through
its changes and development ? Perhaps it is for us
to “ wait and see.”

The assimilation is still a long way from
being complete, and the results attained are far
short of being satisfactory—in many cases they are
such as to be abhorred. But we must bear in mind
that our art is now in process of evolution and that
it reflects a phase of our national life. A person
wearing an English bowler hat, a Japanese silk
kimono, the skirt-like hakama, and American-made
shoes, and swinging a cane imported from the
Straits Settlements—it does sound extremely queer,
and a stranger might think such a person insane.
Yet hundreds of people like that are to be seen
daily in Tokyo. 'Phis is in a way an outward sign
of the present mental .and spiritual condition of our

people. While truly great art may soar above time
and place, if the reflection of the spirit of the age
is at all valuable in art, should we not appreciate
the efforts of those artists who are trying to bring
the Eastern and Western styles of painting into an
testhetic harmony ? Should we not appreciate it all
the more when we know that the movement is
going on among the people who deem it their
heaven-appointed mission in the world to take
the best that can be derived from Occidental
culture and harmonise it with the best in their
own for the production of a new and nobler
civilisation? Harada Jiro.

REVIEWS AND NOTICES.

The Art of Colour Decoration. By J. D. Crace,
F.S. A. (London: Batsford.) 305. net.—We

commend this book to architects. The question
of the distribution of colour-values in assisting or
marring architectural effect is admirably entered
into in it, and there is a valuable chapter on
“ Imitation ”—the imitation of natural surfaces like
that of marble in other material. Mr. Crace gives
an excellent definition of bad taste as that which
is inconsistent with common sense. In another
chapter he dwells with success on the difficult
subject of the “ recall ” of colour—the rule of pro-
viding an “ echo ” or reminiscence of a certain
colour in some other part of a room in which that
colour has been used in quantity. The whole aim
of the book is to safeguard the artist who engages
in mural decoration from committing the fault of
colour-schemes which do not logically connect
themselves with the architecture in which they are
involved. The book is profusely illustrated with
the work of the Italian masters, supreme in their
ability to effect a marriage between the lines of
architecture and the sensation of colour.

Sport in Art. By William A. Baillie-Grohman.
(London: Ballantyne and Co. Ltd.) jQ2 2s. net.
—The sub-title of this work “ An Iconography of
Sport during four hundred years from the beginning
of the fifteenth to the end of the eighteenth
centuries” explains its scope, and on the score
of the illustrations alone, which comprise nearly
250 reproductions (including a few in colour) of
pictures and prints depicting the evolution 01
hunting, shooting, fishing and falconry during this
long period, the work appeals to a very wide
public. The author has spent some years in
gathering his material, and many galleries and
collections in Europe and America have been
explored for the purpose, so that the reader will

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