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Bible Encyclopedias
Japan
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or JAPAN, an empire of eastern Asia, and one of the great powers of the world. The following article is divided for convenience into ten sections:I. GEOGRAPHY; II. THE PEOPLE; III.
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE; IV. ART; V. EcoNoMIc CONDITIONS; VI. GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION; ~II. RELIGION;
VIII. FOREIGN INTERCOURSE; IX. DOMESTIC HISTORY; X. THE CLAIM OF JAPAN.
1.GEOGRAPHY
The continent of Asia stretches two arms into the Pacific Ocean, Kamchatka in the north and Malacca in the south, between which lies a long cluster of islands constituting the Japanese empire, which covers 370 14 of longitude and 29 II of latitude. On the extreme north are the Kuriles (called by the Japanese Chishima, or the myriad isles), which extend to 156 32 E. and to 50 56 N.; on the extreme south is Formosa (called by the Japanese Taiwan), which extends to 122 6 E., and to 21 45
N. There are six large islands, namely Sakhalin (called by the Japanese Karafuto); Yezo or Ezo (which with the Kuriles is designated Hokkaido, or the north-sea district); Nippon (the origin of the sun), which is the main island; Shikoku (the four provinces), which lies on the east of Nippon; KiUshi or Kyushu (the nine provinces), which lies on the south of Nippon, and Formosa, which forms the most southerly link of the chain. Formosa and the Pescadores were ceded to Japan by China after the war of 1894-1895, and the southern half of Sakhalinthe part south of 500 N.was added to Japan by cession from Russia in 1905. Korea, annexed in August 1910, is separately noticed.
Coast-line.The following table shows the numbers, the lengths of coast-line, and the areas of the various groups of islands, only those being indicated that have a coast-line of at least I ri (23/4 m.), or that, though smaller, are inhabited; except in the case of Formosa and the Pescadores, where the whole numbers are given Length of Area Number. coast in in square miles. miles.
Nippon 1 4,765.03 99,373.57
Isles adjacent to Nippon. .. 167 I,27509 47o3C
Shikoku 1 1,100-85 6,4613
Isles adjaoent toShikoku. .. 75 548.12 1754C
RishiO I 2,10128 I3,7786~
Isles adjacent to KiOshi. .. 150 2,405.06 I,82I~8l Length of Area Number, coast in in square miles. miles.
Yezo I 1,423.32 30,148.41
Isles adjacent to Yezo - - - - 13 110.24 30.51
Sakhalin (Karafuto) - -.. I Unsurveyed 12,48764
Sado I 13005 335.92
Okishima I 182.27 130.40
Isles adjacent to Okishima - I 3o9 0.06
Awaji I 9443 217.83
Isles adjacent to Awaji - - I 5.32, 0.83
Iki I 86-47 50.96
Isles adjacent to Iki - - - I 441 047
Tsushima I 409.23 26172
Isles adjacent to Tsushima - 5 if88o 4.58
RiQkjO (or Luchu) Islands - - 55 768-74 935.18
Kuriles (Chishima) 31 1,496.23 6,159-42
Bonin (Ogasawara Islands) - 20 174.65 26.82
Taiwan (Formosa) I 731.31 13,429.31
Isles adjacent to Formosa - -. 7 12832Not surveyed Pescadores (Hoko-tO) -. -. 12 98.67 85so Totals 549 18,16098 f73,78675
If the various smaller islands be included, a total of over 3000 is reached, but there has not been any absolutely accurate enumeration.
It will be observed that the coast-line is very long in proportion to the area, the ratio being 1 m. of coast to every 95 rn. of area. The Pacific Ocean, which washes the eastern shores, moulds their outline into much greater diversity than does the Sea of Japan which washes the western shores. Thus the Pacific sea-board measures 10,562 m. against 2887 m. for that of the Japan Sea. In depth of water, too, the advantage is on the Pacific side. There the bottom slopes very abruptly, descending precipitously at a point not far from the north-east coast of the main island, where soundings have shown 4655 fathoms. This, the deepest sea-bed in the world, is called the Tuscarora Deep, after the name of the United States man-of-war which made the survey. The configuration seems to point to a colossal crater under the ocean, and many of the earthquakes which visit Japan appear to have their origin in this submarire region. On the other hand, the average depth of the Japan Sea is only 1200 fathoms, and its maximum depth is 3200. The east coast, from Cape Shiriya (Shiriyazaki) in the north, to Cape Inuboye (Inuboes4ki) near Tokyo Bay, though abounding in small indentations, has only two large bays, those of Sendai and Matsushima; but southward from Tokyo Bay to Cape Satta (Satanomisaki) in KiOshi there are many capacious inlets which offer excellent anchorage, as the Gulf of Sagami (Sagaminada), the Bays of Suruga (Surugawan), lie (Isenumi) and Osaka, the Ku Channel, the Gulf of Tosa (Tosonada), &c. ,Opening into both the Pacific and the Sea of Japan and separating Shikoku and KiQshi from the main island as well as from each other, is the celebrated Inland Sea, one of the most picturesque sheets of water in the world. Its surface measures 1325 sq m.; it,has a length of 255 m. and a maximum width of 56 m.; its coast-lines aggregate 700 m.; its depth is nowherc more than 65 fathoms, and it is studded with islands which present scenery of the most diverse and beautiful character. There arc four narrow avenues connecting this remarkable body of water with the Pacific and the Japan Sea; that on the west, called Shirnonoseki Strait, has a width of 3000 yds., that on the south, known ai Hayarnoto Strait, is 8 m. across; and the two on the north, Yura and Naruto Straits, measure 3000 and 1500 yds. respectively. It need scarcely be said that these restricted approaches give littlc access to the storms which disturb the seas outside. More broker into bays and inlets than any other part of the coast is the westerr shore of KiOshiO. Here three promontoriesNomo, Shimabar~ and Kizakienclose a large bay having on its shores Nagasaki, thi great naval port of Sasebo, and other anchorages. On the south 0:
KiOshiO the Bay of Kagoshima has historical interest, and on th west are the bays of Ariakeno-ura and Yatsushiro. To the norti of Nagasaki are the bays of Hakata, Karatsu and Imari. Betweei this coast and the southern extremity of the Korean peninsula an situated the islands of Iki and Tsushima, the latter being onl~ 30 m. distant from the peninsula. Passing farther north, the shore line of the main island along the Japan Sea is found to be compara tively straight and monotonous, there being only one noteworth~ indentation, that of Wakasa-wan, where are situated the naval por of Maizuru and the harbour of Tsuruga, the Japanese point 0 communication with the Vladivostok terminus of the Trans-Asiai railway. From this harbour to Osaka Japans waist measures onl 77 m., and as the great lake of Biwa and some minor sheets of wate break the interval, a canal may be dug to join the Pacific and th Sea of Japan. Yezo is not rich in anchorages. Uchiura (Volcan Bay), Nemui-o (Walfisch) Bay and Ishikari Bay are the only remark able inlets. As for Formosa, the peculiarity of its outline is that th eastern coast falls precipitously into deep water, while the wester ~lopes slowly to shelving bottoms and shoals. The Pescadore lalands afford the best anchorage in this part of Japan.
Mountasns.The Japanese islands are traversed from north t south by a range of mountains which sends out various laterl branches. Lofty summits are separated by comparatively low passes, which lie at the level of crystalline rocks and schists constituting the original uplands upon which the summits have been piled by volcanic action. The scenery among the mountains is generally soft. Climatic agencies have smoothed and modified everything rugged or abrupt, until an impression of gentle undulation rather than of grandeur is suggested. Nowhere is the region of eternal snow reached, and masses of foliage enhance the gentle aspect of the scenery and glorify it in autumn with tints of striking brilliancy. Mountain alternates with valley, so that not more than one-eighth of the countrys entire area is cultivable.
The king of Japanese mountains is Fuji-yama or Fuji-san (peerless mount), of which the highest point (Ken-ga-mine) iS 12,395 ft. above sealevel. The remarkable grace of this moun- Fe L tams curvean inverted catenarymakes it one of the most beautiful in the world, and has obtained for it a prominent place in Japanese decorative art. Great streams of lava flowed from the crater in ancient times. The course of one is still visible to a distance of 15 m. from the summit, but the rest are covered, for the most part, with deep deposits of ashes and scoriae. On the south Fuji slopes unbroken to the sea, but on the other three sides the plain from which it rises is surrounded by mountains, among which, on the north and west, a series of most picturesque lakes has been formed in consequence of the rivers having been dammed by ashes ejected from Fujis crater. To a height of some 1500 ft. the slopes of the mountain are cultivated; a grassy moorland stretches up the next 2500 ft.; then follows a forest, the upper edge of which climbs to an altitude of nearly 8000 ft., and finally there is a wide area of ashes and scoriae. There is entire absence of the Alpine plants found abundantly on the summits of other high mountains in Japan, a fact due, doubtless, to the comparatively recent activity of the volcano. The ascent of Fuji presents no difficulties. A traveller can reach the usual point of departure, Gotemba, by rail from Yokohama, and thence the ascent and descent may be made in one day by a pedestrian.
The provinces of Hida and Etchiu are bounded on the east by a chain of mountains including, or having in their immediate vicinity, the highest peaks in Japan after Fuji. Six of these summits rise to a height of 9000 L. or upwards, and The constitute the most imposing assemblage of mountains Japanese in the country. The ridge runs due north and south Aips.
through 60 to 70 rn. and has a width of 5 to lom. It is mostly of granite, only ~wo of the mountainsNorikura and Tateyamashowing clear traces of volcanic origin. Its lower flanks are clothed with forests of beech, conifers and oak. Farther south, in the same range, stands Ontake (10,450 ft.), the second highest mountain in Japan proper (as distinguished from Formosa); and other remarkable though not so lofty peaks mark the same regions. This grand group of mountains has been well called the Alps of Japan, and a good account of them may be found in The Japanese Alps (1896) by the Rev. W. Weston. On the summit of Ontake are eight large and several small craters, and there also may be seen displays of trance and divine possession, such as are described by Mr Percival Lowell in Occult Japan (1895).
Even more picturesque, though less lofty, than the Alps of Japan, are the Nikko mountains, enclosing the mausolea of the two greatest of the Tokugawa shoguns. The highest of these are Shirane-san (7422 ft.), Nantai-san (8169 ft.), Nyoh- The Nikko zan (8100 ft.), and Omanago (7546 ft.). They are ~flountains. clothed with magnificent vegetation, and everywhere they echo the voices of waterfalls and rivulets.
In the north of the main island there are no peaks of remarkable height. The best known are Chiokai-zan, called Akita-Fuji (the Fuji of the Akita province), a volcano 7077 ft.
high, which was active as late as 1861; Ganju-san Mountains (6791 ft.), called also Nambu-Fuji or Iwate-zan, of the North. remarkable for the beauty of its logarithmic curves; Iwaki-san (5230 ft.), known as Tsugaru-Fuji, and said by some to be even more imposing than Fuji itself; and the twin mountains Gassan (6447 ft.) and Haguro-san (5600 ft.). A little farther south enclosing the fertile plain of Aizu (Aizu-taira, as it is called) several important peaks are found, among them being lide-san (6332 ft.) Azuma-yama (7733 ft.), which, after a long interval of quiescence, has given many evidences of volcanic activity during recent years; Nasu-dake (6296 ft.), an active volcano; and Bandai-san (6037 ft.), A terrible interest attaches to the last-named mountain, for, after having remained quiet so long as to lull the inhabitants of the neigh. bouring district into complete security, it suddenly burst into fierc i activity on the 15th of July 1888, discharging a vast avalanche 01 earth and rock, which dashed down its slopes like an inundation burying four hamlets, partially destroying seven villages, kilhnf 461 people and devastating an area of 27 sq. m.
In the province of KOzuke, which belongs to the central part 01
- the main island, the noteworthy mountains are Asama-yama (8I3t ft.), one of the best known and most violently active Mountains o 1 peaks surrounding the basin of an old crater and rising ancisiJnano to a height of 6210 ft.; the Haruna group, celebrated for scenic beauties, and Myogi-san, a cluster of pinnacles which I though not rising higher than 3880 ft., offer scenery which dispel:
the delusion that nature as represented in the classical pictures (bunjingwa) of China and Japan exists only in the artists imagination. Farther south, in the province of Kai (KOshiu), and separating two great rivers, the Fuji-kawa and the Tenriu-gawa, there lies a range of hills with peaks second only to those of the Japanese Alps spoken of above. The principal elevations in this range are Shiranesanwith three summits, NOdori (9970 ft.), Ai-no-take (10,200 ft.) and Kaigane (10,330 ft.)and HOOzan (9550 ft.). It will be observed that all the highest mountains of Japan form a species of belt across the widest part of the main island, beginning on the west with the Alps of Etchiu, Hida and Shinano, and ending on the east with Fuji-yama. In all the regions of the main island southward of this belt the only mountains of conspicuous altitude are Omine (6169 ft.) and Odai-gaharazan (5540 ft.) in Yamato and Daisen or Oyama (5951 ft.) in HOki.
The island of Shikoku has no mountains of notable MO,Ukn~1ins of magnitude. The highest is Ishizuchi-zan (7727 ft.), but there are several peaks varying from 3000 to 6000 ft.
Kishi, though abounding in mountain chains, independent or connected, is not remarkable for lofty peaks. In the neighborhood of ~ ~, Nagasaki, over the celebrated solfataras of Unzen-take KlilshIiI (called also Onsen) stands an extinct volcano, whose summit, Fugen-dake, is 4865 ft. high. More potable is Aso-take, some 20 m. from Kumamoto; for, though the highest of its five peaks has an altitude of only 5545 ft., it boasts the largest crater in the world, with walls nearly 2000 ft. high and a basin from 10 to 14 m. in diameter. Aso-take is still an active volcano, but its eruptions during recent years have been confined to ashes and dust. Only two other mountains in KishiC need be mentioneda volcano (3~,I3 ft.) on the island Sakura-jima, in the extreme south; and Kirishiina-yama (5538 ft.), on the boundary of Hiuga, a mountain specially sacred in Japanese eyes, because on its eastern peak (Takachiho-dake) the god Ninigi descended as the forerunner of the first Japanese sovereign, Jimmu.
Among the mountains ,of Japan there are three volcanic ranges, namely, that of the Kuriles, that of Fuji, and that of Kirishima.
Volcanoes Fuji is the most remarkable volcanic peak. The Japanese regard it as a sacred mountain, and numbers of pilgrims make the ascent in midsummer. From 500 to 600 ft. is supposed to be the depth of the crater. There are neither sulphuric exhalations nor escapes of steam at present, and it would seem that this great volcano is permanently extinct. But experience in other parts of Japan shows that a long quiescent crater may at any moment burst into disastrous activity. Within the period of Japans written history several eruptions are recorded the last having been in 1707, when the whole summit burst into flame, rocks were shattered, ashes fell to a depth of several inches even in Yedo (TOkyO), 60 m. distant, and the crater poured forth streams of lava. Among still active volcanoes the following are the best known Name of Volcano Height in feet. Remarks.
Tarumai (Yezo) 2969. Forms southern wall of a large ancient crater now occupied by a lake (Shikotsu). A little steam still issues from several smaller cones on the summit of the ridge, as well as from one, called Eniwa, on the northern side.
Noboribetsu (Yezo) In a state of continuous activity, with 1148. frequent detonations and rumblings. The crater is divided by a wooded rock-wall. The northern part is occupied by a steaming lake, while the southern part contains numerous solfataras and boiling springs.
Komagatake (Yezo) The ancient crater-wall, with a lofty 3822. pinnacle on the western side, contains a low new cone with numerous steaming rifts and vents. In a serious eruption in 1856 .the S.E. flank of the mountain and the country side in that direction were denuded of trees. -
Esan 2067. A volcano-promontory at the Pacific end of the Tsugaru Strait: a finely formed cone surrounded on three sides by the sea, the crater breached on the land side. The central vent displays considerable activity, while the rocky walls are stained with red, yellow and white deposits from numerous minor vents.
Agatsuma (Iwaki) Erupted in 1903 and killed two geolo5230 gists.
Bandai-san (Iwashiro) Erupted in 1888 after a long period of 6037. quiescence. The outbreak was preceded byan earthquake of some severity, after which about 20 explosions took place. A huge avalanche of earth and rocks buried the Nagase Valley with its villages and inhabitants, and devastated an area of over 27 sq. m. The number of lives lost was 461; four hamlets were completely Bandai-san (Iwashiro) entombed with their iiihabitants and cattle; 6o37(cont.). seven villages were partially wrecked; forests were levelled or the trees entirely denuded of bark; rivers were blocked up, and lakes were formed. The lip of the fracture is now marked by a line of steaming vents.
Azuma-yama (Fuku- Long considered extinct, but has erupted shima) 7733. several times since I893, the last explosion having been in 1900, when 82 sulphurdiggers were killed or injured; ashes were thrown to a distance of5m.,accumulatingin places to a depth of 5 ft.; and a crater 300 ft. in diameter, and as many in depth, was formed on the E. side of the mountain. This crater is still active. The summit-crater is occupied by a beautiful lake. On the Fukushima (E.) side of the volcano rises a large parasitic cone, extinct.
Nasu (Tochigi) 6296. Has both a summit and a lateral crater, which are apparently connected and perpetually emitting steam. At or about the main vents are numerous solfataras. The whole of the upper part of the cone consists of grey highly acidic lava. At the base is a thermal spring, where baths have existed since the 7th century.
Shirane (Nikko) 7422. The only remaining active vent of the once highly volcanic Nikko district. Eruption in 1889.
Shirane (Kai) 70,330. Eruption in 1905, when the main crater was enlarged to a length of 3000 ft. It is divided into three parts, separated by walls, and each containing a lake, of which the middle one emits steam and the two others are cold. The central lake, during the periods of eruption (which are frequent), displays a geyser-like activity. These lakes contain free sulphuric acid, mixed with iron and alum.
Unzen (Hizen) 4865. A triple-peaked volcano in the solfatara stage, extinct at the summit, but displaying considerable activity at its base in the form of numerous fumaroles and boiling sulilhur springs.
Aso-take (Higo) 5545. Remarkable for the largest crater in the world. It measures 10 m. by I5, and rises almost symmetrically to a height of about 2000 ft., with only one break through which the river Shira flows. The centre is occupied by a mass of peaks, on the W. flank of which lies the modern active Crater. Two of the five compartments into which it is divided by walls of deeply striated volcanic ash are constantly emitting steam, while a new vent displaying great activity has been opened at the base of the cone on the south side. Eruptions have been recorded since the earliest days of Japanese history. In 1884 the ejected dust and ashes devastated farmlands through large areas. An outbreak in 1894 produced numerous rifts in the inner walls from which steam and smoke have issued ever since.
Kaimon (Kagoshima One of the most beautiful volcanoes of Bay) 3041. Japan, known as the Satsuma-Fuji. The symmetry of the cone is marred by a con vexity on the seaward (S.) side. This volcano is all but extinct.
Sakura-jima (Kago- An island-volcano, with several parasitic shima Bay) 3743. cones (extinct), on the N. and E. sides.
At the summit are two deep craters, the southern of which emits steam. Grass grows, however, to the very edges of the crater. The island is celebrated for ther mal springs, oranges and daikon (radishes),
which sometimes grow to a weight of 70 lb.
Kiri-shima (Kagoshima A volcanic range of which Takachiho, Bay) 5538. the only active cone, forms, the terminal (S.E.) peak. The crater,situatedon the S.W. side of the volcano, lies some 500 ft. below the summit-peak. It is of remarkably regular formation, and the floor is pierced by a number of huge fumaroles whence issue immense volumes of steam.
Izuno Oshima (Vries The volcano on this island is called Island) (lIti) 2461. Mihara. There is a double crater, the outer being almost complete. The diameter ox the outer crater, within which rises the modern cone to a height of 500 ft. above Izuno Oshima (Vries the surrounding floor, is about 2 rn; while Island) (lzu) 2461 the present crater, which displays incessant (cont). activity, has itself a diameter of 3/4 m.
Asama (Ise) 8736. The largest active volcano in Japan.
An eruption in 1783, with a deluge of lava, destro~ed an extensive forest and overwhelmed several villages. The present cone is the third, portions of two concentric crater rings remaining. The present crater is remarkable for the absolute perpendicu larity of its walls, and has an immense depth from 600 to 800 ft. It is circular, 3/4 m.
in circumference, with sides honeycombed and burned to a red hue.
Some of the above information is based upon Mr. C. E. BruceMitfords valuable work (see Geog. Jour., Feb. 1908, &c.).
Ear~j1quakes.Japan is subject to marked displays of seismic violence. One steadily exercised influence is constantly at work, for the shores bordering the Pacific Ocean are slowly though appreciably rising, while on the side of the Japan Sea a corresponding subsidence is taking place. Japan also experiences a vast number of petty vibrations not perceptible without the aid of delicate instruments. But of earthquakes proper, large or small, she has an exceptional abundance. Thus in the thirteen years ending in 1897that is to say, the first period when really scientific apparatus for recording purposes was availableshe was visited by no fewer than 17,750 shocks, being an average of something over 33/4 daily. The frequency of these phenomena is in some degree a source of security, for the minor vibrations are believed to exercise a binding effect by removing weak cleavages. Nevertheless the annals show that during the three centuries before 1897 there were 108 earthquakes sufficiently disastrous to merit historical mention. If the calculation be carried farther backas has been done by the seismic disaster investigation committee of Japan, a body of scientists constantly engaged in studying these phenomena under government auspices,it is found that, since the countrys history began to be written in the 8th century AD,, there have been 2006 major disturbances; but inasmuch as 1489 of these occurred before the beginning of the Tokugawa administration (early in the 17th century, and therefore in an era when methods of recording were comparatively defective), exact details are naturally lacking. The story, so far as it is known, may be gathered from the following table :
Date AD. Region Houses Deaths.
destroyed.
684. - Southern part of Tosa.. - _(i)
869 - - Mutsu _(2)
1361. .. KiOto 1498 -. Tokaido 2,000(3)
1569 ., - Bongo 700
1596,, - KiOto 2,000
1605 (31,/I) - Pacific Coast 5,000
1611 (27)9). Aizu 3,700
1614 (2/12) Pacific Coast (N.E.). .. 1,700
1662 (16/6) - Kioto 5,500 500
1666 (2/2) - Echigo 7,500
1694 (19,12) IJgo ~,76o 390
1703 (30/12) - Tokyo 20,162 5,233
1707 (28/10) - Pacific Coast of KiOshi and Shikoku 29,000 4,900
1751 (20/5). Echigo 9,100 1,700
1766 (8/3) - Hirosaki 7,500 1,335
1792 (10/2). Hizen and Higo. ... 12,000 15,000
1828 (18/2) - Echigo 11,750 1,443
1844 (8/5). Echigo 34,000 72,000
1854 (6/7) - Yamato, Iga, lse -. .. 5,000 2,400
1854 (23/12) - TOkaidO (Shikoku). .. o,ooo 3,000
1855 (u/u). Yedo (Tokyo) 50,000 6,700
1891 (28/10) - Mino, Owari 222,501 7,273
1894 (22/10). ShOnai 8,403 726
1896 (15,/6). Sanriku 13,073 27,122
1896 (3 1/8). Ugo, Rikuchu.. -. 8,996 209
1906 (12/2) - Formosa 5,556 1,228
(1) An area of over 1,200,000 acres swallowed up by the sea.
(2) Tidal wave killed thousands of people.
(3) Hamana lagoon formed.
In the capital (Tokyo) the average yearly number of shocks throughout the 26 years ending in 1906 was 96, exclusive of minor vibrations, hut during the 50 years then ending there were only two severe shocks (i8S4 and 1894), and they were not directly responsible for any damage to life or limb. The Pacific coast of the Japanese islands is more liable than the western shore to shocks disturbing a wide area. Apparent proof has been obtained that the shocks occurring in the Pacific districts originate at the bottom of the sea the Tuscarora Deep is supposed to be the centre of seismic activity and they are accompanied in most cases by tidal waves. It would seem that of late years Tajima, Hida, KOzuke and some other regions in central Japan have enjoyed the greatest immunity, while Musashi (in which province Tokyo is situated) and Sagami have been most subject to disturbance.
Plains.Japan, though very mountainous, has many extensive plains. The northern islandYezocontains seven, and there are as many more in the main and southern islands, to say nothing of flat lands of minor dimensions. The principal are given in the following table:
Name. Situation. Area; Remarks.
Tokachi plain - - Yezo. 744,000 acres.
Ishikari ,,. - do. 480,000 ,,
Kushiro ,, - - do. 7,229,000 ,,
Nemuro ,, - - do. 320,000 ,,
Kitami ,,. - do. 230,000 ,,
Hidaka ,, .. do. 200,000 ,,
Teshio ,,. - do. 1~o,ooo ,,
Echigo ,,. - Main Island. Unascertained.
Sendai ,,. - do. do.
Kwanto ,, .. do. do. In this plain lie the capital,TOkyo, and the town of Yokohama. It supports about 6 mil lions of people.
Mino-Owari,, .. do. do. HasI3/4millioninhabi- tants.
Kinai ,, .. do. do. Has the cities 01
Osaka,Kioto and Kobe, and 23/4 million people.
Tsukushi ,, .. Kiushiu. do. The chief coalfield of Japan.
Rivers.Japan is abundantly watered. Probably no country in the world possesses a closer network of streams, supplemented by canals and lakes. But the quantity of water carried seawards varies within wide limits; for whereas, during the rainy season in summer and while the snows of winter are melting in spring, great volumes of water sweep down from the mountains, these broad rivers dwindle at other times to petty rivulets trickling among a waste of pebbles and boulders. Nor are there any long rivers, and all are so broken by shallows and rapids that navigation is generally impossible except by means of flat-bottomed boats drawing only a few inches. The chief rivers are given in the following table:
Length in miles. Source. Mouth.
Ishik-ari-gawa.. 275 Ishikari-dake... Otaru.
Shinano-gawa.. 215 Kimpu-san. .. Niigata.
Teshio-gawa.. 192 Teshio-take. -. Sea of Japan.
Tone-gawa.. f 77 Monju-zan, Kozuke - Choshi (Shi mosa),
Mogami-gawa -. 151 Dainichi-dake(Uzen). Sakata.
Yoshino-gawa.. 149 Yahazu-yama (Tosa). Tokushima (Awa).
Kitakami-gawa. 146 Nakayama-dake Ishinomaki (Rikuchiu) (Rikuzen).
Tenriu-gawa -. 136 Suwako (Shinano). TOtmi Bay.
Go-gawa or Iwa megawa. .. 122 Maruse-yama (Bingo) Iwami Bay.
Abukuma-gawa. 122 Asahi-take (Iwashiro) Matsushima Bay.
Tokachi-gawa.. 120 Tokachi-dake. -. Tokachi Bay.
Sendai-gawa.. 112 Kunimi-zan (Hiuga). Kumizaki (Sat suma).
Oi-gawa. .. 112 Shirane-san (Kai).. Suruga Bay.
Kiso-gawa. .. 112 Kiso-zan (Shinano). Bay of Isenumi.
Ara-kawa. .. 104 Chichibu-yama -. Tokyo Bay. -
Naga-gawa... 102 Nasu-yama (Shimo- Naka-no-minato tsuke). ... (Huachi).
Lakes and Waterfalls.Japan has many lakes, remarkable for the beauty of their scenery rather than for their extent. Some are contained in alluvial depressions in the river valleys; others have been formed by volcanic eruptions, the ejecta damming the rivers until exits were found over cliffs or through gorges. Some of these lakes have become favorite summer resorts for foreigners. To that category belong especially the lakes of Hakone, of Chiuzenji, of ShOji, of Inawashiro, and of Biwa. Among these the highest is Lake Chiuzenji, which is 4375 ft. above sea-level, has a maximum depth of 93 fathoms, and empties itself at one end over a fall (Kegon) 250 ft. high. The ShOji lakes lie at a height of 3160 ft:, and their neighborhood abounds in scenic charms. Lake Hakone is at a height of 2428 ft.; Inawashiro, at a height of 1920 ft. and Biwa at a height of 328 ft. The Japanese associate Lake Biwa (Omi) with eight views of special loveliness(Omi-no-hakkei). Lake Suwa, in Shinano, which is emptied by the Tenriu-gawa, has a height of 2624 ft. In the vicinity of many of these mountain lakes thermal springs, with remarkable curative properties, are to be found. (F. By.)
Geology.It is a popular belief that the islands of Japan consist for the most part of volcanic rocks. But although this conception might reasonably be suggested by the presence of many active and extinct volcanoes, Professor J. Mime has pointed out that it is literally true of the Kuriles alone, partially true for the northern half of the Main Island and for Kishi, and quite incorrect as applied to the southern half of the Main Island and to Shikoku. This authority sums up the geology of Japan briefly and succinctly as follows (in Things Japanese, by Professor Chamberlain): The backbone of the country consists of primitive gneiss and schists. Amongst the latter, in Shikoku, there is an extremely interesting rock consisting largely of piedmontite. Overlying these amongst the Palaeozoic rocks, we meet in many parts of Japan with slates and other rocks possibly of Cambrian or Silurian age. Trilobites have been discovered in Rikuzen. Carboniferous rocks are represented by mountain masses of Fusulina and other limestones. There is also amongst the Palaeozoic group an interesting series of red slates containing Radiolaria. Mesozoic rocks are represented by slates containing Ammoniles and Monotis, evidently of Triassic age, rocks containing Ammonites Bucklandi of Liassic age, a series of beds rich in plants of Jurassic age, and beds of Cretaceous age containing Trigonia and many other fossils. The Cainozoic or Tertiary system forms a fringe round the coasts of many portions of the empire. It chiefly consists of stratified volcanic tuffs rich in coal, lignite, fossilized plants and an invertebrate fauna. Diatomaceous earth exists at several places in Yezo. In the alluvium which covers all, the remains have been discovered of several species of elephant, which, according to Dr Edmund Naumann, are of Indian origin. The most common eruptive rock is andesite. Such rocks as basalt, diorite and trachyte are comparatively rare. Quartz porphyry, quartzless porphyry, and granite are largely developed. Drs von Richthofen and Rein discuss the subject in greater detail. They have pointed out that in the mountain system of Japan there are three main lines. One runs from S.W. to N.E.; another from S.S.W. to N.N.E., and the. third is meridional. These they call respectively the southern schist range, the northern schist range, and the snow range, the last consisting mainly of old crystalline massive rocks. The rocks predominatin~ in Japan fall also into three groups. They are, first, plutonic rocks, especially granite; secondly, volcanic rocks, chiefly trachyte and dolerite; and thirdly, palaeozoic schists. On the other hand, limestone and sandstone, especially of the Mesozoic strata, are strikingly deficient. The strike of the old crystalline rocks follows, in general, the main direction of the islands (S.W. to N.E.). They are often overlain by schists and quartzites, or broken through by volcanic masses. The basis of the islands consist of granite, syenite, diorite, diabase and related kinds of rock, porphyry appearing comparatively seldonr. Now the granite, continuing for long distances, forms the prevailing rock; then, again, it forms the foundation for thick strata of schist and sandstone, itself only appearing in valleys of erosion and river boulders, in rocky projections on the coasts or in the ridges of the mountains.... In the composition of many mountains in Hondo (the main island) granite plays a prominent part.
It appears to form the central mass which crops up in hundreds of places towards the coast and in the interior. Old schists, free from fossils and rich in quartz, overlie it in parallel chains through the whole length of the peninsula, especially in the central and highest ridges, and bear the ores of Chu-goku (the central provinces), principally copper pyrites and magnetic pyrites. These schist ridges rich in quartz show, to a depth of 20 metres, considerable disintegration. The resulting pebble and quartz-sand is very unproductive, and supports chiefly a poor underwood and crippled pines with widely spreading roots which seek their nourishment afar. In the province of Settsu granite everywhere predominates, which may be observed also in the railway cuttings between Hiogo and Osaka, as well as in the temples and walls of these towns. The waterfalls near Kobe descend over granite walls and the mikageishi (stone of Mikage), famous throughout Japan, is granite from Settsu.. .. In the hill country on the borders of Ise, Owari, Mikawa and TOtmi, on the one side, and Omi, Mino and Shinano, on the other, granite frequently forms dark grey and much disintegrated rock-projections above schist and diluvial quartz pebbles. The feldspar of a splendid pegmatite and its products of disintegration on the borders of Owari, Mino and Mikawa form the raw material of the very extensive ceramic industry of this district, with its chief place, Seto. Of granite are chiefly formed the meridional mountains of Shinano. Granite, diorite and other plutonic rocks hem in the winding upper valleys of the Kisogawa, the Saigawa (Shinano river) and many other rivers of this province, their clear water running over granite. Also in the hills bordering on the plain of Kwantd these old crystalline rocks are widely spread. Farther northwards they give way again, as in the south, to schists and eruptive rocks. Yet even here granite may be traced in many places. Of course it is not always a pure granite; even hablit and graniteporphyry are found here and there. Thus, for instance, near Nikko in the upper valley of the Daiya-gawa, and in several other places in the neighboring mountains, a granite-porphyry appears with large, pale, flesh-colored crystals of orthoclase, dull triclinic feispar, quartz and hornblende. From the mine of Ichinokawa in Shikoku come the wonderful crystals of antimonite, which form such conspicuous objects in the mineralogical cabinets of Europe. (Reins Japan and Milne in Things Japanese.) The above conditions suggest the presence of tertiary formations, vet only the younger groups of that formation appear to be developed. Nor is there any sign of moraines, glacier-scorings or other traces of the ice-age.
The oldest beds which have yielded fossils in any abundance belong to the Carboniferous System. The Trias proper is represented by truly marine dep~its, while the Rhaetic beds contain plant remains. The Jurassic and Cretaceous beds are also in part marine and in part terrestrial. During the whole of the Mesozoic era Japan appears to have lain on or near the margin of the Asiatic continent, and the marine deposits are confined for the most part to the eastern side of the islands.
The igneous rocks occur at several geological horizons, but the great volcanic eruptions did not begin until the Tertiary period. The existing volcanoes belong to four separate arcs or chains. On the south is the arc of the Luchu islands, which penetrates into Kill Shill. Iii the centre there is the arc of the Izu-no-Shichito islands, which is continued into Hondo along the Fossa Magna. In North Hondo the great Bandai arc forms the axis of the island and stretches into Yezo (HokkaidO). Finally in the east of Yezo rise the most westerly volcanoes of the Kurile chain. The lavas and ashes ejected by these volcanoes consist of liparite, dacite, andesite and basalt.
Structurally Japan is divided into two regions by a depression (the Fossa Magna of Naumann) which stretches across the island of Hondo from Shimoda to Nagano. The depression is marked by a line of volcanoes, including Fuji, and is in part buried beneath the products of their eruptions. It is supposed to be due to a great fault along its western margin. South and west of the Fossa Magna the beds are thrown into folds which run approximately parallel to the general direction of the coast, and two zones may be recognizedan outer, consisting of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic beds, and an inner, consisting of Archaean and Palaeozoic rocks, with granitic intrusions. Nearly along the boundary between the two zones lie the inland seas of south Japan. Towards the Fossa Magna the folds bend northwards.
North and east of the Fossa Magna the structure is concealed, to a very large extent, by the outpourings of the volcanoes which form so marked a feature in the northern part of Hondo. But the foundation on which the volcanoes rest is exposed along the east coast of Hondo (in the Kwanto, Abukuma and Kitakami hills), and also in the island of Yezo. This foundation consists of Archean, Palaeozoic and Mesozoic beds folded together, the direction of the folds being N. by W. to S. by E., that is to say, slightly oblique to the general direction of this part of the island. Towards the Fossa Magna the folds bend sharply round until they are nearly parallel to the Fossa itself. (P. LA.)
It has been abundantly demonstrated by careful observations that the east coasts of Japan are slowly rising. This phenomenon was first noticed in the case of the plain on which s, stands the capital, TOkyO. Maps of sufficiently trust- M worthy accuracy show that in the If th century ove en Tokyo Bay penetrated much more deeply in a northern direction than it does now; the point where the citys main river (Sumida or Arakawa) enters the sea was considerably to the north of its present position, and low-lying districts, to-day thickly populated, were under water. Edmund Naumann was the discoverer of these facts, and his attention was first drawn to them by learning that an edible sea-weed, which flourishes only in salt water, is called Asakusanon, from the place (Asakusa) of its original provenance, which now lies some 3 m. inland. Similar phenomena were found in Sakhalin by Schmidt and on the north-east coast of the main island by Rein, and there can be little doubt that they exist at other places also. Naumann has concluded that formerly TokyO Bay stretched further over the whole level country of Shimosa and Hitachi and northwards as far as the plain of KwantO extends; that the mountain country of Kasusa-Awa emerged from it an island, and that a current ran in a north-westerly direction between this island and the northern mountain margin of the present plain toward the north-east into the open ocean.
Mineral Springs.The presence of so many active volcanoes is partially compensated by a wealth of mineral springs. Since many of these thermal springs possess great medicinal value, Japan may become one of the worlds favorite health-resorts, There are more than a hundred spas, some hot, some cold, which, being easily accessible and highly efficacious, are largely visited by the Japanese. The most noteworthy are as follows:
Name of Spa. Prefecture Quality. Temp., F.
Arima. .. Hiogo.. Salt 100
Asama. .. Nagano. Pure 111127
Asamushi.. Aomori. Salt 134f 68
Atami. .. Shizuoka. do 131226
Beppu.. - Oita.. Carbonic Acid - - 109132
Bessho.. - Nagano. Pure or Sulphurous. 108i 13
Dogo.. - Ehime. Pure 70110
Hakone. - Kanagawa Pure, Salt or Sulphurous 98f 68
Higashi-yama - Fukushima Pure or Salt - -. 117144
Ikao.. - Gumma, - Salt 111127
Isobe. ., do. - do Cold -Kusatsu.. - do - Sulnhuroiis, - 127TAff Name of Spa. Prefecture. Quality Temp., F.
Nasu - - - - Tochigi - Suiphurous. .. f62172
Noboribetsu. Ishikari - do.. .. 125
Shibu -. - Nagano - Salt 98115
Chiuzenji - Shizuoka - Carbonate of Soda and Sulphqr 114185
Takarazuka - Hiogo - Carbonic Acid -.. Cold Ureshino -. Saga -. do - - 230
Unzen - - - Nagasaki. Sulphurous. -. - 158204
Wagura -. - Ishikawa - Salt 180
Yamashiro - - do. - do 165
Yunoshima.. Hiogo. do 104134
ClimaIe.The large extension of the Japanese islands in a northerly and southerly direction causes great varieties of climate. General characteristics are hot and humid though short summers, and long, cold and clear winters. The equatorial currents produce conditions differing from those existing at corresponding latitudes on the neighboring continent. In KiushiO, Shikoku and the southern half of the main island, the months of July and August alone are marked by oppressive heat at the sea-level, while in elevated districts a cool and even bracing temperature may always be found, though the direct rays of the sun retain distressing power. Winter in these districts does not last more than two months, from the end of December to the beginning of March; for although the latter month is not free from frost and even snow, the balminess of spring makes itself plainly perceptible. In the northern half of the main island, in Yezo and in the Kuriles, the cold is severe during the winter, which lasts for at least four months, and snow falls sometimes to great depths. Whereas in Tokyo the number of frosty nights during a year does not average much over 60, the corresponding number in Sapporo on the north-west of Yezo is 145. But the variation of the thermometer in winter and summer being considerableas much as 72 F. in Tokyothe climate proves somewhat trying to persons of weak constitution. On the other hand, the mean daily variation is in general less than that in other countries having the same latitude: it is greatest in January, when it reaches i8 F., and least in July, when it barely exceeds 9 F. The monthly variation is very great in March, when it usually reaches 43 F.
During the first 40 years of the Meiji era numerous meteorological stations were established. Reports are constantly forwarded by Meteoroio~ telegraph to the central observatory in Tokyo, which issues daily statements of the climatic conditions during the previous twenty-four hours, as well as forecasts for the next twenty-four. The whole country is divided into districts for meteorological purposes, and storm-warnings are issued when necessary. At the most important stations observations are taken everyhour; at the less important, six observations daily; and at the least important, three observations. From the record of three decades the following yearly averages of temperature are obtained:
Taihoku (in Formosa) 71
Nagasaki (KishiO) 60
KObe (Main Island) 5~
Osaka (Main Island) 59
Okayama (Main Island) 58
Nagoya (Main Island) 58
Sakai (Main Island) 58
Tokyo (Capital) 5~
KiOto (Main Island) 57
Niigata (Main Island) 55
Ishinomaki (Main Island) 52
Aomori (Main Island) 50
Sapporo (Yezo) 44
The following table affords data for comparing the climatesof Peking, Shanghai, Hakodate, Tokyo and San Francisco:
Mean Longitude. Latitude. Temp., F.
Peking.. - - 116 29 E. 39 57 N. 53
Shanghai -. - 121 20 E. 31 12 N. 59
Hakodate - - - 540 45 E. 41 46 N. 47
Tokyo - - - - 138 47 E. 35 41 N. 57
San Francisco.. 122 25 E. 37 48 N. 56
Mean Temp. of Hottest Month. - Hottest Month, Peking July 80
Shanghai 84
Hakodate August 71
Tokyo do 79
San Francisco. ... September 63
Mean Temp. oi Coldest Month Coldest Month Peking. January 22
Shanghai do 26
Hakodate do 28
Tokyo do 36
San Francisco. ... do 49
There are three wet seasons in Japan: the first, from the middle of April to the beginning of May; the second, from the middle of June to the beginning of July; and the third, from early in September to early in October. The dog days (doyO)
are from the middle of July till the second half of August. September is the wettest month; January the driest. During the four months from November to February inclusis~e only about 18% of the whole rain for the year falls. In the district on the east of the main island the snowfall is insignificant, seldom attaining a depth of more than four or five inches and generally melting in a few days, while bright, sunny skies are usual. But in the mountainous provinces of the interior and in those along the western coast, deep snow covers the ground throughout the whole winter, and the sky is usually wrapped in a veil of clouds. These differences are due to the action of the north-westerly wind that blows over Japan from Siberia. The intervening sea being comparatively warm, this wind arrives at Japan having its temperature increased and carrying moisture which it deposits as snow on the western faces of the Japanese mountains. Crossing the mountains and descending their eastern slopes, the wind becomes less saturated and warmer, so that the formation of clouds ceases. Japan is emphatically a wet country so far as quantity of rainfall is concerned, the average for the whole country being 1570 mm. per annum. Still there are about four sunny days for every three on which rain or snow falls, the actual figures being 150 days of snow or rain and 215 days of sunshine.
During the cold season, which begins in October and ends in April, northerly and westerly winds prevail throughout Japan. They come from tile adjacent continent of Asia, and they de- Wind velop considerable strength owing to the fact that there is an average difference of some 22 mm. between the atmospheric pressure (750 mm.) in the Pacific and that (772 mm.) in the Japanese islands. But during the warm season, from May to September, these conditions of atmospheric pressure are reversed, that in the Pacific rising to 767 mm. and that in Japan falling to 750 mm. Hence throughout this season the prevailing winds are light breezes from the west and south. A comparison of the force habitually developed by the wind in various parts of the islands shows that at Suttsu in Yezo the average strength is 9 metres per second, while Izuhara in the island Tsu-shima, Kumamoto in KiOshi and Gifu in the east centre of the main island stand at the bottom of the list with an average wind velocity of only 2 metres. A calamitous atmospheric feature is the periodical arrival of storms called typhoons (Japanese tai-fu or great wind). These have their origin, for the most part, in the China Sea, especially in the vicinity of Luzon. Their season is from June to October, but they occur in other months also, and they develop a velocity of 5 to 75 m. an hour. The meteorological record for ten years ended 1905 shows a total of 120 typhoons, being an average of 12 annually. September had 14 of these phenomena, March II and April 10, leaving 85 for the remaining 9 months. But only 65 out of the whole number developed disastrous force. It is particularly unfortunate that September should be the season of greatest typhoon frequency, for the earlier varieties of rice flower in that month and a heavy storm does much damage. Thus, in 1902by no means an abnormal yearstatistics show the following disasters owing to typhoons: casualties to human life, 3639; ships and boats lost, 3244; buildings destroyed wholly or partially, 695,062; land inundated, 1,071,575 acres; roads destroyed, 1236 m.; bridges washed away, 13, 685; embankments broken, 705 m.; crops damaged, 8,712,655 bushels. The total loss, including cost of repairs, was estimated at nearly 3 millions sterling, which may be regarded as an annual average.
Flora.The flora of Japan has been carefully studied by many scientific men from Siebold downwards. Foreigners visiting Japan are immediately struck by the affection of the people for flowers, trees and natural beauties of every kind. In actual wealth of blossom or dimensions of forest trees the Japanese islands cannot claim any special distinction. The spectacles most admired by all classes are the tints of the foliage in autumn andthegloryof flowering trees in the spring. In beauty and variety of pattern and color the autumnal tints are unsurpassed. The colors pass from deep brown through purple to yellow and white, thrown into relief by the dark green of non-deciduous shrubs and trees. Oaks and wild prunus, wild vines and sumachs, various kinds of maple, the dOdan (Enkianthus Japonicus Hook.)a wonderful bush which in autumn develops a hue of ruddy redbirches and other trees, all add multitudinous colors to the brilliancy of a spectacle which is further enriched by masses of feathery bamboo. The one defect is lack of green sward. The grass used for Japanese lawns loses its verdure in autumn and remains from November to March a greyish brown blot upon the scene. Spring is supposed to begin in February when, according to the old calendar, the new year sets in, but th only flowers then in bloom are the camellia japonsca and some kinds of daphne. The formercalled by the Japanese tsubaksma) often be seen glowing fiery red amid snow, but the pink (otorn~ tsubaki), white (shiro-tsubaki) and variegated (shibori-no-tsubaki kinds do not bloom until March or April. Neither the camellia noi the daphne is regarded as a refined flower: their manner of shedding their blossoms is too unsightly. Queen of spring flowers is the plun (ume). The tree lends itself with peculiar readiness to the skilfu manipulation of- the gardener, and is by him trained into shapes of remarkable grace. Its pure white or rose-red blossoms, heralding the first approach of genial weather, are regarded with special favor and are accounted the symbol of unassuming hardihood. The cherry (sakura) is even more esteemed. It will not suffer any training, nor does it, like the plum, improve by pruning, but the sunshine that attends its brief period of bloom in April, the magnificence of its flower-laden boughs and the picturesque flutter of its falling petals, inspired an ancient poet to liken it to the soul, of Yamato (Japan), and it has ever since been thus regarded. The wild peach (momo) blooms at the same time, but attracts little attention. All these treesthe plum, the cherry and the peachbear no fruit worthy of the name, nor do they excel their Occidental representatives in wealth of blossom, but the admiring affection they inspire in Japan is unique. Scarcely has the cherry season passed when that of the wistaria (fuji) comes, followed by the azalea(tsutsuji) and the iris (shibu), the last being almost contemporaneous with the peony (botan), which is regarded by many Japan se as the king of flowers and is cultivated assiduously. A species of weeping maple (shidare-momiji) dresses itself in peachy-red foliage and is trained into many picturesque shapes, though not without detriment to its longevity. Summer sees the lotus (renge) convert wide expanses of lake and river into sheets of white and red blossoms; a comparatively flowerless interval ensues until, in October and November, the chrysanthemum arrives to furnish an excuse for fashionable gatherings. With the exception of the dog-days and the dead of winter, there is no season when flowers cease to be an object of attention to the Japanese, nor does any class fail to participate in the sentiment. There is similar enthusiasm in the matter of gardens. From the 1 0th century onwards the art of landscape gardening steadily grew into a science, with esoteric as well as exoteric aspects, and with a special vocabulary. The underlying principle is to reproduce natures scenic beauties, all the features being drawn to scale, so that however restricted the space, there shall be no violation of proportion. Thus the artificial lakes and hills, the stones forming rockeries or simulating solitary crags, the trees and even the bushes are all selected or manipulated so as to fall congruously into the general scheme. If, on the one hand, huge stones are transported hundreds of miles from sea-shore or river-bed where, in the lapse of long centuries, waves and cataracts have hammered them into strange shapes, and if the harmonizing of their various colors and the adjustment of their forms to environment are studied with profound subtlety, so the training and tending of the trees and shrubs that keep them company require much taste and much toil. Thus the red pine (aka-matsu or pinus densiflora), which is the favorite garden tree, has to be subjected twice a year to a process of spraydressing which involves the careful removal of every weak or aged needle. One tree occupies the whole time of a gardener for about ten days. The details are endless, the results delightful. But it has to be clearly understood that there is here no mention of a flowergarden in the Occidental sense of the term. Flowers are cultivated, but for their own sakes, not as a feature of the Jandscape garden. If they are present, it is only as an incident. This of course does not apply to shrubs which blossom at their seasons and fall always into the general scheme of the landscape. Forests of cherry-trees, plumtrees, magnolia trees, or hiyaku-jikko (Lagerstroemia indica), banks of azalea, clumps of hydrangea, groups of camelliasuch have their permanent places and their foliage adds notes of color when their flowers have fallen. But chrysanthemums, peonies, roses and so forth, are treated as special shows, and are removed or hidden when out of bloom. There is another remarkable feature of the Japanese gardeners art. He dwarfs trees so that they remain measurable only by inches after their age has reached scores, even hundreds, of years, and the proportions of leaf, branch and stem are preserved with fidelity. The pots in which these wonders of patient skill are grown have to be themselves fine specimens of the keramists craft, and as much as 200 is sometimes paid for a notably well trained tree.
There exists among many foreign observers an impression that Japan is comparatively poor in wild-flowers; an impression probably due to the fact that there are no flowery meadows or lanes. Besides, the flowers are curiously wanting in fragrance. Almost the only notable exceptions are the mokusel (Osmanthusfragrans), the daphne and the magnolia. Missing the perfume-laden air of the Occident, a visitor is prone to infer paucity of blossoms. But if some familiar European flowers are absent, they are replaced by others strange to Western eyesa wealth of lespedeza and Indigo-fera; a vast variety of lilies; graceful grasses like the eulalia and the ominameshi (Patriaa scabiosaefolia); the richly-hued Pyrus japonica; azaleas, diervillas and deutzias; the kikyo (Platycodon grandifiorum), the giboshi (Funkia ovala), and many another. The same is true of Japanese forests. It has been well said that to enumerate the constituents and inhabitants of the Japanese mountain-forests would be to name at least half the entire flora.
According to Franchet and Savatier Japan possesses: Families. Genera. Species.
Dicotyledonous plants. .. - 121 795 1934
Monocotyledonous plants. .. 28 202 613
Higher Cryptogamous plants - 5 38 196
Vascular plants 154 1035 2743
The investigations of Japanese botanists are adding constantly to the above number, and it is not likely that finality will be reached for some time. According to a comparison made by A. Gray with regard to the numbers of genera and species respectively represented in the forest trees of four regions of the northern hemisphere, the following is the case:
Atlantic Forest-region of N. America 66 genera and 155 species.
Pacific Forest-region of N. America 31 genera and 78 species.
Japan and Manchuria Forest-region - 66 genera and 168 species.
Forests of Europe 33 genera and 85 species.
While there can be no doubt that the luxuriance of Japans flora is due to rich soil, to high temperature and to rainfall not only plentiful but well distributed over the whole year, the wealth and variety of her trees and shrubs must be largell the result of immigration. Japan has four insular chains which link her to the neighboring continent. On the south, the RikiU Islands bring her within reach of Formosa and the Malayan archipelago; on the west, Oki, Iki, and Tsushima bridge the sea between her and Korea; on the north-west Sakhalin connects her with the Amur region; and on the north, the Kuriles form an almost continuous route to Kamchatka. By these paths the germs of Asiatic plants were carried over to join the endemic flora of the country, and all found suitable homes amid greatly varying conditions of climate and physiography.
Fauna.Japan is an exception to the general rule that continents are richer in fauna than are their neighboring islands. It has been said with truth that an industrious collector of beetles, butterflies, neuroptera, &c., finds a greater number of species in a circuit of some miles near Tokyo than are exhibited by the whole British Isles.
Of mammals 50 species have been identified and catalogued. Neither the lion nor the tiger is found. The true Carnivora are three only, the bear, the dog and the marten. Three species of bears are scientifically recognized, but one of them, the ice-bear (Ursus maritimus), is only an accidental visitor, carried down by the Arctic current. In the main island the black bear (kuma, Ursusjaponicus) alone has its habitation, but the island of Yezo has the great brown bear (called shi-guma, oki-kuma or aka-kuma), the grisly of North America. The bear does not attract much popular interest in Japan. Tradition centres rather upon the fox (kitsune) and the badger (mujina), which are credited with supernatural powers, the former being worshipped as the messenger of the harvest god, while the latter is regarded as a mischievous rollicker. Next to these comes the monkey (saru), which dwells equally among the snows of the north and in the mountainous regions of the south. Saru enters into the composition of many place-names, an evidence of the peoples familiarity with the animal. There are ten species of bat (komori) and seven of insect-eaters, and prominent in this class are the mole (mugura) and the hedgehog (hari-nezumi). Among the martens there is a weasel (itachi), which, though useful as a ratkiller, has the evil repute of being responsible for sudden and mysterious injuries to human beings; there is a river-otter (kawauso), and there is a sea-otter (rakko) which inhabits the northern seas and is highly valued for its beautiful pelt. The rodents are represented by an abundance of rats, with comparatively few mice, and by the ordinary squirrel, to which the people give the name of tree-rat (ki-nezumi), as well as the flying squirrel, known as the momo-dori (peach-bird) in the north, where it hides from the light in hollow tree-trunks, and in the south as the ban-tori (or bird of evening). There are no rabbits, but hares (usagi) are to be found in very varying numbers, and those of one species put on a white coat during winter. The wild boar (shishi or si-no-shishi) does not differ appreciably from its European congener. Its flesh is much relished, and for some unexplained reason is called by its vendors mountain-whale (yama-kujira). A very beautiful stag (shika), with eight-branched antlers, inhabits the remote woodlands, and there are five species of antelope (kamo-shika) which are found in the highest and least accessible parts of the mountains. Domestic animals have for representatives the horse (uma), a small beast with little beauty of form though possessing much hardihood and endurance; the ox (ushs)~mainly a beast of burden or draught; the pig (buta), very occasionally; the dog (mu), an unsightly and useless brute; the cat (neko), with a stump in lieu of a tail; barndoor fowl (niwa-tori), ducks (ahiro) and pigeons (hato). The turkey (shieldmencho) and the goose (gacho) have been introduced but are little appreciated as yet.
Although so-called singing birds exist in tolerable numbers, those worthy of the name of songster are few. Eminently first is a species of nightingale (uguisu), which, though smaller than,its congener of the West, is gifted with exquisitely modulated flute-like notes of considerable range. The uguisu is a dainty bird in the matter of temperature. After May it retires from the low-lying regions and gradually ascends to higher altitudes as midsummer approaches. A variety of the cuckoo called hototogisu (Cuculus poliocephalus) in imitation of the sound of its voice, is heard as an accompaniment of the uguisu, and there are also three other species, the kakkodori (Cuculus canorus), the Isutsu-dori (C. himalayanus), and the masuhakari, orju-ichi (C. hyperythrus). To these the lark, hibari (Alauda japonica), joins its voice, and the cooing of the pigeon (hato) is supplemented by the twittering of the ubiquitous sparrow (suzume)
while over all are heard the raucous caw of the raven (karasu) and the harsh scream of the kite (tombi), between which and the raven there is perpetual feud. The falcon (taka), always an honored bird in Japan, where from time immemorial hawking has been an aristocratic pastime, is common enough, and so is the sparrow-hawk (/lai-taka), but the eagle (washi) affects solitude. Two English ornithologists, Blakiston and Pryer, are the recognized authorities on the birds of Japan, and in a contribution to the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan (vol. x.) they have enumerated 359 species. Starlings (muku-dori) are numerous, and so are the wagtail (sekirei), the swallow (tsubame) the martin (ten), the woodchat (mozu) and the jay (kakesu or kashi-dori), but the magpie (tOgarasu), though common in China, is rare in Japan. Blackbirds and thrushes are not found, nor any species of parrot, but on the other hand, we have the hoopoe (yatsugashira), the red-breast (komadori), the bluebird (run), the wren (miso-sazai), the golden-crested wren (itadaki), the golden-eagle (inu-washi), the finch (hiwa), the longtailed rosefinch (benimashiko), the ouzelbrown (akahara), dusky (tsugumi) and water (kawa-garasu)the kingfisher (kawasems), the crake (kuina) and the tomtit (kara). Among game-birds there are the quail (uzura), the heathcock (ezo-rachO), the ptarmigan (ezo-raicho or ezo-yama-doni), the woodcock (hodo-shigi), the snipe (ta-shigi) with two special species, the solitary snipe (yama-shigi) and the painted snipe (tama-shigi)and the pheasant (kiji). Of the last there are two species, the kiji proper, a bird presenting no remarkable features, and the copper pheasant, a magnificent bird with plumage, of dazzling beauty. Conspicuous above all others, not only for grace of form but also for the immemorial attention paid to them by Japanese artists, are the crane (tsuru) and the heron (sagi). Of the crane there are seven species, the stateliest and most beautiful being the Grus japonensis (tanchO or tanchO-zuru), which stands some 5 ft. high and has pure white plumage with a red crown, black tail-feathers and black upper neck, It is a sacred bird, and it shares with the tortoise the honor of being an emblem of longevity. The other species are the demoiselle crane (anewa-zuru), the black crane (kuro-zuru or nezumi-zuru, ie. Grus cinerea) ,the Grus leucauchen (mana-zuru), the Grus monachus (nabe-zuru), and the white crane (shiro-zuru). The Japanese include in this category the stork (kOzaru), but it may be said to have disappeared from the island. The heron (sagi) constitutes a charming feature in a Japanese landscape, especially the silver heron (shira-sagi), which displays its brilliant white plumage in the rice-fields from spring to early autumn. The night-heron (goi-sagi) is very common. Besides these waders there are plover (chidori); golden (muna-guro or aiguro); gray (dailee); ringed (shiro-chidori); spur-winged (ken) and Hartings sand-plover (ikaru-chidors); sand-pipersgreen (ashiroshigi) and spoon-billed (hera-shigi)-and water-hens (ban). Among swimming birds the most numerous are the gull (kamome), of which many varieties are found; the cormorant (u)which is trained by the Japanese for fishing purposesand multitudinous flocks of wild-geese (gan) and wild-ducks (kanjo), from the beautiful mandarinduck (oshi-dori), emblem of cunjugal fidelity, to teal (koga,no) and widgeon (hidori-ganto) of several species. (~reat preserves of wildduck and teal used to be a frequent feature in the parks attached to the feudal castles of old Japan, when a peculiar method of netting the birds or striking them with falcons was a favorite aristocratic pastime. A few of such preserves still exist, and it is noticeable that in the Palace-moats of Tokyo all kinds of water-birds, attracted by the absolute immunity they enjoy there, assemble in countless numbers at the approach of winter and remain until the following spring, wholly indifferent to the close proximity of the city.
Of reptiles Japan has only 30 species, and among them is included the marine turtle (urni-ganie) which can scarcely be said to frequent her waters, since it is seen only at rare intervals on the southern coast. This is even truer of the larger species (the shogakubo, i.e. Chelonia cephalo). Both are highly valued for the sake of the shell, which has always been a favorite material for ladies combs and hairpins. By carefully selecting certain portions and welding them together in a perfectly flawless mass, a pure amber-colored object is obtained at heavy cost. Of the fresh-water tortoise there are two kinds, the nippon (Tnionyx japonica) and the kame-no-ko (Ernys vulganisjaponica). The latter is one ofthe Japanese emblems of longevity. It is often depicted with a flowing tail, which appendix attests close observation of nature; for the mino-game, as it is called, represents a tortoise to which, in the course of many scores of years, confcrvae have attached themselves so as to form an appendage of long green locks as the creature swims about. Sea-snakes occasionally make their way to Japan, being cairied thither by the Black Current (Kuro Shiwo) and the monsoon, but they must be regarded as merely fortuitous visitors. There are 10 species of land-snakes (hebi), among which one only (the mamushi, or Trigonocephalus Blomhoffi) is venomous. The others for the most part frequent the rice-fields and live upon frogs. The largest is the aodaisho (Eta phis virgatus), which sometimes attains a length of 5 ft., but is quite harmless. Lizards (tokage), frogs (kawazu or kaeru), toads (ebogayeru) and newts (imori) are plentiful, and much curiosity attaches to a giant salamander (sanslio-uwo, called also hazekai and other names according to localities), which reaches to a length of 5 ft., and (according to Rein) is closely related to the Andrias ~ ,,~ 1-~
The seas surrounding the Japanese islands may be called a resort of fishes, for, in addition to numerous species which abide there permanently, there are migatory kinds, coming and going with the monsoons and with the great ocean streams that set to and from the shores. In winter, for example, when the northern monsoon begins to blow, numbers of denizens of the Sea of Okhotsk swim southward to the more genial waters of north Japan; and in summer the Indian Ocean and the Malayan archipelago send to her southern coasts a crowd of emigrants which turn homeward again at the approach of winter. It thus falls out that in spite of the enormous quantity of fish consumed as food or used as fertilizers year after year by the Japanese, the seas remain as richly stocked as ever. Nine orders 01 fishes have been distinguished as the piscifauna of Japanese waiters. They may be found carefully catalogued with all their included species in Reins Japan, and highly interesting researches by Japanese physiographists are recorded in the Journal of the College of Science of the Imperial University of TOkyo. Briefly, the chief fish of Japan are the bream (tai), the perch (suzuki), the mullet (bora), the rock-fish (hatatate), the grunter (oni-o-koze), the mackerel (saba), the sword-fish (tachi-uwo), the wrasse (kusabi), the haddock (tara), the flounder (karei), and its congeners the sole (hiranie) and the turbot (ishi-garei), the shad (namazu), the salmon (shake), the mash, the carp (koi), the funa, the gold fish (kzngyo), the gold carp (higoi), theloach (dojo), the herring (nishin) the iwashi (Clu pea melanosticta), the eel (unagi), the conger eel (anago), the coffer-fish (hako-uwo), the fugu (Tetrodon), the ai (Plecoglossus altivelis), the sayori (Heminamphus sayoni), the shark (same), the dogfish (maiiuka-zame), the ray (e), the sturgeon (chO-lame) and the maguro (Thynnus sibi).
The insect life of Japan broadly corresponds withthat of temperate regions in Europe. But there are also a number of tropical species, notably among butterflies and beetles. The latterfor which the generic term in Japan is mushi or kaichinclude some beautiful species, from the jewel beetle (tama-mushi), the gold beetle (kogane-mushi) and the Chrysochroa fulgidissima, which glow and sparkle with the brilliancy of gold and precious stones, to the jet black Melanauster chinensis, which- seems to have been fashioned out of lacquer spotted with white. There is also a giant nasicornous beetle. Among butterflies (chOchO) Rein gives prominence to the broad-winged kind (Papilio), which recall tropical brilliancy. One (Papilio macilentus) is peculiar to Japan. Many others seem to be practically identical with European species. That is especially true of the moths (yacho), 100 species of which have been identified with English types. There are seven large silk-moths, of which two only (Bombyx mon and Anthenaea yama-mai) are employed in producing silk. Fishing lines are manufacttired from the cocoons of the genjiki-mushi (Caligula japonica), which is one of the commonest moths in the islands. Wasps, bees and hornets, generically known as hachi, differ little from their European types, except that they are somewhat larger and more sluggish. The gad-fly (abu), the housefly (hai), the mosquito (ka), the flea (nonzi) and occasionally the bedbug (called by the Japanese kara-mushi because it is believed to be imported from China), are all fully represented, and the dragon-fly (tombO) presents itself in immense numbers at certain seasons. Grasshoppers (batta) are abundant, and one kind (inago), which frequent the rice-fields when the cereal is.ripening, are caught and fried in oil as ad article of food. On the moors in late summer the mantis (kama-kiri-niushi) is commonly met with, and the cricket (kurogi) and the cockroach, abound. Particularly obtrusive is the cicada (semi), of which there are many species. Its strident voice is heard most loudly at times of great heat, when the song of the birds is hushed. The dragon-fly and the cicada afford ceaseless entertainment to the Japanese boy. He catches them by means of a rod smeared with bird-lime, and then tying a fine string under their wings, he flies them at its end. Spiders abound, from a giant species to one of the minutest dimensions, and the tree-bug is always ready to make a destructive lodgment in any sickly tree-stem. The scorpion (sasori). exists but is not poisonous.
Japanese rivers and lakes are the habitation of severalseven or eightspecies of freshwater crab (kani), which live in holes on the shore and emerge in the day-time, often moving to considerable distances from their homes. Shrimps (kawa-ebi) also are found in the rivers and rice-fields. These shrimps as well as a large species of crabmokuzo-ganiserve the people as an article of food, but the small crabs which live in holes have no recognized raison d tre. In Japan, as elsewhere, the principal crustacea are found in the sea. Flocks of lupa and other species swim in the wake of the tropical fishes which move towards Japan at certain seasons. Naturally these migratory crabs are not limited to Japanese waters. Milne Edwards has identified ten species which occur in Australian seas also, and Rein mentions, as belonging to the same category, the helmet-crab or horse-shoe crab (kabuto-gani, Limulus longispina I-Ioeven). Very remarkable is the giant Taka-ashi long legs (Macrocheirus Kaempfeni), which has legs 14 metres long and is found in the seas of Japan and the Malay archipelago. Thele is no lobster on the coasts of Japan, but there are various species of cray-fish (Palinurus and Scyliarus) the principal of which, under the names of ise-ebi (Palinurus japonicus) and kuruma-ebi (Penaeus canaliculatus) are greatly prized as an article of diet. -
Already in 1882, Dunker in his Index Moliuscorum Mans Japonics .~i ,..~.i. ,~..,.-. .r.~.... ~ f.-.,,,,.-l a, Japanese archipelago, and several others have since then been added to the list. As for the land and fresh-water molluscs, some 200 of which are known, they are mainly kindred with those of China and Siberia, tropical and Indian forms being exceptional. - There are 57 species of Helix (maimailsuburi, dedemushi, katatsumuri orkwagyu) and 25 of Clausilia (kiseru-gai or pipe-snail), - including the two largest snails in Japan, namely the Cl. Martensi and the Cl. Yokohamensis, which attain to a length of 58 mm. and 44 mm. respectively. The mussel (i-no.kai) is well represented by the species numa-gai (marsh-mussel), karasu-gai (raven-mussel), kamisori-gai (razor-mussel), shijimi-no-kai (Corbicula), of which there are nine species, &c. Unlike the land-molluscs, the great majority of Japanese sea-molluscs are akin to those of the Indian Ocean and the Malay archipelago. Some of them extend westward as far as the Red Sea. The best known and most frequent forms are the asari (Tapes philippinarum), the hamaguri (Meretrix lusoria), the baka (Mactra sulcataria), the aka-gai (Scapharca inflata), the kaki (oyster), the awabi (Haliotis japonica), the sazae (Turbo cornutus), the hora-gai (Trilonium tritonius), &c. Among the cephalopods several are of great value as articles of food, e.g. the surume (Onychotheuthis Banksii), the tako (octopus), the shidako (Eledone), the ika (Sepia) and the tako-fune (Argonauta). -
Greeff enumerates, as denizens of Japanese seas, 26 kinds of seaurchins (gaze or uni) and 12 of starfish (hitode or tako-no-makura). These, like the mollusca, indicate the influence of the Kuro Shiwo and the south-west monsoon, for they have close affinity with species found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. For edible purposes the most valuable of the Japanese echinoderms is the sea-slug or bche de mer (namako), which is greatly appreciated and forms an important staple of export to China. Rein writes: Very remarkable in coiinexion with the starfishes is the occurrence of Asterias rubens on the Japanese coast. This creature displays an almost unexampled frequency and extent of distribution in the whole North Sea, in the western parts of the Baltic, near the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and the English coasts, so that it may be regarded as a characteristic North Sea echinoderm form. Towards the south this starfish disappears, it seems, completely; for it is not yet known with certainty to exist either in the Mediterranean or in the southern parts of the Atlantic Ocean. In others also Aslerias rubens is not knownand then it suddenly reappears in Japan. Archaster typicus has a pretty wide distribution over the Indian Ocean; other Asteridae of Japan, on the other hand, appear to be confined to its shores.
Japan is not rich in corals and sponges. Her most interesting contributions are crust-corals (Gorgonidae, Corallium, Isis, &c.), and especially flint-sponges, called by the Japanese hoshi-gai and known as glass-coral (Hyalonema sieboldi). These last have not been found anywhere except at the entrance of the Bay of Tokyo at a depth of some 200 fathoms.
11.THE PEOPLE
Population.The population was as follows on the 3jst of December 1907: Population Population. Males. Females. Totals. sq. m.
Japan proper.. 24,6oI~658 24,I72~627 48,774,285 330
Formosa (Taiwan) 1,640,778 1,476,137 3,116,915 224
Sakhalin. .. 7,175 3,631 10,806 o.r Totals.. 26,249,611 25,652,395 51,902,006
The following table shows the rate of increase in the four quadrennial periods between 1891 and 1907 in Japan proper:
Average Population Year. Males. Females. Totals, increase per per cent. sq. m.
1891.. 20,563,416 20,155,261 40,718,677 I~o9 272
1895.. 21,345,750 20,904,870 42,270,620 109 286
1899.. 22,330,112 21,930,540 44,260,652 114 299
1903.. 23,601,640 23,131,236 46,732,876 1.54 316
1907.. 24,601,658 24,172,627 48,774,285 I~I3 330
The population of Formosa (Taiwan) during the ten-year period1898-1907grew as follows: Average Population Year. Males. Females. Totals. increase per per cent. sq. m.
1898.. 1,307,428 1,157,539 2,464,967 182
1902.. 1,513,280 1,312,067 2,825,347 2.70 209
1907.. 1,640,778 1,476,137 3,116,915 2.37 224
According to quasi-historical records, the population of the empire in the year A.D. 610 was 4,988,842, and in 736 it had grown to 8,631,770. It is impossible to say how much reliance may be placed on these figures, but from the 18th century, when the name of every subject had to be inscribed on the roll of a temple as a measure against his adoption of Christianity, a tolerably trustworthy census could always be taken. The returns thus obtained show that from the year 1723 until 1846 the population remained almost stationary, the figure in the former year being 26,065,422, and that in the latter year 26,907,625. There had, indeed, been five periods of declining population in that interval of 124 years, namely, the periods 1738 1744, 1759-1762, 1773-1774, 1791-1792, and I 8441846. But after 1872, when the census showed a total of 33,110,825, the population grew steadily, its increment between 1872 and 1898 inclusive, a period of 27 years, being 10,649,990. Such a rate of increase invests the question of subsistence with great importance. In former times the area of land under cultivation increased in a marked degree. Returns prepared at the beginning of the 10th century showed 21/8 million acres under crops, whereas the figure in 1834 was over 8 million acres. But the development of means of subsistence has been outstripped by the growth of population in recent years. Thus, during the period between 1899 and 1907 the population received an increment of ii.6% whereas the food-producing area increased by only 44%. This discrepancy caused anxiety at one time, but large fields suitable for colonization have been opened in Sakhalin, Korea, Manchuria and Formosa, so that the problem of subsistence has ceased to be troublesome. The birth-rate, taking the average of the decennial period ended 1907, is 3~o5% of the population, and the death-rate is 2.05. Males exceed females in the ratio of 2% approximately. But this rule does not hold after the age of 65, where for every 100 females only 83 males are found. The Japanese are of low stature as compared with the inhabitants of Western Europe: about 16% of the adult males are below 5 ft. But there are evidences of steady improvement in this respect. Thus, during the period of ten years between 1893 and 1902, it was found that the percentage of recruits of 5 ft. 5 in. and upward grew from 10.09 to 12.67, the rate of increase having been remarkably steady; and the percentage of those under ~ ft. declined from 2021 to I 62o.
Towns.There are in Japan 23 towns having a population of over 50,000, and there are 76 having a population of over 20,000. The larger towns, their populations and the growth of the latter during the five-year period commencing with 1898 were as follow: URnAN POPULATIONS
1898 1903.
Tokyo 1,440,121 1,795,128
Osaka 821,235 988,200
Kioto 353,139 379,404
Nagoya 244,145 284,829
Kobe 215,780 283,839
Yokohama 193,762 324,776
Hiroshima 122,306 113,545
Nagasaki 107,422 151,727
Kanazawa 83,595 97,548
Sendai 83,325 93,773
Hakodate 78,040 84,746
Fukuoka 66,190 70,107
Wakayama 63,667 67,908
Tokushima 61,501 62,998
Kumamoto 61,463 55,277
Toyama 59,558 86,276
Okayama 58,025 80,140
Otaru 56,961 79,746
Kagoshima 53,481 58,384
Niigata 53,366 58,821
Sakai 50,203
Sapporo 55,304
Kure 62,825
Sasebo 52,607
The growth of Kure and Sasebo is attributable to the fact that they have become the sites of large ship-building yards, the property of the state.
The number of houses in Japan at the end of 1903, when the census was last taken, was 8,725,544, the average number of inmates in each house being thus 5.5,
Physical Characteristics.The best authorities are agreed that the Japanese people do not differ physically from their Korean and Chinese neighbors as much as the inhabitants of northern Europe differ from those of southern Europe. It is true that the Japanese are shorter in stature than either the Chinese or the Koreans. Thus the average height of the Japanese male is only 5 ft. 31/2 in., and that of the female 4 ft. 103/4 in., whereas in the case of the Koreans and the northern Chinese the corresponding figures for males are 5 ft. 53/4 in. and 5 ft. 7 in. respectively. Yet in other physical characteristics the Japanese, the Koreans and the Chinese resemble each other so closely that, under similar conditions as to costume and coiffure, no appreciable difference is apparent. Thus since it has become the fashion for Chinese students to flock to the schools and colleges of Japan, there adopting, as do their Japanese fellow-students, Occidental garments and methods of hairdressing, the distinction of nationality ceases to be perceptible. The most exhaustive anthropological study of the Japanese has been made by Dr E. Baelz (emeritus professor of medicine in the Imperial University of Tokyo), who enumerates the following sub-divisions of the race inhabiting the Japanese islands. The first and most important is the Manchu-Korean type; that is to say, the type which prevails in north China and in Korea. This is seen specially among the upper classes in Japan. Its characteristics are exceptional tallness combined with slenderness and elegance of figure; a face somewhat long, without any special prominence of the cheekbones but having more or less oblique eyes; an aquiline nose; a slightly receding chin; largish upper teeth; a long neck; a narrow chest; a long trunk, and delicately shaped, small hands with long, slender fingers. The most plausible hypothesis is that men of this type are descendants of Korean colonists who, in prehistoric times, settled in the province of Izumo, on the west coast of Japan, having made their way thither from the Korean peninsula by the island of Oki, being carried by the cold current which flows along the eastern coast of Korea. The second type is the Mongol. It is not very frequently found in Japan, perhaps because, under favorable social conditions, it tends to pass into the Manchu-Korean type. Its representative has a broad face, with prominent cheek-bones, oblique eyes, a nose more or less flat and a wide mouth. The figure is strongly and squarely built, but this last characteristic can scarcely be called typical. There is no sat?sfactory theory as to the route by which the Mongols reached Japan, but it is scarcely possible to doubt that they found their way thither at one time. More important than either of these types as an element of the Japanese nation is the Malay. Small in stature, with a well-knit frame, the cheekbones prominent, the face generally round, the nose and neck short, a marked tendency to prognathism, the chest broad and well developed, the trunk long, the hands small and delicate this Malay type is found in nearly all the islands along the east coast of the Asiatic continent as well as in southern China and in the extreme south-west of Korean peninsula. Carried northward by the warm current known as the Kuro Shiwo, the Malays seem to have landed in KiUshithe most southeFly of the main Japanese islandswhence they ultimately pushed northward and conquered their Manchu-Korean predecessors, the Izumo colonists. None of the above three, however, can be regarded as the earliest settlers in Japan. Before them all was a tribe of immigrants who appear to have crossed from north eastern Asia at an epoch when the sea had not yet dug broad channels between the continent and the adjacent islands. These peoplethe Ainuare usually spoken of as the aborigines of Japan. They once occupied the whole country, but were gradually driven northward by the Manchu-Koreans and the Malays. until only a mere handful of them survived in the northern island of Yezo. Like the Malay and the Mongol types they are short and thickly built, but unlike either they have prominent brows, bushy locks, round deep-set eyes, long divergent lashes, straight noses and much hair on the face and the body. In short, the Ainu suggest much closer affinity with Europeans than does any other of the types that go to make ug the population of Japan. It is not to be supposed, however, that these traces of different elements indicate any lack of homogeneity in the Japanese race. Amalgamation has been completely effected in the course of long centuries, and even the Ainu, though the small surviving remnant of them now live apart, have left a trace upon their conquerors.
The typical Japanese of the present day has certain marked physical peculiarities. In the first place, the ratio of the heighi of his head to the length of his body is greater than it is in Euro peans. The Englishmans head is often one-eighth of the lengtl of his body or even less, and in continental Europeans, as a rule the ratio does not amount to one-seventh; but in the Japanese it exceeds the latter figure. In all nations men of short stature have relatively large heads, but in the case of the Japanese there appears to be some racial reason for the phenomenon. Another striking feature is shortness of legs relatively to length of trunk. In northern Europeans the leg is usually much more than onehalf of the bodys length, but in Japanese the ratio is one-half or even less; so that whereas the Japanese, when seated, looks almost as tall as a European, there may be a great difference between their statures when both are standing. This special feature has been attributed to the Japanese habit of kneeling instead of sitting, but investigation shows that it is equally marked in the working classes who pass most of their time standing. In Europe the same physical traitsrelative length of head and shortness of legsdistinguish the central race (Alpine) from the Teutonic, and seem to indicate an affinity between the former and the Mongols. It is in the face, however, that we find specially distinctive traits, namely, in the eyes, the eyelashes, the cheekbones and the beard. Not that the eyeball itself differs from that of an Occidental. The difference consists in the fact that the socket of the eye is comparatively small and shallow, and the osseous ridges at the brows being little marked, the eye is less deeply set than in the European. In fact, seen in profile, forehead and upper lip often form an unbroken line. Then, again, the shape of the eye, as modelled by the lids, shows a striking peculiarity, For whereas the open eye is almost invariably horizontal in the European, it is often oblique in the Japanese on account of the higher level of the upper corner. But even apart from obliqueness, the shape of the corners is peculiar in the Mongolian eye. The inner corner is partly or entirely covered by a fold of the upper lid continuing more or less into the lower lid. This fold often covers also the whole free rim of the upper lid, so that the insertion of the eyelashes is hidden and the opening between the lids is so narrowed as to disappear altogether at the moment of laughter. As for the eye-lashes, not only are they comparatively short and sparse, but also they converge instead of diverging, so that whereas in a European the free ends of the lashes are further distant from each other than their roots, in a Japanese they are nearer together. Prominence of cheekbones is another special feature, but it is much commoner in the lower than in the upper classes, where elongated faces may almost be said to be the rule. Finally, there is marked paucity of hair on the face of the average Japaneseapart from the Ainuand what hair there is is nearly always straight. It is not to be supposed, however, that because the Japanese is short of stature and often finely moulded, he lacks either strength or endurance. On the contrary, he possesses both in a marked degree, and his deftness of finger is not less remarkable than the suppleness and activity of his body.
Moral C/iaracteristics.The most prominent trait of Japanese disposition is gaiety of heart. Emphatically of a laughterloving nature, the Japanese passes through the world with a smile on his lips. The petty ills of life do not disturb his equanimity. He takes them as part of the days work, and though he sometimes grumbles, rarely, if ever, does he repine. Exceptional to this general rule, however, is a mood of pessimism which sometimes overtakes youths on the threshold of manhood. Finding the problem of life insolvable, they abandon the attempt to solve it and take refuge in the grave. It seems as though there were always a number of young men hovering on the brink of such suicidal despair. An example alone is needed finally to destroy the equilibrium. Some one throws himself over a cataract or leaps into the crater of a volcano, and immediately a score or two follow. Apparently the more picturesquely awful the manner of the demise, the greater its attractive force. The thing is not a product of insanity, as the term is usually interpreted; letters always left behind by the victims prove them to have been in full possession of their reasoning faculties up to the last moment. Some observers lay the blame at th door of Buddhism, a creed which promotes pessimism by beget ting the anchorite, the ascetic and the shuddering believer ii seven hells. But Buddhism did not formerly produce suc]
incidents, and, for the rest, the faith of Shaka has little sway over the student mind in Japan. The phenomenon is modern:
it is not an outcome of Japanese nature nor yet of Buddhist teaching, but is due to the stress of endeavouring to reach the standards of Western acquirement with grievously inadequate equipment, opportunities and resources. In order to support himself and pay his academic fees many a Japanese has to fall into the ranks of the physical laborer during a part of each day or night. Ill-nourished, over-worked and, it may be, disappointed, he finds the struggle intolerable and so passes out into the darkness. But he is not a normal type. The normal type is light-hearted and buoyant. One naturally expects to find, and one does find, that this moral sunshine is associated with good temper. The Japanese is exceptionally serene. Irascibility is regarded as permissible in sickly children only: grown people are supposed to be superior to displays of impatience. But there is a limit of imperturbability, and when that limit is reached, the subsequent passion is desperately vehement. It has been said that these traits go to make the Japanese soldier what he is. The hardships of a campaign cause him little sufferin~ since he never frets over them, but the hour of combat finds him forgetful bf everything save victory. In the case of the military classand prior to the Restoration of 1867 the term military class was synonymous with educated class this spirit of stoicism was built up by precept on a solid basis of heredity. The samurai (soldier) learned that his first characteristic must be to suppress all outward displays of emotion. Pain, pleasure, passion and peril must all find him unperturbed. The supreme test, satisfied so frequently as to be commonplace, was a shocking form of suicide performed with a placid mien. This capacity, coupled with readiness to sacrifice life at any moment on the altar of country, fief or honor, made a remarkably heroic character. On the other hand, some observers hold that the education of this stoicism was effected at the cost of the feelings it sought to conceal. In support of that theory it is pointed out that the average Japanese, man or woman, will recount a death or some other calamity in his own family with a perfectly calm, if not a smiling, face. Probably there is a measure of truth in the criticism. Feelings cannot be habitually hidden without being more or less blunted. But here another Japanese trait presents itselfpoliteness. There is no more polite nation in the world than the Japanese. Whether in real courtesy of heart they excel Occidentals may be open to doubt, but in all the forms of comity they are unrivalled. Now one of the cardinal rules of politeness is to avoid burdening a stranger with the weight of ones own woes. Therefore a mother, passing from the chamber which has just witnessed her paroxysms of grief, will describe calmly to a strangerespecially a foreignerthe death of her only child. The same suppression of emotional display in public is observed in all the affairs of life. Youths and maidens maintain towards each other a demeanour of reserve and even indifference, from which it has been confidently affirmed that love does not exist in Japan. The truth is that in no other country do so many dual suicides occursuicides of a man and woman who, unable to be united in this world, go to a union beyond the grave. It is true, nevertheless, that love as a prelude to marriage finds only a small place in Japanese ethics. Marriages in the great majority of cases are arranged with little reference to the feelings of the parties concerned. It might be supposed that conjugal fidelity must suffer from such a custom. It does suffer seriously in the case of the husband, but emphatically not in the case of the wife. Even though she be cognisantas she often isof her husbands extra-marital relations, she abates nothing of the duty which she has been taught to regard as the first canon of female ethics. From many points of view, indeed, there is no more beautiful type of character than that of the Japanese woman. She is entirely unselfish; exquisitely modest without being anything of a prude; abounding in intelligence which is never obscured by egoism; patient in the ho~ir of suffering; strong in time of affliction; a faithful wife; a loving mother; a good daughter; and capable, as history shows, of heroism rivalling that of the stronger sex. As to the question of sexual virtue and morality in Japan, grounds for a conclusive verdict are hard to find. In the interests of hygiene prostitution is licensed, and that fact is by many critics construed as proof of tolerance. But licensing is associated with strict segregation, and it results that the great cities are conspicuously free from evidences of vice, and that the streets may be traversed by wonien at all hours of the day and night with perfect impunity and without fear of encountering offensive spectacles. The ratio of marriages is approximately 8.46 per thousand units of the population, and the ratio of divorces is 1.36 per thousand. There are thus about 16 divorces for every hundred marriages. Divorces take place chiefly among the lower orders,who frequently treat marriage merely as a test of a couples suitability to be helpmates in the struggles of life. If experience develops incompatibility of temper or some other mutually repellent characteristic, separation follows as a matter of course. On the other hand, divorces among persons of the upper classes are comparatively rare, and divorces on account of a wifes unfaithfulness are almost unknown.
Concerning the virtues of truth and probity, extremely conflicting opinions have been expressed. The Japanese samurai always prided himself on having no second word. He never drew his sword without using it; he never gave his word without keeping it. Yet it may be doubted whether the value attached in Japan to the abstract quality, truth, is as high as the value attached to it in England, or whether the consciousness of having told a falsehood weighs as heavily on the heart. Much depeMs upon the motive. Whatever may be said of the upper class, it is probably true that the average Japanese will not sacrifice expediency on the altar of truth. He will be veracious only so long as the consequences are not seriously injurious. Perhaps no more can be affirmed of any nation. The white lie of the Anglo-Saxon and the hoben no uso of The Japanese are twins. In the matter of probity, however, it is possible to speak with more assurance. There is undoubtedly in the lower ranks of Japanese tradesmen a comparatively large fringe of persons whose standard of commercial morality is defective. They are descendants of feudal days when the mercantile element, being counted as the dregs of the population, lost its self-respect. Against this blemishwhich is in process of gradual correction the fact has to be set that the better class of merchants, the whole of the artisans and the laboring classes in general, obey canons of probity fully on a level with the best to be found elsewhere. For the rest, frugality, industry and patience characteffize all the bread-winners; courage and burning patriotism are attributes of the whole nation.
There are five qualities possessed by the Japanese in a marked degree. The first is frugality. From time immemorial the great mass of the people have lived in absolute ignorance of luxury in any fo:m and in the perpetual presence of a necessity to economize. - Amid these circumstances there has emerged capacity to make a little go a long way and to be content with the most meagre fare. The second quality is endurance. It is born of causes cognate with those which have begotten frugality. The average Japanese may be said to live without artificial heat; his paper doors admit the light but do not exclude the cold. His brazier barely suffices to warm his hands and his face. Equally is he a stranger to methods of artificial cooling. He takes the frost that winter inflicts and the fever that summer brings as unavoidable visitors. The third quality is obedience; the offspring of eight centuries passed under the shadow of military autocracy. Whatever he is authoritatively bidden to do, that the Japanese will do. The fourth quality is altruism. In the upper classes the welfare of the family has been set above the interests of each member. The fifth quality is a genius for detail. Probably this is the outcome of an extraordinarily elaborate system of social etiquette. Each ge~eration has added something to the canons of its predecessor, and for every ten points preserved not more than one has been discarded. An instinctive respect for minutiae has thus been inculcated, and has gradually extended to all the affairs of life. That this accuracy may sometimes degenerate into triviality, and that such absorption in trifles may occasionally hide the broad horizon, is conceivable.
But the only hitherto apparent evidence of such defects is an excessive clinging to the letter of the law; a marked reluctance to exercise discretion; and that, perhaps, i5 attributable rather to the habit of obedience. Certainly the Japanese have proved themselves capable of great things, and their achievements seem to have been helped rather than retarded by their attention to detail.
111.LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Lan guage.Since the year 1820, when Klaproth concluded that the Japanese language had sprung from the Ural-Altaic stock, philologists have busied themselves in tracing its affinities. If the theories hitherto held with regard to the origin of the Japanese people be correct, close relationship should exist between the Japanese and the Korean tongues, and possibly between the Japanese and the Chinese. Aston devoted much study to the former question, but although he proved that in construction the two have a striking similarity, he could not find any corresponding likeness in their vocabularies. As far back as the beginning of the Christian era the Japanese and the Koreans could not hold intercourse without the aid of interpreters. If then the languages of Korea and Japan had a common stock, they must have branched off from it at a date exceedingly remote. As for the languages of Japan and China, they have remained essentially different throughout some twenty centuries in spite of the fact that Japan adopted Chinese calligraphy and assimilated Chinese literature. Mr K. Hirai has done much to establish his theory that Japanese and Aryan had a common parent. But nothing has yet been substantiated. Iwleanwhile an inquirer is confronted by the strange fact that of three neighboring countries between which frequent communication existed, one (China) never deviated from an ideographic script; another (Korea) invented an alphabet, and the third (Japan) devised a syllabary. Antiquaries have sought to show that Japan possessed some form of script before her first contact with either Korea or China. But such traces of prehistoric letters as are supposed to have been found seem to be corruptions of the Korean alphabet rather than independent symbols. It is commonly believed that the two Japanese syllabarieswhich, though distinct in form, have identical soundswere invented by Kukai (790) and Kibi Daijin (760) respectively. But the evidence of old documents seems to show that these syllabaries had a gradual evolution and that neither was the outcome of a single scholars inventive genius.
The sequence of events appears to have been this:Japans earliest contact with an oversea people was with the Koreans, and she made some tentative efforts to adapt their alphabet to the expression of her own language. Traces of these efforts survived, and inspired the idea that the art of writing was practised by the Japanese before the opening of intercourse with their continental neighbors. Korea, however, had neither a literary nor an ethical message to deliver, and thus her script failed to attract much attention. Very different was the case when China presented her noble code of Confucian philosophy and the literature embodying it. The Japanese then recognized a lofty civilization and placed themselves as pupils at its feet, learning its script and deciphering its hooks. Their veneration extended to ideographs. At first they adapted them frankly to their own tongue. For example, the ideographs signifying rice or metal or water in Chinese were used tc convey the same ideas in Japanese. Each ideograph thus came tc have two sounds, one Japanese, the other Chinesee.g. the ideograph for rIce had for Japanese sound kome and for Chinese sound bel.
Nor was this the whole story. There were two epochs in Japani study of the Chinese language first, the epoch when she received Confucianism through Korea; and, secondly, the epoch when sh began to study Buddhism direct from China. Whether the sound, that came by Korea were corrupt, or whether the interval separatin~ these epochs had sufficed to produce a sensible difference of pronun ciation in China itself, it would seem that the students of Buddhisn who flocked from Japan to the Middle Kingdom during the Sui erl (AD. 589619) insisted on the accuracy of the pronunciation ac quired there, although it diverged perceptibly from the pronuncia tion already recognized in Japan. Thus, in fine, each word cam to have three soundstwo Chinese, known as the ken and the go and one Japanese, known as the kun. For example:
KAN GO JAPANESE
SOUND. SOUND. SOUND. MEANING.
Sei Jo Koe Voice Neil Zen Toshi Year Jinkan Ningen Ilito no aide Human being.
As to which of the first two methods of pronunciation had chronological precedence, the weight of opinion is that the ken came later than the go. Evidently this triplication of sounds had many disadvantages, but, on the other hand, the whole Chinese language may be said to have been grafted on the Japanese. Chinese has the widest capacity of any tongue ever invented. - It consists of thousands of monosyllabic roots, each having a definite meaning. These monosyllables may be used singly or combined, two, three or four at a time, so that the resulting co~nbinations convey almost any conceivable shades of meaning. Take, for example, the word electricity. The very idea conveyed was wholly novel in Japan. But scholars were immediately able to construct the following:
Lightning. Den.
Exhalation. Ki Electricity. Denki.
Telegram. Dempo. Ho=tidings, Electric light. DentO. TO = lamp.
Negative electricity. Indenki. In = the negative principle.
Positive electricity. Yodenki. Yo = the positive principle.
Thermo-electricity. Netsudenki. Netsu = heat.
Dynamic-electricity. Ryado-denki. Rydo = fluid.
Telephone. Denwa. Wa = conversation.
Every branch of learning can thus be equipped with a vocabulary. Potent, however, as such a vehicle is for expressing thought, its ideographic script constitutes a great obstacle to general acquisition, and the Japanese soon applied themselves to minimizing the difficulty by substituting a phonetic system. Analysis showed that all the required sounds could be conveyed with 47 syllables, and having selected the ideographs that corresponded .to those sounds, they reduced them, first, to forms called hiragana, and, secondly, to still more simplified forms called katakana.
Such, in brief, is the story of the Japanese language. When we come to dissect it, we find several striking characteristics. First, the construction is unlike that of any European tongue: all qualifiers precede the words they qtialify, except prepositions which become postpositions. Thus instead of saying the house of Mr Smith is in that street, a Japanese says Smith Mr of house that street in is. Then there is no relative pronoun, and the resulting complication seems great to an English-speaking person, as the following illustration will show: -
JAPANESE. ENGLISH.
Zenaku wo saiban suru tame no The unique standard which Virtue vice-judging sake of is used for judging virtue or mochiitaru yitsu no hyojun Wa vice is benevolent conduct used unique standard solely.
jial no kOi tada benevolence of conduct only kore nomi.
this alone.
It will be observed that in the above sentence there are two untranslated words, wo and Wa. These belong to a group of four auxiliary particles called te ni wo ha (or we), which serve to mark the cases of nouns, te (or de) being the sign of the instrumental ablative; ni that of the dative; wo that of the objective, and wa that of the nominative. These eXist in the Korean language also, but not in any other tongue. There are also polite and ordinary forms of expression, often so different as to constitute distinct languages; and there are a number of honorifics which frequently discharge the duty of pronouns. Another marked peculiarity is that active agency is never attribtited to neuter nouns. A Japanese does not say the poison killed him but he died on account of the poison; nor does he say the war has caused commodities to appreciate, but commodities have appreciated in consequence of the war. That the language loses much force owing to this limitation cannot be denied: metaphor and allegory are almost completely banished.
The difficulties that confront an Occidental who attempts to learn Japanese are enormous. There are three languages to be acquired:
first, the ordinary colloquial; second, the polite colloquial; and, third, the written. The ordinary colloquial differs materially from its polite form, and both arc as unlike the written form as modern Italian is unlike ancient Latin. Add to this, writes Professor B. H. Chamberlain, the necessity of committing to memory two syllabaries, one of which has many variant forms, and at least two or three thousand Chinese ideographs, in forms standard and cursive ideographs, too, most of which are susceptible of three or four different readings according to circuinstance,add, further, that all these kinds of written symbols are apt to be encountered pell mell on the same page, and the task of mastering Japanese becomes almost Herculean. In view of all this there is a strong movement iii favor of romanizing the Japanese script: that is to say, abolishing the ideograph and adopting in its place the Roman alphabet. But while every one appreciates the magnitude of the relief that would thus be afforded, there has as yet been little substantial progress A language which has been adapted from its infancy to ideographi transmission cannot easily be fitted to phonetic uses. -
Di ctionaries.F. Brinkley, An Unabridged Japanese-Enghsi Dictionary (Tokyo, 1896); Y. Shimada, English-Japanese Dictionary (Tokyo, 1897); Websters Dictionary, trans. into Japanese, (TOky~
i899); J. H. Gubbins, Dictionary of Chinese-Japanese Words (3 vols., London, 1889); J. C. Hepburn, Japanese-English and EnglishJapanese Dictionary (London, 1903); E. M. Satow and I. Masakata, English-Japanese Dictionary (London, I 904).
Lilerature.From the neighboring continent the Japanese derived the art of transmitting ideas to paper. But as to the date of that acquisition there is doubt. An authenticated work compiled AD. 720 speaks of historiographers having been appointed to collect local records for the first time in 403, from which it is to be inferred that such officials had already existed at the court. There is also a tradition that some kind of general history was compiled in 620 but destroyed by fire in 645. At all events, the earliest book now extant dates from 712. Its origin is described in its preface. When the emperor Temmu (673686) ascended the throne, he found that there did not exist any revised collection of the fragmentary annals of the chief families. He therefore caused these annals to be collated. There happened to be among the court ladies one Hiyeda no Are, who was gifted with an extraordinary memory. Measures were taken to instruct her in the genuine traditions and the old language of former ages, the intention being to have the whole ultimately dictated to a competent scribe. But the emperor died before the project could be consummated, and for twenty-five years Ares memory remained the sole depository of the collected annals. Then, under the auspices of the empress GemmyO, the original plan was carried out in 712, Yasumaro being the scribe. The work that resulted is known as the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters). It has been accurately translated by Professor B. H. Chamberlain (Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol.x.), who, in a preface justly regarded by students of Japan as an exegetical classic, makes the pertinent comment: Taking the word AltaIc in its usual acceptation, viz, as the generic name of all the languages belonging to the Manchu, Mongolian, Turkish and Finnish groups, not only the archaic, but the .classical, literature of Japan carries us back several centuries beyond the earliest extant documents of any other Altaic tongue. By the term archaic is to be understood the pure Japanese language of earliest times, and by the term classical the quasi-Chinese language which came into use for literary purposes when Japan appropriated the civilization of her great neighbors. The Kojiki is written in the archaic form: that is to say, the language is the language of old Japan, the script, although ideographic, is used phonetically only, and the case-indicators are represented by Chinese characters having the samesounds. It is a species of saga, setting forth not only the heavenly beginnings of the Japanese race, but also the story of creation, the succession of the various sovereigns and the salient events of their reigns, the whole interspersed with songs, many of which may be attributed to the 6th century, while some doubtless date from the fourth or even the third. This Kojiki marks the parting of the ways. Already by the time of its compilation the influence of Chinese civilization and Chinese literature had prevailed so greatly in Japan that the next authentic work, composed only eight years later, was completely Chinese in style and embodied Chinese traditions and Chinese philosophical doctrines, not distinguishing them from their Japanese context. This volume was called the Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan). It may be said to have wholly supplanted its predecessor in popular favor, for the classic style that is to say, the Chinesehad now come to be regarded as the only erudite script. The Chronicles re-traversed much of the ground already gone over by the Record, preserving many of the songs in occasionally changed form, omitting some portions, supplementing others, and imparting to the whole such an exotic character as almost to disqualify the work for a place in Japanese literature. Yet this was the style which thenceforth prevailed among the litterati of Japan. Standard Chinese soon became easier to understand than archaic Japanese, as the former alone was taught in the schools, and the native language changed rapidly during the century or two that followed the diffusion of the foreign tongue and civilization (CnAMBERLAIN). The neglect into which the Kojiki fell lasted until the 17th century. Almost simultaneously with its appearance in type (1644)
and its consequent accessibility, there arose a galaxy of scholars under whose influence the archaic style and the ancient Japanese traditions entered a period of renaissance. The story of this period and of its products has been admirably told by Sir Ernest Satow (Revival of Pure ShintO, Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. iii.), whose essay, together with Professor Chamberlains Kojiki, the same authors introduction to The Classical Poetry of the Japanese, and Mr W. G. Astons Nikongi, are essential to every student of Japanese literature. To understand this 17th century renaissance, knowledge of one fact is necessary, namely, that about the year A.D. 810, a celebrated Buddhist priest, Kkai, who had spent several years studying in China, compounded out of Buddhism, Confucianism and ShintO a system of doctrine called Ryobu Shinto (Dual Shinto), the prominent tenet of which was that the ShintO deities were merely transmigrations of Buddhist divinities. By this device Japanese conservatism was effectually conciliated, and Buddhism became in fact the creed of the nation, its positive and practical precepts entirely eclipsing the agnostic intuitionahism of Shinto. Against this hybrid faith several, Japanese scholars arrayed themselves in the j7th and 18th centuries, the greatest of them being Mabuchi and Motoori. The latters magnum opus, Kojikiden (Exposition of the Record of Ancient Matters), declared by Chamberlain to be perhaps the most admirable work of which Japanese erudition can boast, consists of 44 large volumes, devoted to elucidating the Kojiki and resuscitating the ShintO cult as it existed in the earliest days. This great work of reconstruction was only one feature of the literary activity which marked the I7th and 18th centuries, when, under Tokugawa rule, the blessing of long-unknown peace came to the nation. Iyeyasu himself devoted the last years of his life to collecting ancient manuscripts. In his country retreat at Shizuoka he formed one of the richest libraries ever brought together in Japan, and by will he bequeathed the Japanese section of it to his eighth son, the feudal chief of Owari, and the Chinese section to his ninth son, the prince of Kishu, with the result that under the former feudatorys auspices two works of considerable merit were produced treating of ancient ceremonials and supplementing the Nikongi. Much more memorable, however, was a library formed by Iyeyasus grandson the feudal chief of Mito (1662I 700), who not only collected a vast quantity of books hitherto scattered among Shinto and Buddhist monasteries and private houses, but also employed a number of scholars to compile a history unprecedented in magnitude, the Dai-Nihon-shi. It consisted of 240 volumes, and it became at once the standard in its own branch of literature. Still more comprehensive was a book emanatingfrom the same source and treating of court ceremonials. It ran to more than 500 volumes, and the emperor honored the work by bestowing on it the title Reigi Ruiten (Rules of Ceremonials). These compilations together with the Nikon Gwaishi (History of Japan Outside the Court), written by Rai Sanyo and published in I827~ constituted the chief sources of historical knowledge before the Meiji era. Rai Sanyo devoted twenty years to the preparation of his 22 volumes and took his materials from 259 Japanese and Chinese works. But neither he nor his predecessors recognized in history anything more than a vehicle for recording the mere sequence of events and their relations, together with some account of the personages concerned. Their volumes make profoundly dry reading. Vicarious interest, however, attaches to the productions of the Mito School on account of the political influence they exercised in rehabilitating the nations respect for the throne by unveiling the picture of an epoch prior to, the usurpations of military feudalism. The struggles of the great rival clans, replete with episodes of the most tragic and stirring character, inspired quasi-historical narrations of a more popular character, which often took the form of illuminated scrolls. But it was not until the Meiji era that history, in the modern sense of the tei~m, began to be written. During recent times many students have turned their attention to this branch of literature. Works of wide scope and clear insight have been produced, and the Historiographers section in the Imperial University of TOkyO
has been for several years.engaged in collecting and collating materials for a history which will probably rank with anything of the kind in existence.
In their poetry above everything the Japanese have remained impervious to alien influences. It owes this conservation to its Poet prosody. Without rhyme, without variety of metre, IV. without elasticity of dimensions, it is also without known counterpart. To alter it in any way would be to deprive it of all distinguishing characteristics. At some remote date a Japanese maker of songs seems to have discovered that a peculiar and very fascinating rhythm is produced by lines containing 5 syllables and 7 syllables alternately. That is Japanese poetry (eta or tanka). There are generally five lines: the first and third consisting of 5 syllables, the second, fourth and fifth of 7, making a total of 3! in all. The number of lines is not compulsory: sometimes they may reach to thirty, forty or even more, but the alternation of 5 and 7 syllables is compulsory. The most attenuated form of all is the hokku (or haikai) which consists of only three lines, namely, 17 syllables. Necessarily the ideas embodied in such a narrow vehicle must be fragmentary. Thus it results that Japanese poems are, for the most part, impressionist; they suggest a great deal more than they actually express. Here is an example: Momiji-ha wo Kaze ni makasete More fleeting than the glint of Miru yori mo -withered leaf wind-blown, the Hakanaki mono wa thing called life.
Inochi nan ken J
There is no English metre with this peculiar cadence.
It is not to be inferred that the writers of Japan, enamoured as they were of Chinese ideographs and Chinese style, deliberately excluded everything Chinese from the realm of poetry. On the contrary, many of them took pleasure in composing versicles to which Chinese words were admitted and which showed something of the parallelism peculiar to Chinese poetry, since the first ideograph of the last line was required to be identical with the final ideograph. But rhyme was not attempted, and the syllabic metre of Japan was preserved, the alternation of 5 and 7 being, however, dispensed with. Such couplets were called shi to distinguish them from the pure Japanese eta or lanka. The two greatest masters of Japanese poetry were Hitomaro and Akahito, both of the early 8th century, and next to them stands Tsurayuki, who flourished at the beginning of the 10th century, and is not supposed to have transmitted his mantle to any successor. The choicest productions of the former two with those of many other poets were brought together in 756 and embodied in a book called the Manyoshu (Collection of a Myriad Leaves). The volume remained unique until the beginning of the 10th century, when (AD. 905) Tsurayuki and three coadjutors compiled the Kokinsh (Collection of Odes Ancient and Modern), the first of twenty-one similar anthologies between the 11th and the 15th centuries, which constitute the Niju-ichi Dai-sh (A nthologies of the One-and-Twenty Reigns). If to these we add the Hyaku-ninshu (Hundred Odes by a Hundred Poets) brought together by Teika KyO in the 13th century, we have all the classics of Japanese poetry. For the composition of the uta gradually deteriorated from the end ofthe 9th century, when a game called uta-awase became a fashionable pastime, and aristocratic men and women tried to string together versicles of 31 syllables, careful of the form and careless of the thought. The uta-awase, in its later developments, may not unjustly be compared to the Occidental game of bouts-rimis. The poetry of the nation remained immovable in the ancient groove until very modern times, when, either by direct access to the originals or through the medium of very defective translations, the nation became acquainted with the masters of Occidental song. A small coterie of authors, headed by Professor Toyama, then attempted to revolutionize Japanese poetry by recasting it on European lines. But the project failed signally, and indeed it may well be doubted whether the Japanese language can be adapted to such uses.
It was under the auspices of an empress (Suiko) that the first historical manuscript is said to have been compiled in 620. It was under the auspices of an empress (GemmyO) that the Influence Record of Ancient Matters was transcribed (712) from the;f~Women lips of a court lady. And it was under the auspices of an ~lter~a,~e e empress that the Chronicles of Japan were composed (720). To women, indeed, from the 8th century onwards may be said to have been entrusted the guardianship of the pure Japanese language, the classical, or Chinese, form being adopted by men. The distinction continued throughoutthe ages. To this day the spoken language of Japanese women is appreciably simpler and softer than that of the men, and to this day while the educated woman uses the hiragana syllabary in writing, eschews Chinese sords and rarel pens an ideograph, the educated man employs the ideograp entirely, and translates his thoughts as far as possible into thi mispronounced Chinese words without recourse -to which it would be impossible for him to discuss any scientific subject, or even tc refer to the details of his daily business. Japan was thus enriched with two works of very high merit, the Genji Mono galari (c. IO04~ and the Makura no Zoshi (about the same date). The former, b~
Murasaki no Shikibuprobably a pseudonymwas the first novel composed in Japan. Before her time there had been many monogatari (narratives), but all consisted merely of short stories, mythical or quasi-historical, whereas Murasaki no Shikibu did for Japan what Fielding and Richardson did for England. Her work was a prose epic of real life, the life of her hero, Genji. Her language is graceful and natural, her sentiments are refined and sober; and, as Mr Aston well says, her story flows on easily from one scene of real life to another, giving us a varied and minutely detailed picture of life and society in KiOto, such as we possess for no other country at the same period. The Makura no Zshi (Pillow Sketches), like the Genji Monogatars, was by a noble ladySei Shonagonbut it is simply a record of daily events and fugitive thoughts, though not in the form of a diary. The book is one of the most natural and unaffected compositions ever written. Undesignedly it conveys a wonderfully realistic picture of aristocratic life and social ethics in KiOto at the beginning of the 11th century. II we compare it with anything that Europe has to show at this period, it must be admitted that it is indeed a remarkable work. What a revelation it would be if we had the court life of Alfreds or Canutes reign depicted to us in a similar way?
The period from the early part of the 14th century to the opening of the 17th is generally regarded as the dark age of Japanese literature. The constant wars of the time left their impress Th D k upon everything. To them is due the fact that the ~: l~ two principal works compiled during this epoch were, one political, the other quasi-historical. In the former, JinkOshOtOhi (History of the True Succession of the Divine Monarchs), Kitabatake Chikafusa (1340) undertook to prove that of the two sovereigns then disputing for supremacy in Japan, Go-Daigo was the rightful monarch; in the latter, Taihei-ki (history of Great Peace), Kojima (1370) devoted his pages to describing the events of contemporaneous history. Neither work can be said to possess signal literary merit, but both had memorable consequences. For the JinkOshotO-ki, by its strong advocacy of the mikados administrative rights as against the ustirpations of military feudalism, may be said to have sowed the seeds of Japan~s modern polity; and the Taihei-ki, by its erudite diction, skilful rhetoric, simplification of old grammatical constructions and copious interpolation of Chinese words, furnished a model for many imitators and laid the foundations of Japans 19th-century style. The Taihei-ki produced another notable effect; it inspired public readers who soon developed into historical raconteurs; a class of professionals who are almost as much in vogue to-day as they were 500 years ago. Belonging to about the same period as the JinkOshOtO-ki, another classic occupies a leading place in Japanese esteem. It is the Tsure-zure-gusa (Materials/or Dispelling Ennui), by KenkO-bOshi, described by Mr Aston as one of the most delightful oases in Japanese literature; a collection of short sketches, anecdotes and essays on all imaginable subjects, something in the manner of Seldens Table Talk.
The so-called dark age of Japanese literature was not entirely unproductive: it gave the drama (No) to Japan. Tradition ascribes the origin of the drama to a religious dance of a panto- Th D mimic character, called Kagura and associated with C raffia. ShintO ceremonials. The NO, however, owed its development mainly to Buddhist infltience. During the medieval era of internecine strife the Buddhist priests were the sole depositaries of literary talent, and seeing that, from the close of the 14th century, the ShintO mime (Kagura) was largely employed by the military class to invo,~ce or acknowledge the assistance of the gods, the monks of Buddha set themselves to compose librettos for this mime, and the performance, thus modified, received the name of NO. Briefly speaking, the NO was a dance of the most stately character, adapted to the incidents of dramas which embrace within their scope a world of legendary lore, of quaint fancies and of religious sentiment. Their motives were chiefly confined to such themes as the law of retribution to which all human beings are subjected, the transitoriness of life and the advisability of shaking off from ones feet the dust of this sinful world. But some were of a purely martial nature. This difference is probably explained by the fact that the idea of thus modifying the Kagura had its origin in musical recitations from the semi-romantic semi-historical narratives of the 14th century. Such recitations were given by itinerant Bonzes, and it is easy to understand the connection between them and the No. Very soon the No came to occupy in the estimation of the military class a position similar to that held by the lanka as a literary pursuit, and the gagaku as a musical, in the Imperial court. All the great aristocrats not only patronized the No but were themselves ready to take part in it. Costumes of the utmost magnificence were worn, and the chiselling of masks for the use of the performers occupied scores of artists and ranked as a high glyptic accomplishment. There are 335 classical dramas of this kind in a compendium called the Yokyoka Tsuge, and many of them are inseparably connected with the names of Kwanami Kiyotsugu (1406) and his son Motokiyo (1455), who are counted the fathers of the art. For a moment, when the tide of Western civilization swept over Japan, the NO seemed likely to b permanently submerged. But the renaissance of nationalism (kokusui hoson) saved the venerable drama, and owing to th~ exertions of Prince Iwakura, the artist HOsho Kuro and Umewaka Minoru, it stands as high as ever in popular favor. Concerning tht five schools into which the NO is divided, their characteristics and their differencesthese are matters of interest to the initiated alone.
The Japanese are essentially a laughter-loving people. They are highly susceptible of tragic emotions, but they turn gladly to, the ~ ~ brighter phases of life. Hence a need was soon felt e ~ of something to dispel the pessimism of the No, and that something took the form of comedies played in the interludes of the No and called Kyogen (mad words). The Kyogen needs no elaborate description: it is a pure farce, never immodest or vulgar.
The classic drama NO and its companion the Kyogen had two children, the Joruri and the Kabuki. They were born at the close The Theatre of the 16th century and they owed their origin to the ~growing influence of the commercial class, who asserted a right to be amused but were excluded frons enjoyment of the aristocratic No and the Kyogen. The Joruri is a dramatic ballad, sung or recited to the accompaniment of the samisen and in unison with the movements of puppets. It came into existence in KiOto and was thence transferred to Yedo (Tokyo), where the greatest of Japanese playwrights, Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724), and a musician of exceptional talent, Takemoto Gidayu, collaborated to render this puppet drama a highly popular entertainment. It flourished for nearly 200 years in Yedo, and is still occasionally performed in Osaka. Like the No th~ Joruri dealt always with sombie themes, and was supplemented by the Kabuki (farce). This last owed its inception to a priestess who, having abandoned her holy vocation at the call of love, espoused dancing as a means of livelihood and trained a number of girls for the purpose. The law presently interdicted these female comedians (onna-kabuki) in the interests of public morality, and they were succeeded by boy comedians (wakashu-kabuki) who simulated womens ways and were vetoed in their turn, giving place to yaro-kabuki (comedians with queues). Gradually the Kabuki developed the features of a genuine theatre; the actor and the playwright were discriminated, and, the performances taking the form of domestic drama (Wagoto and Sewamono) or historical drama (Aragoto or Jidaimono), actors of perpetual fame sprang up, as Sakata TOjOrO and Ichikawa DanjinrO (1660-1704). Mimetic posture-dances (Shosagoto) were always introduced as interludes; past and present indiscriminately contributed to the playwrights subjects; realism was carried to extremes; a revolving stage and all mechanical accessories were supplied; female parts were invariably taken by males, who attained almost incredible skill in these simulations; a chorusrelic of the Nochanted expositions of profound sentiments or thrilling incidents; and histrionic talent of the very highest order was often displayed. But the Kabuki-za and its yakusha (actors) remained always a plebeian institution. No samurai frequented the former or associated with the latter. With the introduction of Western civilization in modern times, however, the theatre ceased to be ta4ooed by the aristocracy. Men and women of all ranks began to visit it; the emperor himself consented (f 887) to witness a performance by the great stars of the stage at the private residence of Marquis Inouye; a dramatic reform association was organized by a number of prominent noblemen and scholars; drastic efforts were made to purge the old historical dramas of anachronisms and inconsistencies, and at length a theatre (the Yurabu-za) was built on purely European lines, where instead of sitting from morning to night witnessing one long-drawn-out drama with interludes of whole farces, a visitor may devote only a few evening-hours to the pastime. The Shosagoto has not been abolished, nor is there any reason why it should be. It has graces and beauties of its own. There remains to be noted the incursion of amateurs into the histrionic realm. In form~r times the actors profession was absolutely exclusive in Japan. Children were trained to wear their fathers mantles, and the idea that a nonprofessional could tread the hallowed ground of the stage did not enter any imagination. But with the advent of the new regimen in Meiji days there arose a desire for social plays depicting the life of the modern generation, and as these croppy dramas (zampatsumono)so called in allusion to the European method of cutting the hair closewere not included in the repertoire of the orthodox theatre, amateur troupes (known as sOshi-yakusha) were organized to fill the void. Even Shakespeare has been played by these amateurs, and the abundant wit of the Japanese is on the way to enrich the stage with modern farces of unquestionable merit.
The Tokugawa era (1603f 867), which popularized the drama, had other memorable effects upon Japanese literature. Yedo, the shOLiterature guns capital, displaced KiOto as the centre of literary of the activity. Its population of Inure than a million, includToku ~ ing all sorts and conditions of mennotably wealthy g merchants and mechanicsconstituted a new audience a. to which authors had to address themselves; and an unparalleled development of mental activity necessitated wholesale drafts upon the Chinese vocabulary. To this may be attributed the appearance of a group of nien known as kangakusha (Chinese scholars). The most celebrated among them were: Fujiwara Seikwa (1560-1619), who introduced his countrymen to the philosophy of Chu-Hi; Hayashi Rasan (1583-1657), who wrote 170 treatises on scholastic and moral subjects; Kaibara Ekken (i63o1714), teacher of a finc system of ethics; Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725), historian, philosopher, statesman and financier: and Muro KiusO, the second great exponent of Chu-His philosophy. Japan owes a profound debt of gratitudc to the kangakusha of that time. For their day and country they were emphatically the salt of earth. But naturally not all were believers in the same philosophy. The fervour of the followers ,of Chu-Hi (the orthodox school) could not fail to provoke opposition. Thus some arose who declared allegiance to the idealistic intuitionalism of Wang Yang-ming, and others advocated direct study of the works of Confucius and Mencius. Connected with this rejection of ChuHi were such eminent names as those of Ito Junsai (1627-1718), ItO Togai (1617-1736), Ogyu SOrai (1666-1728) and Dazai Shuntai (1679-1747). These Chinese scholars made no secret of their contempt for Buddhism, and in their turn they were held in aversion by the Buddhists and the Japanese scholars (wagakusha), so that the second half of the i8th century was a time of perpetual wrangling and controversy. The worshippers at the shrine of Chinese philosophy evoked a reactionary spirit of nationalism, just as the excessive worship of Occidental civilization was destined to do in the I9th century.
Apart from philosophical researches and the development of the drama, as above related, the Tokugawa era is remarkable for folk-lore, moral discourses, fiction and a peculiar form of poetry. This last does not demand much attention. Its principal variety is the haikai, which is nothing more than a tanka shorn of its concluding fourteen syllables, and therefore virtually identical with the hokku, already described. The name of Basho is immemorially associated with this kind of lilliputian versicle, which reached the extreme of impressionism. A more important addition to Japanese literature was made in the I 7th century in the form of childrens tales (Otogibanashi). They are charmingly simple and graceful, and they have been rendered into English again and again since the beginning of the Meiji era. But whether they are to be regarded as genuine folk-lore or merely as a branch of the fiction of the age when they first appeared in book form, remains uncertain. Of fiction proper there was an abundance. The pioneer of this kind of literature is considered to have been Saikaku (1641I693), who wrote sketches of every-day life as he saw it, short tales of some merit and novels which deal with the most disreputable phases of human existence. His notable successors in the same line were two men of KiOto, named Jisho (I6751745) and Kiseki (1666-1716). They had their own publishing house, and its name Hacliimonji-ya (figure-ofeight store) came to be indelibly associated with this kind of literature. But these men did little more than pave the way for the true romantic novel, which first took shape under the hand of Santo KyOden (f76f1816), and culminated in the works of Bakin, Tanehiko, Samba, Ikku, Shunsui and their successors. Of nearly all the books in this class it may be said that they deal largely in sensationalism and pornography, though it does not follow that their language is either coarse or licentious. The life of the virtuous Japanese woman being essentially uneventful, these romancists not unnaturally sought their female types among dancing-girls and courtesans. The books were profusely illustrated with wood-cuts and chromoxylographs from pictures of the ukiyoe masters, who, like the playwright, the actor and the romancer, ministered to the pleasure of the man in the street. Brief mention must also be made of two other kinds of books belonging to this epoch; namely, the Shingakusho (ethical essays) and the .Jilsuroku-mono (true records). The latter were often little more than historical novels founded on facts; and the former, though nominally intended to engraft the doctrines of Buddhism and Shinto upon the philosophy of China, were really of rationalistic tendency.
Although the incursions made into Chinese philosophy and the revival of Japanese traditions during the Tokugawa Epoch contributed materially to the overthrow of feudalism and the restoration of the Thrones administrative power, Thjc,~1fl the immediate tendency of the last two events was to divert the nations attention wholly from the study of either Confucianism or the Record of Ancient Matters. A universal thirst set in for Occidental science and literature, so that students occupied themselves everywhere with readers and grammars modelled on European lines rather than with the Analects or the Kojiki. English at once became the language of learning. Thus the three colleges which formed the nucleus of the Imperial University of Tokyo were presided over by a graduate of Michigan College (Professor Toyama), a member of the English bar (Professor HOzumi) and a graduate of Cambridge (Baron Kikuchi). If Japan was eminently fortunate in the men who directed her political career at that time, she was equally favored in those that presided over her literary culture. Fukuzawa Yukichi, founder of the KeiO Gijuku, now one of Japans four universities, did more than any of his contemporaries by writing and speaking to spread a knowledge of the West, its ways and its thoughts, and Nakamura Keiu labored in the same cause by translating Smiless Self-help and Mills Representative Government. A universal geography (by Uchida Masao); a history of nations (by Mitsukuri Rinsho); a translation of Chamberss Encyclopaedia by the department of education; Japanese renderings of Herbert Spencer and of Guizot and Buckleall these made their appearance duringthe first fourteen years of the epoch. The influence of politics may be strongly traced in the literature of that time, for the first romances produced by the new school were all of a political character: Keikoku Bidan (Model for Statesmen, with Epaminondas for hero) by Yano Fumin; Seichubai(Plum-blossomsin snow) andKwakwan-o(Nightingale Among Flowers) by Suyehiro. This idea of subserving literature to political ends is said to have been suggested by Nakae Tokusukes translation of Rousseaus Contrat social. The year I882 saw Julius Caesar in a Japanese dress. The translator was Tsubouchi Shyo, one of the greatest writers of the Meiji era. His Shosetsu Shinsui (Essentials of a Novel) was an eloquent plea for realism as contrasted with the artificiality of the characters depicted by Bakin, and his own works illustrative of this theory took the public by storm. He also brought out the first literary periodical published in Japan, namely, the Waseda Bungaku, so called because Tsubouchi was professor of literature in the Waseda University, an institution founded by Count Okuma, whose name cannot be omitted from any history of Meiji literature, not as an author but as a patron. As illustrating the rapid development of familiarity with foreign authors, a Japanese retrospect of the Meiji era notes that whereas Macaulays Esfays were ii the curriculum of the Imperial University in 1881-1882, they were studied, five or six years later, in secondary schools, and pupils of the latter were able to read with understanding the works of Goldsmith, Tennyson and Thackeray. Up to Tsubouchis time the Meiji literature was all in the literary language, but there was then formed a society calling itself Kenyusha, some of whose associates-as BimyOsaiused the colloquial language in their works, while othersas Kayo, Rohan, &c.went back to the classical diction of the Genroku era (1655-1703). ROhan is one of the most renowned of Japans modern authors, and some of his historical romances have had wide vogue. Meanwhile the business of translating went on apace. Great numbers of European and American authors were rendered into JapaneseCalderon, Lytton, Disraeli, Byron, Shakespeare, Milton, Turgueniev, Carlyle, Daudet, Emerson, Hugo, Heine, De Quincey, Dickens, Krner, Goethetheir name is legion and their influence upon Japanese literature is conspicuous. In 1888 a special course of German literature was inaugurated at the Imperial University, and with it is associated the name of Mon Ogai, Japans most faithful interpreter of German thought and speech. Virtually every literary magnate of the Occident has found one or more interpreters in modern Japan. Accurate reviewers of the era have divided it into periods of two or three years each, according to the various groups of foreign authors that were in vogue, and every year sees a large addition to the number of Japanese who study the masterpieces of Western literature in the original.
Newspapers, as the term is understood in the West, did not exist in old Japan, though block-printed leaflets were occasionally issued to describe some specially stirring event. Yet the Newspapers Japanese were not entirely unacquainted with and journalism. During the last decades of the factory at Periodicals. Deshima the Dutch traders made it a yearly custom to submit to the governor of Nagasaki selected extracts from newspapers arriving from Batavia, and these extracts, having been translated into Japanese, were forwarded to the court in Yedo together with their originals. To such compilations the name of Oranda fusetsu-sho (Dutch Reports) was given. Immediately after the conclusion of the first treaty in 1857, the Yedo authorities instructed the office for studying foreign books (Bunsho torishirabedokoro) to translate excerpts from European and American journals. Occasionally these translations were copied for circulation among officials, but the bulk of the people knew nothing of them. Thus the first real newspaper did not see the light until 1861, when aYedc publisher brought out the Batavia News, a compilation of items from foreign newspapers, printed on Japanese paper from wooder blocks. Entirely devoid of local interest, this journal did not survive for more than a few months. It was followed, in 1864, by the Shimbun-shi (News), which was published in Yokohama, witl~ Kishida GinkO for editor and John Hiko for sub-editor. The latter had been cast away, many years previously, on the coast of the United States and had become a naturalized American citizen. H~ retained a knowledge of spoken Japanese, but the ideographic script was a sealed book to him, and his editorial part was limited to ora translations from American journals which the editor committee to writing. The Shimbun-shi essayed to collect domestic news a~ well as foreign. it waspublished twice a month and might possibl3 have created a demand for its wares had not the editor and sub editor left for America after the issue of the 10th number. Th example, however, had now been set. During the three years tha separated the death of the Shimbun-shi from the birth of the Meij era (October 1867) no less than ten quasi-journals made thei appearance. They were in fact nothing better than inferior maga zines, printed from wood-blocks, issued weekly or monthly, ani giving little evidence of enterprise or intellect, though connecte with them were the names of men destined to become famous in th world of literature, as Fukuchi Genichiro, Tsji Shinji (afterward Baron TsUji) and Suzuki Yuichi. These publications attracted littl interest and exercised no influence. Journalism was regarded as mere pastime. The first evidence of its potentialities was furnisho by the KOko .Shimbun (The Worki) under the editorship of Fukucli Genichiro and Sasano Dempei. To many Japanese observers i seemed that the restoration of 1867 had merely transferred the ad ministrative authority from the Tokugawa Shogun to the clans c Satsuma and ChOshC. The KOko Shimbun severely attacked th two clans as specious usurpers. It was not in the mood of Japanes officialdom at that time to brook such assaults. The KOko Shimbun was suppressed; Fukuchi was thrust into prison, arid all journals or periodicals except those having official sanction were vetoed. At the beginning of 1868 only two newspapers remained in the field. Very soon, however, the enlightened makers of modern Japan appreciated the importance of journalism, and in 1871 the Shim bun Zasshi (News Periodical) was started under the auspices of the illustrious Kido. Shortly afterwards there appeared in Yokohama whence it was subsequently transferred to TOkyothe Mainichi Shimbun (Daily News), the first veritable daily and also the first journal printed with movable types and foreign presses. Its editors were Numa Morikage, Shimada Saburo and Koizuka Ryu, all destined to become celebrated not only in the field of journalism but also in that of politics. It has often been said of the Japanese that they are slow in forming a decision but very quick to act upon it. This was illustrated in the case of journalism. In I87othe country possessed only two quasi-journals, both under official auspices. In 1875 it possessed over 100 periodicals and daily newspapers. The most conspicuous were the Nichi Nichi Shimbun (Daily News), the Yilbin Hoc/il (Postal Intelligence), the Choya Shimbun (Government and People News), the Akebono Shimbun (The Dawn), and the Mainichi Shimbun (Daily News). These were called the five great journals. The Nichi Nichi Shimbun had an editor of codspicuous literary ability in Fukuchi GenichirO, and the Hoc/il Shimbun, its chief rival, received assistance from such men as Yano Fumio, Fujita Makichi, Inukai Ki and Minoura Katsundo. Japan had not yet any political parties, but the ferment that preceded their birth was abroad. The newspaper press being almost entirely in the hands of men whose interests suggested wider opening of the door to official preferment, nearly all editorial pens were directed against the governme~nt. So strenuous did this campaign become that, in 1875, a press law was enacted empowering the minister of home affairs and the police to suspend or suppress a journal and to fine or imprison its editor without public trial. Many suffered under this law, but the ultimate effect was to invest the press with new popularity, and very soon the newspapers conceived a device which effectually protected their literary staff, for they employed dummy editors whose sole function was to go to prison in lieu of the true editor.
Japanese journalistic writing in these early years of Meiji was marred by extreme and pedantic classicism. There had not yet been any real escape from the tradition which assigned the crown of scholarship to whatever author drew most largely upon the resources of the Chinese language and learning. The example set by the Imperial court, and still set by it, did not tend to correct this style. The sovereign, whether speaking by rescript or by ordinance, never addressed the bulk of his subjects. His words were taken from sources so classical as to be intelligible to only the highly educated minority. The newspapers sacrificed theiraudience to their erudition and preferred classicism to circulation. Their columns were thus a sealed book to the whole of the lower middle classes and to the entire female population. The Yomiuri Shimbun (Buy and ReoA News) was the first to break away from this pernicious fashion. Established in 1875, it adopted a style midway between the classical ai~d the colloquial, and it appended the syllabic characters to each ideograph, so that its columns becam! intelligible to every reader of ordinary education. It was followed by the Vein Shimbun (Pictorial Newspaper), the first to insert illus. trations and to publish feuilleton romances. Both of these journals devoted space to social news, a radical departure from the austere restrictions observed by their aristocratic contemporaries.
The year 1881 saw the nation divided into political parties and within measured distance of constitutional government. Thenceforth the great majority of the newspapers and periodicals ranged themselves under the flag of this or that Era of party. An era of embittered polemics ensued. The Political journals, while fighting continuously against each Parties. others principles, agreed in attacking the ministry, and the latter found it necessary to establish organs of its own whici preached the German system of state autocracy. Editors seemed tc be incapable of rising above the dead level of political strife, anc their utterances were not relieved even by a semblance of fairness Readers turned away in disgust, and journal after journal passe out of existence. The situation was saved by a newspaper whicl from the outset of its career obeyed the best canons of journalism - Born in 1882, the fiji Shimpo (Times) enjoyed the immense advan tage of having its policy controlled by one of the greatest thinker of modern Japan, Fukuzawa Yukichi. Its basic principle wa liberty of the individual, liberty of the family and liberty of th nation; it was always found on the side of broad-minded justice, an it derived its materials from economic, social and scientific sources Other newspapers of greatly improved character followed the Jij i Shim p0, especially notable among them being the Kokumin Shimbui In the meanwhile Osaka, always pioneer in matters of commercif i enterprise, had set the example of applying the force of capital t journalistic development. Tokyo journals were all - on a literary or political basis, but the Osaka Asahi Commerch ,Shimbun (Osaka Rising Sun News) was purely a Journailsa business undertaking. Its proprietor, Maruyama Ryuhei, spared no expense to obtain news from all qerarters of tli world, and for the first time the Japanese public learned what stores of information may be found in the columns of a really enterprising journal. Very soon the Asahi had a keen competitor in the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun (Osaka Daily News) and these papers ultimately crushed all rivals in Osaka. In 1888 Maruyama established, another Asahi in Tokyo, and thither he was quickly followed by his Osaka rival, which in TOkyO took the name of Mainichi Dempo (Daily Telegraph). These two newspapers now stand alone as purveyors of copious telegraphic news, and in the next rank, not greatly lower, comes the fiji Shimpo.
With the opening of the diet in 1890, politics again obtruded themselves into newspaper columns, but as practical living issues now occupied attention, readers were no longer wearied by the abstract homilies of former days. Moreover, freedom of the press was at length secured. Already (1887) the government had voluntarily made a great step in advance by divesting itself of the right to imprison or fine editors by executive order. Ifut it reserved the power of suppressing or suspending a newspaper, and against that reservation a majority of the lower house voted, session after session, only to see the bill rejected by the peers, who shared the governments opinion that to grant a larger measure of liberty would certainly encourage licence. Not until 1897 was this opposition fully overcome. A new law, passed by both houses and confirmed by the emperor, took from the executive all power over journals, except in cases of lse majest, and nothing now remains of the former arbitrary system except that any periodical having a political complexion is required to deposit security varying from 175 to 1000 yen. The result has falsified all sinister forebodings. A much more moderate tone pervades the writings of the press since restrictions were entirely removed, and although there are now 1 775 journals and periodicals published throughout the empire, with a total annual circulation of some 700 million copies, intemperance of language, such as in former times would, have provoked official interference, is practically unknown to-day. Moreover, the best Japanese editors have caught with remarkable aptitude the spirit of modern journalism. But a few years ago they used to compile laborious essays, in which the inspiration was drawn from Occidental text-books, and the alien character of the source was hidden under a veneer of Chinese aphorisms., To-day they write terse, succinct, closely-reasoned articles, seldom diffuse, often witty; and generally free from extravagance of thought or diction. Incidentally they are hastening the assimilation of the written and the spoken languages (genbun itchi) which may possibly prelude a still greater reform, abolition of the ideographic script. Yet, with few exceptions, the profession of journalism is not remunerative. Very low rates of subscription, and almost prohibitory charges for advertising, are chiefly to blame.i The vicissitudes of the enterprise may be gathered from the fact that, whereas 2767 journals and periodicals were started between 1889 and 1894 (inclusive), no less than 2465 ceased publishing. The largest circulation recorded in 1908 was about 150,000 copies daily, and the honor of attaining that exceptional figure belonged to the Osaka Asahi Shimbun. (F. By.)
IV.JAPANESE ART
Painting and Engraving.Tn Japanese art the impressionist element is predominant. Pictures, as the term is understood in.
~ Europe, can scarcely be said to have existed at a any time in Japan. The artist did not depict emotion: he depicted the subjects that produce emotion. Therefore he took his motives from nature rather than from history; or, if he borrowed from the latter, what he selected was a scene, not the pains or the passions of its actors, Moreover, he never exhausted his subject, but was always careful to leave a wide margin for the imagination of the spectator. This latter consideration sometimes impelled him to represent things which, to European eyes, seem trivial or insignificant, but which really convey hints of deep significance. In short, Japanese pictures are like Japanese poetry: they do not supply thought but only awaken it. Often their methods show conventionalism, but it is conventionalism so perfect and free in its allurements that nature seems to suggest both the motive and the treatment. Thus though neither botanically nor ornithologically correct, their flowers and their birds show a ttuth to nature, and a habit of minute observation in the artist, which cannot be too much admired. Every blade of grass, each leat~ and feather, has been the object of loving and patient study.
It has been rashly assumed by some writers that the Japanese do not study from nature. All their work is an emphatic protest against this supposition. It can in fact be shown conclusively that the Japan.ese have derived all their fundamental The highest rate of subscription to a daily journal is twelve shillings per annum, and the usual charge for advertisement is from 7d. to one shilling per line of 22 ideographs (about nine words).
ideas of symmetry, so different from ours, from a close study of nature and her processes in the attainment of endless variety. A special feature of their art is that, while often closely and minutely imitating natural objects, such as birds, flowers and fishes, the especial objects of their predilection and study, they frequently combine the facts of external nature with a conventional mode of treatment better suited to their purpose. During the long apprenticeship that educated Japanese serve to acquire the power of writing with the brush the complicated characters borrowed from Chinese, they unconsciously cultivate the habit of minute observation and the power of accurate imitation, and with these the delicacy of touch and freedom of hand which only long practice can give. A hairs-breadth deviation. in a line is fatal to good calligraphy, both among the Chinese and the Japanese. When they come to use the pencil in drawing, they already possess accuracy of eye and free command of the brush. Whether a Japanese art-worker sets himself to copy what he sees before him or to give play to his fancy in combining what he has seen with some ideal in his mind, the result shows perfect facility of execution and easy grace in all the lines.
The beauties of the human form never appealed to the Japanese artist. Associating the nude solely with the performance of menial tasks, he deemed it worse than a solecism to transfer such subjects to his canvas, and thus a wide field of- motive was closed to him. On the other band, the draped figure received admirable treatment from his brush, and the naturalistic school of the 17th, 18th and i9th centuries reached a high level of skill in depicting men, women and children in motion. Nor has there ever been a Japanese Landseer. Sosens monkeys and badgers constitute the one possible exception, but the horses, oxen, deer, tigers, dogs, bears, foxes and even cats of the best Japanese artists were ill drawn and badly modelled. In the field of landscape the Japanese painter fully reached the eminence on which his great Chinese masters stood. He did not obey the laws of I linear perspective as they are formulated in the Occident, nor did he show cast shadows, but his aerial perspective and his foreshortening left nothing to be desired. It has been suggested that he deliberately eschewed chiaroscuro because his pictures, destined invariably to hang in an alcove, were required to be equally effective from every aspect and had also to form part of a decorative scheme. But the more credible explanation is that he merely followed Chinese example in this matter, as he did also in linear perspective, accepting without question the curious canon that lines converge as they approach the spectator.
It is in the realm of decorative art that the world has chiefly benefited by contact with Japan. Her influence is second only to that of Greece. Most Japanese decorative designs consist of natural objects, treated sometimes in a more 1~hi0 or less conventional manner, but always distinguished by delicacy of touch, graceful freedom of conception and delightfully harmonized tints. Perhaps the admiration which the Japanese artist has won in this field is due not more to his wealth of fancy and skilful adaptation of natural forms, than to his individuality of character in treating his subjects. There is complete absence of uniformity and monotony. Repetition without any variation is abhorrent to every Japanese. He will not tolerate the stagnation and tedium of a dull uniformity by mechanical reproduction. His temperament will not let him endure the labor of always producing the same pattern. Hence the repetition of two articles exactly like each other, and, generally, the division of any space into equal parts are instinctively avoided, as nature avoids the production of any two plants, or even any two leaves of the same tree, which in all points shall be exactly alike.
The application. of this principle in. the same free spirit is the secret of much of the originality and the excellence of the decorative art of Japan. Her artists and artisans alike aim at symmetry, not by an equal division of parts, as we do, but rather by a certain balance of corresponding parts, each different from the other, and not numerically even, with an effect of variety and freedom from formality. They seek it, in fact, as nature attains the same end. If we take for instance the skins of animals that are striped or spotted, we have the best possible illustration of natures methods in this direction. Examining the tiger or the leopard, in all the beauty of their symmetrical adornment, we do not see in any one example an exact repetition of the same stripes or spots on each side of the mesial line. They seem to be alike, and yet are all different. The line of division along the spine, it wifi be observed, is not perfectly continuous or defined, but in part suggested; and each radiating stripe on either side is full of variety in size, direction, and to some extent in color and depth of shade. Thus nature works, and so, following in her footsteps, works the Japanese artist. The same law prevailing in all natures creation, in the plumage of birds, the painting of butterifies wings, the marking of shells, and in all the infinite variety and beauty of the floral kingdom, the lesson is constantly renewed to the observant eye. Among flowers the orchids, with all their fantastic extravagance and mimic imitations of birds and insects, are especially prolific in examples of symmetrical effects without any repetition of similar parts or divisions into even numbers.
The orchids may be taken as offering fair types of the Japanese artists ideal in all art work. And thus, close student of natures processes, methods, and effects as the Japanese art workman is, he ever seeks to produce humble replicas from his only art master. Thus he proceeds in all his decorative work, avoiding studiously the exact repetition of any lines and spaces, and all diametrical divisions, or, if these be forced upon him by the shape of the object, exercising the utmost ingenuity to disguise the fact, and train away the eye from observing the weak point, as nature does in like circumstances. Thus if a lacquer box in the form of a parallelogram is the object, Japanese artists will not divide it in two equal parts by a perpendicular line, but by a diagonal, as offering a more pleasing line and division. If the box be round, they will seek to lead the eye away from the naked regularity of the circle by a pattern distracting attention, as, for example, by a zigzag breaking the circular outline, and supported by other ornaments. A similar feeling is shown by them as colorists, and, though sometimes eccentric and daring in their contrasts, they never produce discords in their chromatic scale. They have undoubtedly a fine sense of color, and a similarly delicate and subtle feeling for harmonious blending of brilliant and sober hues. As a rule they prefer a quiet and refined style, using full but low-toned colors. They know the value of bright colors, however, and how best to utilize them, both supporting and contrasting them with their secondaries and complementaries.
The development of Japanese painting may be divided into the following six periods, each signalized by a wave of progress.
(1) From the middle of the 6th to the middle of the Division 9th century: the naturalization of Chinese and ChinoPeriods. Buddhist art. (2) From the middle of the 9th to the middle of the 15th century: the establishment of great native schools under Kos no Kanaoka and his descendants and followers, the pure Chinese school gradually falling into neglect.
(3) From the middle of the 15th to the latter part of the 17th century: the revival of the Chinese style. (4) From the latter part of the 17th to the latter part of the 18th century: the establishment of a popular school. (5) From the latter part of the 18th to the latter part of the I9th century: the foundation of a naturalistic school, and the first introduction of European influence into Japanese painting; the acme and decline of the popular school. (6) From about 1875 to the present time: a period of transition.
Tradition refers to the advent of a Chinese artist named Nanriu, invited to Japan in the 5th century as a painter of the Imperial banners, but of the labors and influence of Period, this man and of his descendants we have no record.
The real beginnings of the study of painting and sculpture in their higher branches must be dated from the introduction of Buddhism from China in the middle of the 6th century, and for three centuries after this event there is evidence that the practice of the arts was carried on mainly by or under the instruction of Korean and Chinese immigrants.
The paintings of which we have any mention were almost limited to representations of Buddhist masters of the Tang dynasty (618 905), notably Wu Tao-zu (8th century), of whose genius romantic stories are related. The oldest existiog work of this period is a mural decoration in the hail of the temple of Horyu-ji, Nara, attributed to a Korean priest named Donchfl, who lived in Japan in the 6th century; and this painting, in spite of the destructive effects of time and exposure, shows traces of the same power of line, color and composition that stamps the best of the later examples of Buddhist art.
The native artist who crested the first great wave of Japanese painting was a court noble named Kos no Kanaoka, living under the patronage of the emperor Seiwa ~ mi (850859) and his successors down to about the end of J~~d the 9th century, in the midst of a period of peace and culture. Of his own work few, if any, examples have reached us; and those attributed with more or less probability to his hand are all representations of Buddhist divinities, showing a somewhat formal and conventional design, with a masterly calligraphic touch and perfect harmony of coloring. Tradition credits him with an especial genius for the delineation of animals and landscape, and commemorates his skill by a curious anecdote of a painted horse which left its frame to ravage the fields, and was reduced to pictorial stability only by the sacrifice of its eyes. He left a line of descendants extending far into the I5th century, all famous for Buddhist pictures, and some engaged in establishing a native style, the Wa-gwa-ryu.
At the end of the 9th century there were two exotic styles of painting, Chinese and Buddhist, and the beginning of a native style founded upon these. All three were practised by the same artists, and it was not until a later period that each became the badge of a school.
The Chinese style (Kara-ryu), the fundamental essence of all Japanese art, has a fairly distinct history, dating back to the jntrodtiction of Buddhism into China (A. D. 62), and it is said to have been chiefly from the works of Wu Chinese Tao-zu, the master of the 8th century, that Kanaoka S .rc.
drew his inspiration. This early Chinese manner, which lasted in the parent country down to the end of the 13th century, was characterized by a viril,e grace of line, a grave dignity of composition, striking simplicity of technique, and a strong but incomplete naturalistic ideal. The coloring, harmonious but subdued in tone, held a place altogether secondary to that of the outline, and was frequently omitted altogether, even in the most famous works. Shadows and reflections were ignored, and perspective, approximately correct for landscape distances, was isometrical for near objects, while the introduction of a symbolic sun or moon lent the sole distinction between a day and a night scene. The art was one of imperfect evolution, but for thirteen centuries it was the only living pictorial art in the world, and the Chinese deserve the honor of having created landscape painting. The materials used were water-colors, brushes, usually of deer-hair, and a surface of unsized paper, translucid silk or wooden panel. The chief motives were landscapes of a peculiarly wild and romantic type, animal life, trees and flowers, and figtire compositions drawn from Chinese and Buddhist history and Taoist legend; and these, together with the grand aims and strange shortcomings of its principles and the limited range of its methods, were adopted almost without change by Japan. It was a noble art, but unfortunately the rivalry of the Buddhist and later native styles permitted it to fall into comparative neglect, and it was left for a few of the faithful, the most famous of whom was a priest of the I 4th century named Kawo, to preserve it from inanition till the great Chinese renaissance that lent its stamp to the next period. The reputed founder of Japanese caricature may also be added to the list. He was a priest named KakuyU, but better known as the abbot of Toba, who lived in the 12th century. An accomplished artist in the Chinese manner, he amused himself and his friends by burlesque sketches, marked by a grace and humour that his imitators never equalled. Later, the motive of the Toba pictures, as such caricatures were called, tended to degenerate, and the elegant figures of Kakuyu were replaced by scrawls that often substituted indecency and ugliness for art and wit. Some of the old masters of the Yamato school were, however, admirable in their rendering of the burlesqtie, and in modern times KyOsai, the last of the Hokusai school, outdid all his predecessors in the riotous originality of his weird and comic fancies. A new phase of the art now lives in the pages of the newspaper press.
The Buddhist style was probably even more ancient than the Chinese, for the scheme of coloring distinctive of the Buddhist picture was almost certainly of Indian origin; brilliant fi ddhi and decorative, and heightened by a lavish use of S~ t.
gold, it was essential to the effect of a picture destined ~
for the dim light of the Buddhist temple. The style was applied only to the representations of sacred personages and scenes, and as the traditional forms and attributes of the Brahmanic and Buddhist divinities were mutable only within narrow limits, the subjects seldom afforded scope for originality of design or observation of nature. The principal Buddhist painters down to the 14th century were members of the Kos, Takuma and Kasuga lines, the first descended from Kanaoka, the second from Takuma Tamuji (ending 10th century), and the third from Fujiwara no Motomitsu (I 11 century). The last and greatest master of the school was a priest named Meicho, better known as Ch Densu, the Japanese Fra Angelico. It is to him that Japan owes the possession of some of the most stately and most original works in her art, sublime in conception, line and color, and deeply instinct with the religious spirit. He died in 1427, at the age of seventy-six, in the seclusion of the temple where he had passed the whole of his clays.
The native style, Yamato or Wa-gwa-ryi, was an adaptation of Chinese art canons to motives drawn from the court life, poetry Native and stories of old Japan. It was undoubtedly prac Style. tised by the Kose line, and perhaps by their prede cessors, but it did not take shape as a school until the beginning of the 11th century under Fujiwara no Motomitsu, who was a pupil of Kose no Kinmochi; it then became known as Yamato-ryu, a title which two centuries later was changed to that of Tosa, on the occasion of one of its masters, Fujiwara no Tsunetaka, assuming that appellation as a family name. The Yamato-Tosa artists painted in all styles, but that which was the speciality of the school, to be found in nearly all the historical rolls bequeathed to us by their leaders, was a lightly-touched outline filled in with flat and bright body-colors, in which verdigris-green played a great part. The originality of the motive did not prevent the adoption of all the Chinese conventions, and of some new ones of the artists own. The cui-ious expedient of spiriting away the roof of any building of which the artist wished to show the interior was one of the most remarkable of these. Amongst the foremost names of tIie school are those of Montomitsu (11th century), Nobuzane (13th century), Tsunetaka (13th century), Mitsunohu (15th and 16th centuries), his son Mitsushige, and MitsuOki (17th century). The struggle between the Taira and Minamoto clans for the power that had long been practically abandoned by the Imperial line lasted through the 11th and the greater part of the 12th centuries, ending only with the rise of Yoritomo to the shogunate in 1185. These internecine disturbances had been unfavourable to any new departure in art, except in matters appertaining to arms and armour, and the strife between two puppet emperors for a shadow of authority in the 14th century brought another distracting element. It was not until the triumph of the northern dynasty was achieved through the prowess of an interested champion of the Ashikaga clan that the culture of ancient Japan revived. The palace of the Ashikaga shoguns then replaced the Imperial court as the centre of patronage of art and literature and established a new era in art history.
Towards the close of the Ashikaga shogunate painting entered on a new phase. Talented representatives of the Kose, Takuma Thhd and Tosa lines maintained the reputation of the Period, native and Buddhist schools, and the long-neglected Chinese school was destined to undergo a vigorous revival. The initiation of the new movement is attributed to a priest named Jsetsu, who lived in the early part of the 15th century, and of whom little else is known. It is not even certain whether he was of Chinese or Japanese birth; he is, however, believed by some authorities to have been the teacher of three great artistsShubun, Sesshtt and Kano Masanobuwho became the leaders of three schools: Shubun, that of the pure Chinese art of the Sung and Yuan dynasties (10th and 13th centuries); Sesshu, that of a modified school bearing his name; and Masanobu, of the great Kano school, which has reached to the present day. The qualities of the new Chinese schools were essentially those of the older dynasties: breadth, simplicity, a daringly calligraphic play of brush that strongly recalled the accomplishments of the famous scribes, anti a coloring that varied between sparing washes of flat local tints and a strength and brilliancy of decorative effort that rivalled even that of the Buddhist pictures. The motives remained almost identical with those of the Chinese masters, and so imbued with the foreign spirit were many of the Japanese disciples that it is said they found it difficult to avoid introducing Chinese accessories even into pictures of native scenery.
Sessh (1421-1507) was a priest who visited China and studied painting there for several years, at length returning in 1469, dis-. appointed with the living Chinese artists, and resolved to strike out a style of his own, based upon that ofthe old masters. He was the boldest and most original of Japanese landscape artists, leaving powerful and poetic records of the scenery of his own land as well as that of China, and trusting more to the sure and sweeping stroke of the brush than to color. ShObun was an artist of little less power, but he followed more closely his exemplars, the Chinese masters of the 12th and 13th centuries; while Kano Masanob (1424-1520), trained in the love of Chinese art, departed little from the canons he had learned from Josetsu or Oguri SOtan. It was left to his more famous son, Motonohu, to establish the school which bears the family name. Kano Motonobu (1477-1559) was one of the greatest Japanese painters, an eclectic of genius, who excelled in every style and every branch of his art. His variety was inexhaustible, and he remains to this day a model whom the most distinguished artists are proud to imitate. The names of the celebrated members of this long line are too many to quote here, but the most accomplished of his descendants was Tanyu, who died in 1674, at the age of seventy-three. The close of this long period brought a new style of art, that of the Korin school. Ogata Kerin (1653-1716) is claimed by both the Tosa and Kano schools, but his work bears more resemblance to that of an erratic offshoot of the Kano line named Sotatsu than to the typical work of the academies. He was an artist of eccentric originality, who achieved wonders in bold decorative effects in spite of a studied contempt for detail. As a lacquer painter he left a strong mark upon the work of his contemporaries and successors. His brother and pupil. Kenzan, adopted his style, and left a reputation as a decorator of pottery hardly less brilliant than Krins in that of lacquer; and a later follower, HOitsu (1762-1828), greatly excelled the master in delicacy and refinement, although inferior to him in vigour and invention. Down to the end of this era painting was entirely in the hands of a patrician castecourtiers, priests, feudal nobles and their military retainers, all men of high education and gentle birth, living in a polished circle. It was practised more as a phase of aesthetic culture than with any utilitarian views. It was a labor of loving service, untouched by the spirit of material gain, conferring upon the work of the older masters a dignity and poetic feeling which we vainly seek in much of the later work. Unhappily, but almost inevitably, over-culture led to a gradual falling-off from the old virility. The strength of Meicli, Sessh, Motonobu and Tanyu gave place to a more or less slavish imitation of the old Japanese painters and their Chinese exemplars, till the heirs to the splendid traditions of the great masters preserved little more than their conventions and shortcomings. It was time for a new departure, but there seemed to be no sufficient strength left within the charmed circle of the orthodox schools, and the new movement was fated to come from the masses, whose voice had hitherto been silent in the art world.
A new era in art began in the latter half of the 17th century with the establishment of a popular school under an embroiderers draughtsman named Hishigawa Moronobu (c. I64&- Fourth 1713). Perhaps no great change is ever entirely a Period:
novelty. The old painters of the Yamato-Tosa line Popular had frequently shown something of the daily life School. around them, and one of the later scions of the school, named Iwasa Matahei, had even made a speciality of this class of motive; but so little is known of Matahei and his work that even his period is a matter of dispute, and the few pictures attributed to his pencil are open to question on grounds of authenticity. He probably worked some two generations before the time of Moronobu, but there is no reason to believe that his labors had any material share in determining the creation and trend of the new school.
Moronobu was a consummate artist, with all the delicacy and calligraphic force of the best of the Tosa masters, whom he undoubtedly strove to emulate in style; and his pictures are not only the most beautiful but also the most trustworthy records of the Fife of his time. It was not to his paintings, however, that he owed his greatest influence, but to the powerful impulse he gave to the illustration of books and broadsides by wood-engravings. It is true that illustrated books were known as early as 1608, if not before, but they were few and unattractive, and did little to inaugurate the great stream of ehon, or picture books, that were to take so large a share in the education of his own class. It is to Moronobu that Japan owes the popularization of artistic wood-engravings, for nothing before his series of xylographic albums approached his best work in strength and beauty, and nothing since has surpassed it. Later there came abundant aid to the cause of popular art, partly from pupils of the Kano aiid Tosa schools, but mainly from the artisan class. Most of these artists were designers for books and broadsides by calling, painters only on occasion, but a few of them did nothing for the engravers. Throughout the whole of this period, embracing about a hundred years, there still continued to work, altogether apart from the men who were making the success of popular art, a large number of able painters of the Kano, Tosa and Chinese schools, who multiplied pictures that had every merit except that of originality. These men, living in the past, paid little attention to the great popular movement, which seemed to be quite outside their social and artistic sphere and scarcely worthy of cultured criticism. It was in the middle of the 18th century that the decorative, but relatively feeble, Chinese art of the later Ming period found favor in Japan and a clever exponent in a painter named Ryurikyo It must be regarded as a sad decadence from the old Chinese ideals, which was further hastened, from about 1765, by the popularity of the southern Chinese style. This was a weak affectation that found its chief votaries amongst literary men ambitious of an easily earned artistic reputation. The principal Japanese supporter of this school was TaigadO (1722-1775), but the volume of copies of his sketches, TafgadO sansui juseki, published about 1870, is one of the least attractive albums ever printed in Japan.
The fifth period was introduced by a movement as momentous as that which stamped its predecessorthe foundation of a Fifth naturalistic school under a group of men outside the Period: orthodox academical circles. The naturalistic principle Natural- was by no means a new one; some of the old Chinese istk masters were naturalistic in a broad and, noble manner, Sc 00. and their Japanese followers could be admirably and minutely accurate when they pleased; but too many of the latter were content to construct their pictures out of fragmentary reminiscences of ancient Chinese masterpieces, not presuming to see a rock, a tree, an ox, or a human figure, except through Chinese spectacles. It was a farmers son named OkyO, trained in his youth to paint in the Chinese manner, who was first bold enough to adopt as a canon what his predecessors had only admitted under rare exceptions, the principle of an exact imitation of nature. Unfortunately, even he had not all the courage of his creed, and while he would paint a bird or a fish with perfect realism, he no more dared to trust his eyes in larger motives than did the most devout follower of ShUbun or Motonobu. He was essentially a painter of the classical schools, with the speciality of elaborate reproduction of detail in certain sections of animal life, but fortunately this partial concession to truth, emphasized as it was by a rare sense of beauty, did large service.
OkyO rose into notice about 1775, and a number of pupils flocked to his studio in ShijO Street, KiOto (whence ShijO school). Amongst these the most famous were Goshun (1742-1811), who is sometimes regarded as one of the founders of the school; Sosen (1757-1821), an animal painter of remarkable power, but especially celebrated for pictures of monkey life; ShhO, the younger brother of the last, also an animal painter; ROsetsu (1755-1799), the best landscape painter of his school; Keibun, a younger brother of Goshun, and some later followers of scarcely less fame, notably Hoyen, a pupil of Keibun; Tessan, an adopted son of Sosen; Ippo and YOsai (1788-1878), well known for a remarkable set of volumes, the Zenken kojitsu, containing a long series of portraits of ancient Japanese celebrities. Ozui and Ojyu, the sons of OkyO, painted in the style of their father, but failed to attain great eminence. Lastly, amongst the associates of the ShijO master was the celebrated Ganku (1798-1837), who developed a special style of his own, and is sometimes regarded as the founder of a distinct school. He was, however, greatly influenced by Okyos example, and his sons, Gantai, Ganryo, and Gantoku or Renzan, drifted into a manner almost indistinguishable from that of the ShijO school.
It remains only to allude to the European school, if school it can be called, founded by Kokan and Denkichi, two contemporaries of OkyO. These artists, at first educated in one of the native schools, obtained from a Hollander in Nagasaki some training in the methods and principles of European painting, and left a few oil paintings in which the laws of light and shade and perspective were correctly observed. They were not, however, of sufficient capacity to render the adopted manner more than a subject of curiosity, except to a few followers who have reached down to the present generation. It is possible that the essays in perspective found in the pictures of Hokusai, Hiroshige, and some of the popular artists of the I 9th century, were suggested by Kokans drawings and writings.
The sixth period began about 1875, when an Italian artist was engaged by the government as a professor of painting in the Engineering College at Tokyo. Since that time some Period, distinguished European artists have visited Japan~ and several Japanese students have made a pilgrimage to Europe to see for themselves what lessons may bi gained from Western art. These students, confronted by i strong reaction in favor of pure Japanese art, have fought manfully to win public sympathy, and though their success is not yet crowned, it is not impossible that an Occidental school may ultimately be established. Thus far the great obstacle has been that pictures painted in accordance with Western canons are not suited to Japanese interiors and do not appeal to the taste of the most renowned Japanese connoisseurs. Somewhat more successful has been an attemptinaugurated by Hashimoto GahO and Kawabata Gyokushoto combine the art of the West with that of Japan by adding to the latter the chiaroscuro and the linear perspective of the former. If the disciples of this school could shake off the Sesshu tradition of strong outlines and adopt the Kano Motonobu revelation of modelling by mass only, their work would stand on a high place. But they, too, receive little encouragement. The tendency of the time is conservative in art matters.
A series of magnificent publications has popularized art and its best products in a manner such as could never have been anticipated. The Kokka, a monthly magazine richly and beautifully illustrated and edited by Japanese students, has reached its 223rd number; the Shimbi Daikan, a colossal album containing chromoxylographic facsimiles of celebrated examples in every branch of art, has been completed in 20 volumes; the masterpieces of KOrin and Motonobu have been reproduced in similar albums; the masterpieces of the Ukiyo-e are in process of publication, and it seems certain that the Japanese nation will ultimately be educated to such a knowledge of its own art as will make for permanent appreciation. Meanwhile the intrepid group of painters in oil plod along unflinchingly, having formed themselves into an association (the hakuba-kai) which gives periodical exhibitions, and there are, in Tokyo and KiOto, wellorganized and flourishing art schools which receive a substantial measure of state aid, as well as a private academy founded by Okakura with a band of seceders from the hybrid fashions of the GahO system. Altogether the nation seems to be growing more and more convinced that its art future should not wander far from the lines of the past. (iV. AN.; F. By.)
Although a little engraving on copper has been practised in Japan of late years, it is of no artistic value, and the only branch of the art which calls for recognition is the Engraving. cutting of wood-blocks for use either with colors or without. This, however, is of supreme importance, and as its technique differs in most respects from the European practice, it demands a somewhat detailed description.
The wood used is generally that of the cherry-tree, sakura, which has a grain of peculiar evenness and hardness. It is worked plankwise to a surface parallel with the grain, and not across it. A design is drawn by the artist, to whom the whole credit of the production generally belongs, with a brush on thin paper, which is then pasted face downwards on the block. The engraver, who is very rarely the designer, then cuts the otitlines into the block with a knife, afterwards removing the superfluous wood with gouges and chisels. Great skill is shown in this operation, which achieves perhaps the finest facsimile reproduction of drawings ever known withotit the aid of photographic processes. A peculiai. but highly artistic device is that of gradually rounding off the surfaces where necessary, in order to obtain in printing a soft and graduated mass of color which does not terminate too abruptly. In printing with colors a separate block is made in this manner for each tint, the first containing as a rule the mere lines of the composition, and the others providing for the masses of tint to be applied. In all printing the paper is laid on the upper surface of the block, and the impression rubbed off with a circular pad, composed of twisted cord within a covering of paper cloth and bamboo-leaf, and called the baren. In color-printing, the colors, which are much the same as those in use in Europe, are mixed, with rice-paste as a medium, on the block for each operation, and the power of regulating the result given by this custom to an intelligent craftsman (who, again, is neither the artist nor the engraver) was productive in the best period of very beautiful and artistic effects, such as could never have been obtained by any mechanical device. A wonderfully accurate register, or successive superposition of each block, is got mainly by the skill of the printer, who is assisted only by a mark defining one corner and another mark showing the opposite side limit.
The origins of this method of color-printing are obscure. It has been practised to some extent in China and Korea, but there is no evidence of its antiquity in these countries. It appears to be one of the few indigenous arts of Japan. But before accepting this conclusion as final, one must not lose sight of the fact that the so-called chiaroscuro engraving was at the height of its use in Italy at the same time that embassies from thc Christians in Japan visited Rome, and that it is thus possiblc that the suggestion at least may have been derived from Europe. The fact that no traces of it have been discovered in Japan would be easily accounted for, when it is remembered that the examples taken home would almost certainly have been religious pictures, would have been preserved in well-known and accessible places, and would thus have been entirely destroyed in the terrible and minute extermination of Christianity by Hideyoshi at the beginning of the 17th century. Japanese tradition ascribes the invention of color-printing to Idzumiya GonshirO, who, about the end of the i7th century, first made use of a second block to apply a tint of red (beni) to his prints. Sir Ernest Satow states more definitely that Sakakibara attributes its origin to the year 1695, when portraits of the actor Ichikawa Danjiuro, colored by this process, were sold in the streets of Yedo for five cash apiece. The credit of the invention is also given to Toni Kiyonobu, who worked at about this time, and, indeed, is said to have made the prints above mentioned. But authentic examples of his work now remaining, printed in three colors, seem to show a technique too complete for an origin quite so recent. However, he is the first artist of importance to have produced the broadsheets for many years chiefly portraits of notable actors, historical characters and famous courtesanswhich are the leading and characteristic use to which the art was applied. Pupils, the chief of whom were Kiyomasa, Kiyotsume, Kiyomitsu, Kiyonaga and Kiyomine, carried on his tradition until the end of the 18th century, the three earlier using but few colors, while the works of the two last named show a technical mastery of all the capabilities of the process.
The next artist of importance is Suzuki Harunobu (worked c. 1760 1780), to whom the Japanese sometimes ascribe the invention of the process, probably on the grounds of an improvement in his technique, and the fact that he seems to have been one of the first of the colorprint makers to attain great popularity. Katsukawa Shunsho (d- 1792) must next be mentioned, not only for the beauty of his own work, but because he was the first master of Hokusai; then Yeishi (worked c. 178 11800), the founder of the Hosoda school; Utamaro (1754-1806), whose prints of beautiful women were collected by Dutchmen while he was still alive, and have had in our own day a vogue greater, perhaps, than those of any other of his fellows; and Toyokuni I. (1768-1825), who especially devoted himself to broadsheet portraits of actors and dramatic scenes. The greatest of all the artists of the popular school was, however, Hokusai (176o1849). His most famous series of broadsheets is the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (1823-1829), which, in spite of the conventional title, includes at least forty-six. His work is catalogued in detail by E. de Goncourt. At the beginning of the 19th century the process was technically at its greatest height, and in the hands of the great landscape artist, Hiroshige I., as well as the pupils of Toyokuni I.Kunisada and Kuniyoshiand those of Hokusai, it at first kept up an excellent level. But an undue increase in the number of blocks used, combined with the inferiority of the imported colors and carelessness or loss of skill in printing, brought about a rapid decline soon after 1840. This continued until the old traditions were well-nigh exhausted, but since i88o there has been a distinct revival. The prints of the present day are cut with great skill, and the designs are excellent, though both these branches seem to lack the vigour of conception and breadth of execution of the older masters. The colors now used are almost invariably of cheap German origin, and though they have a certain prettiness ephemeral, it is to be fearedthey again can not compare with the old native productions. Among workers in this style, Yoshitoshi (d. C. 1898) was perhaps the best. Living artists in 1908 included Toshihide, Miyagawa Shuntei, Yoshiu Chikanobuone of the elder generationTomisuka Yeishu, Toshikata and Gekko. Formerly the color-print artist was of mean extraction and low social position, but he now has some recognition at the hands of the professors of more esteemed branches of art. This change is doubtless due in part to Occidental appreciation of the products of his art, which were formerly held in little honor by his own countrymen, the place assigned to them being scarcely higher than that accorded to magazine illustrations in Europe and America. But it is also largely due to his displays of unsurpassed skill in preparing xylographs for the beautiful art publications issued by the Shimbi ShOin and the Kokka company. These xylographs prove that the Japanese art-artisan of the present day was not surpassed by the greatest of his predecessors in this line. (E. F. S.; F. By.)
The history of the illustrated book in Japan may be said to begin with the Ise mono gatari, a romance first published in the 10th century, of which an edition adorned with woodcuts appeared in 1608. In the course of the 17th century many other works of the same nature were issued, including some in which the cuts were roughly colored by hand; but the execution of these is not as good as contemporary European work. The date of the first use of color-printing in Japanese book illus- fi ok Ill tration is uncertain. Ip 1667 a collection of designs for trtion. US kimono (garments) appeared, in which inks of several colors were made use of; but these were only employed in turn for single printings, and in no case were two of them used on the same print. It is certain, however, that the mere use of colored inks must soon have suggested the combination of two or more of them, and it is probable that examples of this will be discovered much earlier in date than those known at present.
About the year 1680 Hishigawa Moronobu achieved a great popularity for woodcut illustration, and laid the foundations of the splendid school which followed. The names of the engravers who cut his designs are not known, and in fact the reputation of these craftsmen is curiously subordinated to that of the designers in all Japanese work of the kind. With Moronobu must be associated Okumura Masanobu, a little later perhaps in date, whose work is also of considerable value. During the ensuing thirty years numerous illustrated books appeared, including the earliest yet known which are illustrated by color-printing. Nishikawa Sukenobu (167 I 175 1) illustrated a very large number of books, many of which were not published until after his death. With him may be associated Ichi Shumboku (d. C. 1773) and Tsukioka Tange (1717-1786), the latter of whom made the drawings for many of the meish or guidebooks which form so interesting and distinctive a branch of Japanese illustration. The work of Tachibana Morikuni (167o--I748) is also of great importance. The books illustrated by the men of this school were mainly collections of useful information, guide-books, romances and historical and religious compilations; but much of the best of their work is to be found in the collections of pictorial designs, very often taken from Chinese sources, which were produced for the use of workers in lacquer, pottery and similar crafts. These, both for design and for skill of cutting, hold their own with the best work of European wood-cutting of any period. The development of the art of Japanese color-printing naturally had its effect on book-illustration, and the later years of the I8th and the earlier of the 19th century saw a vast increase of books illustrated by this process. The subjects also now include a new series of landscapes and views drawn as seen by the designers, and not reproductions of the work of other men; and also sketches of scenes and characters of every-day life and of the folk-lore in which Japan is so rich. Among the artists of this period, as of all others in Japan, Hokusai (1760-1849) is absolutely pre-eminent. His greatest production in book-illustration was the Mangwa, a collection of sketches which cover the whole ground of Japanese life and legend, art and handicraft. It consists of fifteen volumes, which appeared at intervals from 1812 to 1875, twelve being published during his life, and the others from material left by him. Among his many other works may be mentioned the Azuma Asobi (Walks round Yedo, 1799). Of his pupils, Hokkei (1780f 856) and Kyosai were the greatest. Most of the artists, whose main work was the designing of broadsheets, produced elaborately illustrated books; and this series includes specimens of printing in colors from wood-blocks, which for technique have never been excelled. Among them should be mentioned Shunsho (Seiro bijin awase kagam-i, 1776); Utamaro (Seir nenjyua gyoji, 1804); Toyokuni I. (Yakusha kono teikishfwa, I80I); as well as Harunobu Yeishi (Onna sanjyu rokkasen, 1798), Kitao Masanobu and Tachibana Minko, each of whom produced beautiful work of the same nature. In the period next following, the chief artists were Keisai Yeisen (Keisai so-gwa, 1832) and Kikuchi VOsai (Zenken kojitsu), the latter of whom ranks perhaps as highly as any of the artists who confined their work to black and white. The books produced in the period1880-1908in Japan are still of high technical excellence. The colors are, unfortunately, of cheap European manufacture; and the design, although quite characteristic and often. beautiful, is as a rule.merely pretty. The engraving is as good as ever. Among the book-illustrators of our own generation must be again mentioned Kyosai; KOno Bairei (d. 1895), whose books of birdsthe Bairei hyakucho gwafu (1881 and 1884) and Yaka-notsuki (1889)are unequalled of their kind; Imao Keinen, who also issued a beautiful set of illustrations of birds and flowers (Keinen kwacho gwafu), engraved by Tanaka Jirokichi and printed by Miki NisaburO (1891-1892); and Watanabe Seitei, whose studies of similar subjects have appeared in Seitei kwac/jO gwafu (1890-1891) and the Bijutsu sekai (1894), engraved by Goto Tokujiro. Mention should also be made of several charming series of fairy tales, of which that published in English by the Kobunsha in Tokyo in 1885 is perhaps the best. In their adaptation of modern processes of illustration the Japanese are entirely abreast of Western nations, the chrornolithographs and other reproductions in the Kokka, a periodical record of Japanese works of art (begun in 1889), in the superb albums of the Shimbi S/join, and in the publications of Ogawa being of quite a high order of merit. CE. F. S.; F. Br.)
Sculpture and Carving.Sculpture in wood and metal is ol ancient date in Japan. Its antiquity is not, indeed, comparable to that of ancient Egypt or Greece, but no country besides Japan can boast a living and highly developed art that has numbered upwards of twelve centuries of unbroken and brilliant productiveness. Setting aside rude prehistoric essays in stone and metal, which have special interest for the antiquary, we have examples of sculpture in wood and metal, magnificent in conception and technique, dating from the earliest periods of what we may term historical Japan; that is, from near the beginning of the great Buddhist propaganda under the emperor Kimmei (540571) and the princely hierarch, ShOtoku Taishi (573621). Stone has never been in favor in Japan as a material for the higher expression of the sculptors art.
The first historical period of glyptic art in Japan reaches from the end of the 6th to the end of the 12th century, culminating in, the work of the great Nara sculptors, Unkei and Period, his pupil Kwaikei. Happily, there are still preserved in the great temples of Japan, chiefly in the ancient capital of Nara, many noble relics of this period.
The place of honor may perhaps be conferred upon sculptures in wood, representing the Indian Buddhists, Asangha and Vasabandhu, preserved in the Golden Hall of Kofuku-ji, Nara. These are attributed to a Kamakura sculptor of the 8th or 9th century, and in simple and realistic dignity of pose and grand lines of composition are worthy of comparison with the works of ancient Greece. With these may be named the demon lantern-bearers, so perfect in the grotesque treatment of the diabolical heads and the accurate anatomical forms of the sturdy body and limbs; the colossal temple guardians of the great gate of Tdai-ji, by Unkei and Kwaikei (11th century), somewhat conventionalized, but still bearing evidence of direct study from nature, and inspired with intense energy of action; and the smaller but more accurately modelled temple guardians in the Saikondo, Nara, which almost compare with the fighting gladiator in their realization of menacing strength. The goddess of art of Akishino-dera, Nara, attributed to the 8th century, is the most graceful and least conventional of female sculptures in Japan, but infinitely remote from the feminine conception of the Greeks. The wooden portrait of Vimalakirtti, attributed to Unkei, at Kofuku-ji, has some of the qualities of the images of the two Indian Buddhists. The sculptures attributed to Jocho, the founder of the Nara school, although powerful in pose and masterly in execution, lack the truth of observation seen in some of the earlier and later masterpieces.
The most perfect of the ancient bronzes is the great image of Bhaicha-djyaguru in the temple of Yakushi-ji, Nara, attributed to a Korean monk of the 7th century, named Giflgi. The bronze image of the same divinity at Horyu-ji, said to have been cast at the beginning of the 7th century by Tori Busshi, the grandson of a Chinese immigrant, is of good technical quality, but much inferior in design to the former. The colossal Nara Daibutsu (Vairocana) at Tdai-ji, cast in 749 by a workman of Korean descent, is the largest of the great bronzes in Japan, but ranks far below the Yakushi-ji image in artistic qualities. The present head, however, isa later substitute f or the original, which was destroyed by fire.
The great Nara school of sculpture in wood was founded in the early part of the 11th century by a sculptor of Imperial descent named JOchO, who is said to have modelled his style upon that of the Chinese wood-carvers of the Tang dynasty; his traditions were maintained by descendants and followers down to the beginning of the 13th century. All the artists of this period were men of aristocratic rank and origin, and were held distinct from the carpenterarchitects of the imposing temples which were to contain their works.
Sacred images were not the only specimens of glyptic art produced in these six centuries; reliquaries, bells, vases, incenseburners, candlesticks, lanterns, decorated arms and armour, and many other objects, showing no less mastery of design and execution, have reached us. Gold and silver had been applied to the adornment of helmets and breastplates from the 7th century, but it was in the 12th century that the decoration reached the high degree of elaboration shown us in the armour of the Japanese Bayard, Yoshitsune, which is still preserved at Kasuga, Nara.
Wooden masks employed in the ancient theatrical performances were made from the 7th century, and offer a distinct and often grotesque phase of wood-carving. Several families of experts have been associated with this class of sculpture, and their designs have been carefully preserved and imitated down to the present day.
The second period in Japanese glyptic art extends from the beginning of the 13th to the early part of the 17th century. The great struggle between the Taira and Minamoto clans had ended, but the militant spirit was still strong, and brought work for the artists who made and ornamented arms and armour.
The MiyOchins, a line that claimed ancestry from the 7th century, were at the head of their calling, and their work in iron breastplates and helmets, chiefly in repouss, is still un- ~ d rivalled. It was not until the latter half of the I 5th ~ century that there came into vogue the elaborate decoration of the sword, a fashion that was to last four hundred years.
The metal guard (Isuba), made of ironorpreciousalloy,wasadorned with engraved designs, often inlaid with gold and silver. The frec end of the hilt was crowned with a metallic cap or pommel (kashira), the other extremity next the tsuba was embraced by an oval ring (fuchi), and in the middle was affixed on each side a special ornament called the menuki, all adapted in material and workmanship to harmonize with the guard. The kodzuka, or handle of a little knife implanted into the sheath of the short sword or dagger, was, also of metal and engraved with like care. The founder of the first great line of tsuba and menuki artists was Got YjO (1440-1512), a friend of the painter Kano Motonobu, whose designs he adopted. Many families of sword artists sprang up at a later period, furnishing treasures for the collector even down to the present day, and their labors reached a level of technical mastery and refined artistic judgment almost without parallel in the art industries of Europe. Buddhist sculpture was by no means neglected during this period, but there are few works that call for special notice. The most noteworthy effort was the casting by Ono Goroymon in 1252 of the well-known bronze image, the Kamakura Daibutsu.
The third period includes the 17th, 18th and the greater part of the 19th centuries. It was the era of the artisan artist. The makers of Buddhist images and of sword ornaments Thhd carried on their work with undiminished industry Pesiod. and success, and some famous schools of the latter arose during this period. The Buddhist sculptors, however, tended to grow more conventional and the metal-workers more naturalistic as the 18th century began to wane. It was in connection with architecture that the great artisan movement began. The initiator was Hidari Jingoro (1594-1652), at first a simple carpenter, afterwards one of the most famous sculptors in the land of great artists. The gorgeous decoration of the mausoleum of Iyeyasu at NikkO, and of the gateway of the Nishi Hongwan temple at KiOto, are the most striking instances of his handiwork or direction.
The pillars, architraves, ceilings, panels, and almost every available part of the structure, are covered with arabesques and sculptured figures of dragons, lions, tigers, birds, flowers, and even pictorial compositions with landscapes and figures, deeply carved in solid or open workthe wood sometimes plain, sometimes overlaid with pigment and gilding, as in the panelled ceiling of the chapel of Iyeyasu in Tokyo. The designs for these decorations, like those of the sword ornaments, were adopted from the great schools of painting, but the invention of the sculptor was by no means idle. From this time the temple carvers, although still attached to the carpenters guild, took a place apart from the rest of their craft, and the genius of Hidari Jingoro secured for one important section of the artisan world a recognition like that which Hishigawa Moronobu, the painter and book-illustrator, afterwards won I or another.
A little later arose another art industry, also emanating from the masses. The use of tobacco, which became prevalent in the 17th century, necessitated the pouch. In order to suspend this from the girdle there was employed a kind of button or toggle the netsuke. The metallic bowl and mouthpiece of the pipe offered a tempting surface for embellishment, as well as the clasp of the pouch; and the netsuke, being made of wood, ivory or other material susceptible of carving, also gave occasion for art and ingenuity.
The engravers of pipes, pouch clasps, and the metallic discs (kagami-buta) attached to certain netsuke, sprang from the same class and were not less original. They worked, too, with a skill little inferior to that of the GotOs, Naras, and other aristocratic sculptors of sword ornaments, and often with a refinement which their relative disadvantages in education and associations render especially remarkable. The netsuke and the pipe, with all that pertained to it, were for the commoners what the sword-hilt and guard were for the gentry. Neither class cared to bestow jewels upon their persons, but neither spared thought or expense in the embellishment of the object they most loved. The final manifestation of popular glyptic art was the okimono, an ornament pure and simple, in which utility was altogether seco.ndary in intention to decorative effect. Its manufacture as a special branch of art work dates from the rise of the naturalistic school of painting and the great expansion of the popular school under the Katsugawa, but the okimono formed an occasional amusement of the older glyptic artists. Some of the most exquisite and most ingenious of these earlier productions, such as the magnificent iron eagle in the south Kensington Museum, the wonderful articulated models of crayfish, dragons, serpents, birds, that are found in many European collections, came from the studios of the MiyOchins; but these were the play of giants, and were not made as articles of commerce. The new artisan makers of the okimono struck out a line for themselves, one influenced more by the naturalistic and popular schools than by the classical art, and the quails of Kamejo, the tortoises of Seimin, the dragons of Tun and TOryu, and in recent years the falcons and the peacocks of Suzuki Chokichi, are the joy of the European collector. The best of these are exquisite in workmanship, graceful in design, often strikingly original in conception, and usually naturalistic in ideal. They constitute a phase of art in which Japan has few rivals.
The present generation is more systematically commercial in its glyptic produce than any previous age. Millions of commercial articles in metal-work, wood and ivory flood the European markets, and may be bought in any street in Europe at a small price, but they offer a variety of design and an excellence of workmanship which place them almost beyond Western competition. Above all this, however, the Japanese sculptor is a force in art. He is nearly as thorough as his forefathers, and maintains the same love of all things beautiful; and if he cannot show any epoch-making novelty, he is at any rate doing his best to support unsurpassed the decorative traditions of the past.
History has been eminently careful to preserve the names and records of the men who chiselled sword furniture. The Sword- sword being regarded as the soul of the samurai, making every one who contributed to its manufacture, Families, whether as forger of the blade or sculptor of the furniture, was held in high repute. The Goto family worked steadily during 14 generations, and its I9th century representativeGotO Ichijwill always be remembered as one of the familys greatest experts. But there were many others whose productions fully equalled and often excelled the best efforts of the GotO. The following list gives the names and periods of the most renowned families: (It should be noted that the division by centuries indicates the time of a familys origin. In a great majority of cases the representatives of each generation worked on through succeeding centuries).
15th and ~6th Centuries.
Miyochin; Goto; Umetada; Muneta; Aoki; Soami; Nakai.
17th Century.
Kuwamura; Mizuno; Koichi; Nagayoshi; Kuninaga; Yoshishige; Katsugi; Tsuji; Muneyoshi; Tadahira; Shoami; Hosono; Yokoya; Nara; Okada; Okamoto; Kinai; Akao; Yoshioka; Hirata; Nomura; Wakabayashi; Inouye; Yasui; Chiyo; Kaneko; Uemura; Iwamoto. i8lh Century.
Gorobei; Shoemon; Kikugawa; Yasuyama; Noda; Tamagawa; Fujita; Kikuoka; Kizaemon; Hamano; Omori; Okamoto; Kashiwaya; Kusakari; Shichibei; Ito.
19th Century.
Natsuo; Ishiguro; Yanagawa; Honjo; Tana_ka; Okano; Kawarabayashi; Oda; and many masters of the Omori, Hamano and Iwamoto families, as well as the five experts, Shuraku, Temmin, RyOmin, MinjO and Minkoku. (W. AN.; F. By.)
There is a radical difference between the points of view of the Japanese and the Western connoisseur in estimating tbe Japanese merits of sculpture in metal. The quality of the Point of chiselling is the first feature to which the Japanese View. directs his attention; the decorative design is the prime object of the Occidentals attention. With very rare exceptions, the decorative motives of Japanese sword furniture were always supplied by painters. Hence it is that the Japanese connoisseur draws a clear distinction between the decorative design and its technical execution, crediting the former to the pictorial artist and the latter to the sculptor~ He detects in the stroke of a chisel and the lines of a gravin~ tool subjective beauties which appear to be hidden from th great majority of Western dilettanti. He estimates the rank of a specimen by the quality of the chisel-work. The Japanes kinzoku-shi (metal sculptor) uses thirty-six principal classes 0, chisel, each with its distinctive name, and as most of thes classes comprise from five to ten sub-varieties, his cuttinl and graving tools aggregate about two hundred and fifty.
Scarcely less important in Japanese eyes than the chiselling of the decorative design itself is the preparation of the field to which it is applied. There used to be a strict canon The Field with reference to this in former times. Namako for (fish-roe) grounds were essential for the mountings Scuiptiwed - Decoration.
of swords worn on ceremonial occasions, the ishime (stone-pitting) orjimigaki (polished) styles being considered less aristocratic.
Namako is obtained by punching the whole surfaceexcept the portion carrying the decorative designinto a texture of microscopic dots. The first makers of namako did not aim at regularity in the distribution of these dots; they were content to produce the effect of millet-seed sifted haphazard over the surface. But from the I 5th century the punching of the dots in rigidly straight lines came to be considered essential, and the difficulty involved was so great that namako-making took its place among the highest technical achievements of the sculptor. When it is remembered that the punching tool was guided solely by the hand and eye, and that three or more blows of the mallet had to be struck for every dot, some conception may be formed of the patience and accuracy needed to produce these tiny protuberances in perfectly straight lines, at exactly equal intervals and of absolutely uniform size. Namako disposed in straight parallel lines originally ranked at the head of this kind of work. But a new kind was introduced in the 16th century. It was obtained by punching the dots in intersecting lines, so arranged that the dots fell uniformly into diamond-shaped groups of five each. This is called go-no-me-namako, because of its resemblance to the disposition of chequers in the Japanese game of go. A century later, the daimyo namako was invented, in which lines of dots alternated with lines of polished ground. Is/time may be briefly described as diapering. There is scarcely any limit to the ingenuity and skill of the Japanese expert in diapering a metal surface. It is not possible to enumerate here even the principal styles of ishime, but mention may be made of the zara-maki (broad-cast), in which the surface is finely but irregularly pitted after the manner of the face of a stone; the nashi-ji (pear-ground), in which we have a surface like the rind of a pear; the hari-ishime (needle ishime), where the indentations are so minute that they seem to have been made with the point of a needle; the gama-ishime, which is intended to imitate the skin of a toad; the tsuya-ishime, produced with a chisel sharpened so that its traces have a lustrous appearance; the ore-liuchi (broken-tool), a peculiar kind obtained with a jagged tool; and the gozam, which resembles the plaited surface of a fine straw mat.
Great importance has always been attached by Japanese experts to the patina of metal used for artistic chiselling. It was mainly for the sake of their patina that value attached to the remarkable alloys shakudo (3 parts of gold to 97 of a Ba. copper) and shibuichi (I part of silver to 3 of copper). Neither metal, when it emerges from the furnace, has any beauty, shakudo being simply dark-colored copper and shibuichi pale gun-metal. But after proper treatmenti the former develops a glossy black patina with violet sheen, and the latter shows beautiful shades of grey with silvery lustre. Both these compounds afford delicate, unobtrusive and effective grounds for inlaying with gold, silver and other metals, as well as for sculpture, whether incised or in relief. Copper, too, by patina-producing treatment, is made to show not merely a rich golden sheen with pleasing limpidity, but also red of various hues, from deep coral to light vermilion, several shades of grey, and browns of numerous tones from dead-leaf to chocolate. Even greater value has always been set upon the patina of iron, and many secret recipes were preserved in artist families for producing the fine, satin-like texture so much admired by all connoisseurs.
In Japan, as in Europe, three varieties of relief carving are distinguishedalto (taka-bori), mezzo (chniku-bori) and basso (usunikubori). In the opinion of the Japanese expert, these styles Methods of hold the same respective rank as that occupied by the Chiseilin three kinds of ideographic script in caligraphy. High relief carving corresponds to the kaisho, or most classical form of writing; medium relief to the gyosho, or semi-cursive style; and low relief to the sOsho or grass character. With regard to incised chiselling, the commonest form is kebori (hair-carving), which may be called engraving, the lines being of uniform thickness and depth. Very beautiful results are obtained by the kebori method, but incomparably the finest work in the incised class is that known as kcjta-kiri-bors. In this kind of chiselling the Japanese artist can claim to be unique as well as unrivalled. Evidently the idea of the great Yokoya experts, the originators of the style, was to break away from the somewhat formal monotony of ordinary engraving, where each line performs exactly the same function, and to convert the chisel into an artists i It is first boiled in a lye obtained by lixiviating wood ashes; it is next polished with charcoal powder; then immersed in plum vinegar and salt; then washed with weak lye and placed in a, tub of water to remove all traces of alkali, the final step being to digest in a boiling solution of copper sulphate, verdigris and water.
brush instead of using it as a common cutting tool. They succeeded admirably. - In the kata-kiri-bori every line has its proper value in the pictorial design, and strength and directness become cardinal elements in the strokes of the burin just as they do in the brushwork of the picture-painter. The same fundamental rule applied, too, whether the field of the decoration was silk, paper or metal. The artists tool, be it brush or burin. must perform its task by one effort- There must be no appearance of subsequent deepening, or extending, or - re-cutting or finishing. Kata-kiri-bori by a great expert is a delight. One is lost in astonishment at the nervous yet perfectly regulated force and the unerring fidelity of every trace of the chisel. Another variety of carving much affected by artists of the 17th century, and now largely used, is called shishi-ai-bori or niku-ai-bori. In this style the surface of the design is not raised above the general plane of the field, but an effect of projection is obtained either by recessing the whole space immediately surrounding the design, or by enclosing the latter in a scarped frame. Yet another and very favorite method, giving beautiful results, is to model the design on both faces of the metal so as to give a sculpture in the round. The fashion is always accompanied by chiselling a jour (sukashi-bori), so that the sculptured portions stand out in their entirety.
Inlaying with gold or silver was among the early forms of decoration in Japan. The skill developed in modern times is at inia in least equal to anything which the past can show, and ~ the results produced are much more imposing. There are two principal kinds of inlaying: the first called hon-zogan (true inlaying), the second nunome-zogan (linen-mesh inlaying). As to the former, the Japanese method does not differ from that seen in the beautiful iron censers and vases inlaid with gold which the Chinese produced from the Snen-tl era (1426-1436). In the surface of the metal the workman cuts grooves wider at the base than at the top, and then hammers into them gold or silver wire. Such a process presents no remarkable features, except that it has been carried by the Japanese to an extraordinary degree of elaborateness. The nunome-zOgan is more interesting. Suppose, for example, that the artist desires to produce an inlaid diaper. His first business is to chisel the surface in lines forming the basic pattern of the design. Thus, for a diamond-petal diaper the chisel is carried across the face of the metal horizontally, tracing a number of parallel bands divided at fixed intervals by ribs which are obtained by merely straightening the chisel and striking it a heavy blow. The same process is then repeated in another direction, so that the new bands cross the old at an angle adapted to the nature of the design. Several independent chisellings may be necessary before the lines of the (liaper emerge clearly, but throughout the whole operation no measurement of any kind is taken, the artist being guided entirely by his hand and eye. The metal is then heated, not to redness, but sufficiently to develop a certain degree of softness, and the workman, taking a very thin sheet of gold (or silver), hammers portions of it into the salient points of the design. In ordinary cases this is the sixth process. The seventh is to hammer gold into the outlines of the diaper; the eighth, to hammer it into the pattern filling the spaces between the lines, and the ninth and tenth to complete the details. Of course the more intricate the design the more numerous the processes. It is scarcely possible to imagine a higher effort of hand and eve than this nunome-zOgan displays, for while intricacy and elaborateness are carried to the very extreme, absolute mechanical accuracy is obtained. Sometimes in the same design we see gold of three different hues, obtained by varying the alloy. A third kind of inlaying, peculiar to Japan, is sumi-zogan (ink-inlaying), so called because the inlaid design gives the impression of having been painted with Indian ink beneath the transparent surface of the metal. The difference between this process and ordinary inlaying is that for sumi-zogan the design to be inlaid is fully chiselled out of an independent block of metal with sides sloping so as to be broader at the base than at the top. The object which is to receive the decoration is then channelled in dimensions corresponding to those of the design block, and the latter having been fixed in the channels, the surface is ground and polished until an intimate union is obtained between the inlaid design and the metal forming its field. Very beautiful effects are thus produced, for the design seems to have grown up to the surface of the metal field rather than to have been planted in it. Shibuichi inlaid with shakudo used to be the commonest combination of metals in this class of decoration, and the objects usually depicted were bamboos, crows, wild-fowl under the moon, peony sprays and so forth.
A variety of decoration much practised by early experts, and carried to a high degree of excellence in modern times, is mokume-js ~ d- (wood-grainecl ground). The process in this case is to ained take a thin plate of metal and beat it into another plate Grounds of similar metal, so that the two, though welded together, retain their separate forms. The mass, while still hot, is coated ~-ith hena-tsuchi (a kind of marl) and rolled in straw ash, in which state it is roasted over a charcoal fire raised to glowing heat with the bellows. The clay having been removed, another plate of the same metal is beaten in, and the same process is repeated. This is done several times, the number depending on the quality of graining that the expert desires to produce. The manifold plate is then heavily punched from one side, so that the opposite face protrudes in broken blisters, which are then hammered down until each becomes a centre of wave propagation. In fine work the apex of the blister is ground off before the linal hammering. Iron was the metal used exclusively for work of this kind down to the 16th century, but various metals began thenceforth to be combined. Perhaps the choicest variety is gold graining in a shakudo field. By repeated hammering and polishing the expert obtains such control of the wood-grain pattern that its sinuosities and eddies seem to have developed symmetry without losing anything of their fantastic grace. There are other methods of producing mokume-ji.
It has been frequently asserted by Western critics that the year (1876) which witnessed the abolition of sword-wearing in Japan, witnessed also the end of her artistic metal- Moderna,,d work. That is a great mistake. The art has merely Ancient developed new phases in modern times. Not only are Skill.
its masters as skilled now as they were in the days of the Got, the Nara, the Yokoya and the Yanagawa celebrities, but also their productions must be called greater in many respects and more interesting than those of their renowned predecessors. They no longer devote themselves to the manufacture of sword ornaments, but work rather at vases, censers, statuettes, plaques, boxes and other objects of a serviceable or ornamental nature. All the processes described above are practised by them with full success, and they have added others quite as remarkable.
Of these, one of the most interesting s called kiribame (insertion). The decorative design having been completely chiselled in the round, is then fixed in a field of a different metal, in which a design of exactly similar outline has been cut out. The result is that the picture has no blank reverse. For example, on the surface of a shibuichi box-lid we see the backs of a flock of geese chiselled in silver, and when the lid is opened, their breasts and the under-sides of their pinions appear. The difficulty of such work is plain. Microscopic accuracy has to be attained in cutting out the space for the insertion of the design, and while the latter must be soldered firmly in its place, not the slightest trace of solder or the least sign of junction must be discernible between the metal of the inserted picture and that of the field in which it is inserted. Suzuki Gensuke is the inventor of this method. He belongs to a class of experts called uchi,nono-shi (hammerers) who perform preparatory work for glyptic artists in metal. The skill of these men is often wonderful. Using the hammer only, some of them can beat out an intricate shape as truly and delicately as a sculptor could carve it with his chisels. Ohori Masatoshi, an uchimono-shi of Aizu (d. 1897), made a silver cake-box in the form of a sixteen-petalled chrysanthemum. The shapes of the body and lid corresponded so intimately that, whereas the lid could be slipped on easily and smoothly without any attempt to adjust its curves to those of the body, it always fitted so closely that the box could be lifted by grasping the lid only. Another feat of his was to apply a lining of silver to a shakudo box by shaping and hammering only, the fit being so perfect that the lining clung like paper to every part of the box. Suzuki Gensuke and Hirata SOkO are scarcely less expert. The latter once exhibited inTkyO a silver game-cock with soft plumage and surface modelling of the most delicate character. It had been made by means of the hammer only. Suzukis kiribame process is not to be confounded with the kiribame-zagan (inserted inlaying) of Toyoda KokO, also a modern artist. The gist of the latter method is that a design chiselled d jour has its outlines veneered with other metal which serves to emphasize them. Thus, having pierced a spray of flowers in a thin sheet of shibuichi, the artist fits a slender rim of gold, silver or shakudo to the petals, leaves and stalks, so that an effect is produced of transparent blossoms outlined in gold, silver or purple. Another modern achievementalso due to Suzuki Gensukeis maze-gane (mixed metals). It is a singular conception, and the results obtained depend largely on chance. Shibuichi and shakudo are melted separately, and when they have cooled just enough not to mingle too intimately, they are Cast into a bar which is subsequently beaten flat. The plate thus obtained shows accidental clouding, or massing of dark tones, and these patches are taken as the basis of a pictorial design to which final character is given by inlaying with gold and silver, and by kata-kiri sculpture. Such pictures partake largely of the impressionist character, but they attain much beauty in the hands of the Japanese artist with his extensive repertoire of suggestive symbols. A procesi resembling maze-gane, but less fortuitous, is shibuichi-dshi (combined shibuichi), which involves beating together two kinds of shibuichi and then adding a third variety, after which the details of the picture are I worked in as in the case of maze-gane. The charm of these methods is that certain parts of the decorative design seem to float, not on the surface of the metal, but actually within it, an admirable effect of depth and atmosphere being thus produced. Mention must also be made of an extraordinarily elaborate and troublesome process invented by Kajinia Ippu, a great artist of the present day. It is called togi-dashi-zogan (ground-out inlaying). In this exquisite and ingenious kind of work the design appears to be growing up from the depths of the metal, and a delightful impression of atmosphere and water is obtained. All these processes, as well as that of repouss, in which the Japanese have excelled from a remote period, are now practised with the greatest skill in Tokyo, KiOto, Osaka and Kanazawa. At the art exhibitions held twice a year in the principal cities there may be seen specimens of statuettes, alcove ornaments, and household utensils which show that the Japanese worker in metals stands more indisputably than ever at the head of the worlds artists in that field. The Occident does not yet appear to have full realized the existence of such talent in Japan; partly perhaps because its displays in former times were limited chiefly to swordfurniture, possessing little interest for the average European or American; and partly because the Japanese have not yet learned to adapt their skill to foreign requirements. They confine themselves at present to decorating plaques, boxes and cases for cigars or cigarettes, and an occasional tea or coffee service; but the whole domain of salvers, dessert-services, race-cups and so on remains virtually unexplored. Only within the past few years have stores been established in the foreign settlements for the sale of silver utensils, and already the workmanship on these objects displays palpable signs of the deterioration which all branches of Japanese art have undergone in the attempt to cater for foreign taste. In a general sense the European or American connoisseur is much less exacting than the Japanese. Broad effects of richness and splendour captivate the former, whereas the latter looks for delicacy of finish, accuracy of detail and, above all, evidences of artistic competence. It is nothing to a Japanese that a vase should be covered with profuse decoration of flowers and foliage: he requires that every blossom and every leaf shall be instinct with vitality, and the comparative costliness of fine workmanship does not influence his choice. But if the Japanese sculptor adopted such standards in working for foreign patrons, his market would be reduced to very narrow dimensions. He therefore adapts himself to his circumstances, and, using the mould rather than the chisel, produces specimens which show tawdry handsomeness and are attractively cheap. It must be admitted, however, that even though foreign appreciative faculty were sufficiently educated, the Japanese artist in metals would still labor under the great difficulty of devising shapes to take the place of those which Europe and America have learned to consider classical.
Bronze is called by the Japanese kara-kane, a term signifying Chinese metal and showing clearly the source from which knowledge of the alloy was obtained. It is a ~ copper-lead-tin compound, the proportions of its constituents varying from 72 to 88% of copper, from 4
to 20% of lead and from 2 to 8% of tin. There are also present small quantities of arsenic and antimony, and zinc is found generally as a mere trace, but sometimes reaching to 6%. Gold is supposed to have found a place in ancient bronzes, but its presence has never been detected by analysis, and of silver not more than 2% seems to have been admitted at any time. Mr W. Gowland has shown that, whatever may have been the practice of Japanese bronze makers in ancient and medieval eras, their successors in later days deliberately introduced arsenic and antimony into the compound in order to harden the bronze without impairing its fusibility, so that it might take a sharper impression of the mould. Japanese bronze is well suited for castings, not only because of its low melting-point, great fluidity and capacity for taking sharp impressions, but also because it has a particularly smooth surface and readily develops a fine patina. One variety deserves special mention. It is a golden yellow bronze, called seniokuthis being the Japanese pronunciation of Suen-t, the era of the Ming dynasty of China when this compound was invented. Copper, tin, lead and zinc, mixed in various proportions by different experts, are the ingredients, and the beautiful golden hues and glossy texture of the surface are obtained by patina-producing processes, in which branch of metal-work the Japanese show altogether unique skill.
From the time when they began to cast bronze statues, Japanese experts understood how to employ a hollow, removable core round which the metal was run in a skin just thick enough for strength without waste of material; and they also understood the use of wax for modelling purposes. In ordinary circumstances, a casting thus obtained took the form of a shell wrthout any break of continuity. But for very large castings the process had to be modified. The great image of Lochana Buddha at Nara, for example, would measure 138 ft. in height were it standing erect, and its weight is about 550 tons. The colossal Amida at Kamakura has a height only 3 ft. less. It would have been scarcely possible to cast such statues in one piece in situ, or, if cast elsewhere, to transport them and elevate them on their pedestals. The plan pursued was tc build them up gradually in their places by casting segment after segment. Thus, for the Nara Dai-butsu, the mould was constructed in a series of steps ascending 12 in. at a time, until the head and neck were reached, which, of course, had to be cast in one shell, 12 ft. high.
The term parlour bronzes serves to designate objects for domestic use, as flower-vases, incense-burners and alcove ornaments. Bronze-casters began to turn their attention to these objects about the middle of the 17th century. The art of casting bronze reached its culmination in the hands of a group of great expertsSeimin, TOun, Masatune, TeijO, SOmin, Keisai, Takusai, Gido, Zenryusai and Hotokusaiwho flourished during the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th. Many brilliant specimens of these mens work survive, their general features being that the motives are naturalistic, that the quality of the metal is exceptionally fine, that in addition to beautifully clear casting obtained by highly skilled use of the cera-perduta process, the chisel was employed to impart delicacy and finish to the design, and that modelling in high relief is most successfully introduced. But it is a mistake to assert, as many have asserted, that after the era of the above ten mastersthe latest of whom, SOmin, ceased to work in 187 InO bronzes comparable with theirs were cast. Between 1875 and 1879 some of the finest bronzes ever produced in Japan were turned out by a group of experts working under the business name of Sanseisha. Started by two brothers, Oshima Katsujiro (art-name Joun) and Oshima Yasutaro (artname ShOkaku), this association secured the services of a number of skilled chisellers of sword-furniture, who had lost their occupation by the abandonment of sword-wearing. Nothing could surpass the delicacy of the works executed at the Sanseishas atelier in Tokyo, but unfortunately such productions were above the standard of the customers for whom they were intended. Foreign buyers, who alone stood in the market at that time, failed to distinguish the fine and costly bronzes of Joun, ShOkaku and their colleagues from cheap imitations which soon began to compete with them, so that ultimately the Sanseisha had to be closed. This page in the modern history of Japans bronzes needs little alteration to be true of her applied art in general. Foreign demand has shown so little discrimination that experts, finding it impossible to obtain adequate remuneration for first-class work, have been obliged to abandon the field altogether, or to lower their standard to the level of general appreciation, or by forgery to cater for the perverted taste which attaches unreasoning value to age. Joun has produced, and is thorou~hly capable of producing, bronzes at least equal to the best of Seimin s masterpieces, yet he has often been induced to put Seimins name on objects for the sake of attracting buyers who attach more value to cachet than to quality. If to the names of Joun and his brilliant pupil Ryuki we add those of Suzuki ChOkichi, Okazaki Sessei, Hasegawa KumazO, Kanaya GorosaburO and Jomi Eisuke, we have a group of modern bronze-casters who unquestionably surpass the ten experts beginning with Seimin and ending with Somin. Okazaki Sessei has successfully achieved the casting of huge panels carrying designs in high relief; and whether there is question of patina or of workmanship, Jomi Eisuke has never been surpassed.
Occidental influence has been felt, of course, in the field of modern bronze-casting. At a school of art officially established in Tokyo in 1873 under the direction of Italian teachersa school which owed its signal failure partly to the incompetence and intemperate behaviour of some of its foreign professors, and partly to a strong renaissance of pure Japanese classicismone of the few accomplishments successfully taught was that of modelling in plaster and chiselling in marble after Occidental methods. Marble statues are out of place in the wooden buildings as well as in the parks of Japan, and even plaster busts or groups, though less incongruous perhaps. have not yet found favor. Hence the skill undoubtedly possessed by several graduates of the defunct art school has to be devoted chiefly to a subordinate purpose, namely, the fashioning of models for metal-casters. To this combination of modellers in European style and metal-workers of such force as Suzuki and Okazaki, Japan owes various memorial bronzes and effigies which are gradually finding a place in her parks, her museums, her shrines or her private houses. There is here little departure from the well-trodden paths of Europe. Studies in drapery, prancing steeds, ideal poses, heads with fragments of torsos attached (in extreme violation of true art), crouching beasts of preyall the stereotyped styles are reproduced. The imitation is excellent.
Among the artists of early times it is often difficult to distinguish between the carver of wood and the caster of bronze. The latter sometimes made his own models in wax, carving In sometimes chiselled them in wood, and sometimes had Wood and recourse to a specialist in wood-carving. The group Ivory.
of splendid sculptors in wood that graced the 11th, 12th and I3th centuries left names never to be forgotten, but undoubtedly many other artists of scarcely less force regarded bronze-casting as their principal business. Thus the story of wood-carving is very difficult to trace. Even in the field of architectural decoration for interiors, tradition tells us scarcely anything about the masters who carved such magnificent works as those seen in the KiOto temples, the Tokugawa mausolea, and some of the old castles. There are, however, no modern developments of such work to be noted. The ability of former times exists and is exercised in the old way, though the field for its employment has been greatly narrowed.
When Japanese sculpture in wood or ivory is spoken of, the first idea that presents itself is connected with the netsuke, which, of all the art objects found in Japan, is perhaps the most Netsuke essentially Japanese. If Japan had given us nothing Carvers. but the netsuke, we should still have no difficulty in differentiating the bright versatility of her national genius from the comparatively sombre, mechanic and unimaginatrve temperament of the Chinese. But the netsuke may now be said to be a thing of the past. The inro (medicine-box), which it mainly served to fix in the girdle, has been driven out of fashion by the new civilization imported from the West, and artists who would have carved netsuke in former times now devote their chisels to statuettes and alcove ornaments. It is not to be inferred, however, though it is a favorite assertion of collectors, that no good netsuke have been made in modern times. That theory is based upon the fact that after the opening of the country to foreign intercourse in 1857, hundreds of inferior specimens of netsuke were chiselled by inexpert hands, purchased wholesale by treaty-port merchants, and sent to New York, London and Paris, where, though they brought profit to the exporter, they also disgusted the connoisseur and soon earned discredit for their whole class. But in fact the glyptic artists of Tokyo, Osaka and KiOto, though they now devote their chisels chiefly to works of more importance than the netsuke, are in no sense inferior to their predecessors of feudal days, and many beautiful netsuke bearing their signatures are in existence. As for the modern ivory statuette or alcove ornament, of which great numbers are now carved for the foreign market, it certainly stands on a plane much higher than the netsuke, since anatomical defects which escape notice in the latter owing to its diminutive size, become obtrusive in the former.
One of the most remarkable developments of figure sculpture in modern Japan was due to Matsumoto Kisaburo (1830-1869). He carved human figures with as much accuracy as though The they were destined for purposes of surgical demonstraRealistic tion. Considering that this man had neither art educaDeparture. tion nor anatomical instruction, and that he never enjoyed an opportunity of studying from a model in a studio, his achievements were remarkable. He and the craftsmen of the school he established completely refute the theory that the anatomical solecisms commonly seen in the works of Japanese sculptors are due to faulty observation. Without scientific training 01 any kind Matsumoto and his followers produced works in which the eye of science cannot detect any error. But it is impossible to admit within the circle of high-art productions these wooden figures of everyday men and women, unrelieved by any subjective element, and owing their merit entirely to the fidelity with which their contours are shaped, their muscles modelled, and their anatomical proportions preserved. They have not even the attraction of being cleanly sculptured in wood, but are covered with thinly lacquered muslin, which, though doubtless a good preservative, accentuates their puppet-like character. Nevertheless, Matsumotos figures marked an epoch in Japanese wood sculpture. Their vivid realism appealed strongly to the taste of the average foreigner. A considerable school of carvers soon began to work in the Matsumoto style, and hundreds of their pi-oductions have gone to Europe and America, finding no market in Japan.
Midway between the Matsumoto school and the pure style approved by the native taste in former times stand a number of wood-carvers headed by Takamura KOun, who The Semi- occupies in the field of sculpture much the same place ign as that held by Hashimoto Gaho in the realm of 00. painting. KOun carves figures in the round which not only display great power of chisel and breadth of style, but also tell a story not necessarily drawn from the motives of the classical school. This departure from established canons must be traced to the influence of the short-lived academy of Italian art established by the Japanese government early in the Meiji era. In the forefront of the new movement are to be found men like Yoneharu Unkai and Shinkai Taketaro; the former chiselled a figure of Jenner for the Medical Association of Japan when they celebrated the centenary of the great physician, and the latter has carved life-size effigies of two Imperial princes who lost their lives in the war with China (1894 95). The artists of the Koun school, however, do much work which appeals to emotions in general rather than to individual memories. Thus Arakawa Reiun, one of Kouns most brilliant pupils, has exhibited a figure of a swordsman in the act of driving home a furious thrust. The weapon is not shown. Reiun sculptured simply a man poised on the toes of one foot, the other foot raised, the ar-rn extended, and the body straining forward in strong yet elastic muscular effort. A more imaginative work by the same artist is a figure of a farmer who has just shot an eagle that swooped upon his grandson. The old man holds his bow still raifed. Some of the eagles feathers, blown to his side, suggest the death of the bird; at his feet lies the corpse of the little boy, and the horror, grief and anger that such a tragedy would inspire are depicted with striking realism in the farmers face. Such work has very close affinities with Occidental conceptions. The chief distinguishing feature is that the glyptic character is preserved at the expense of surface finish. The undisguised touchec of the chisel tell a story of technical force and directness which could not be suggested by perfectly smooth surfaces. To subordinate process to result is the European canon; to show the former without marring the latter is the Japanese ideal. Many of KOuns sculptures appear unfinished to eyes trained in Occidental galleries, whereas the Japanese connoisseur detects evidence of a technical feat in their seeming roughness.
Architeclure.From the evidence of ancient records it appears that before the 5th century the Japanese resided in houses of a very rude character. The sovereigns palace itself Irl was merely a wooden hut. Its pillars were thrust DWi~.S. into the ground and the whole frameworkconsisting of posts, beams, rafters, door-posts and window-frames was tied together with cords made by twisting the long fibrous stems of climbing plants. The roof was thatched, and perhaps had a gable at each end with a hole to allow the smoke of the wood fire to escape. Wooden doors swung on a kind of hook; the windows were mere holes in. the walls. Rugs of skins or rush matting were used for sitting on, and the whole - was surrounded with a palisade. In the middle of the 5th century two-storeyed houses seem to have been built, but the evidence on the subject is slender. In the 8th century, however, when the court was moved to Nara, the influence of Chinese civilization made itself felt. Architects, turners, tilemakers, decorative artists and sculptors, coming from China and from Korea, erected grand temples for the worship of Buddha enshrining images of much beauty and adorned with paintings and carvings of considerable merit. The plan of the city itself was taken from that of the Chinese metropolis. A broad central avenue led straight to the palace, and on either side of it ran four parallel streets, crossed at right angles by smaller thoroughfares. During this century the first sumptuary edict ordered that the dwellings of all high officials and opulent civilians should have tiled roofs and be colored red, the latter injunction being evidently intended to stop the use of logs carrying their bark. Tiles thenceforth became the orthodox covering for a roof, hut vermilion, being regarded as a religious color, found no favor in private dwellings. In the gth century, after the capital had been established at KiOto, the palace of the sovereigns and the mansions of ministers and nobles were built on a scale of unprecedented grandeur. It is true that all the structures of the time had the defect of a box-like appearance. Massive, towering roofs, which impart an air of stateliness even to a wooden building and yet, by their graceful curves, avoid any suggestion of ponderosity, were still confined to Buddhist edifices. The architect of private dwellings attached more importance to satin-surfaced boards and careful joinery than to any appearance of strength or solidity.
Except for the number of buildings composing it, the palace had little to distinguish it from a noblemans mansion. The latter consisted of a principal hall, where the master of the house lived, ate and slept, and of three suites of chambers, disposed on the north, the east and the west of the principal hall. In the northern suite the lady of the house dwelt, the eastern and western suites being allotted to other members of the family. Corridors joined the principal hall to the subordinate edifices, for as yet the idea had not been conceived of having more than one chamber under the same roof. The principal hall was usually 42 ft. square. Its centre was occupied by a parent chamber, 30 ft. square, around which ran an ambulatory and a veranda, each 6 ft. wide. The parent chamber and the ambulatory were ceiled, sometimes with interlacing strips of bark or broad laths, so as to produce a plaited effect sometimes with plain boards. The veranda had no ceiling. Sliding doors, a characteristic feattire of modern Japanese houses, had not yet come into use, and no means were provided for closing th~ veranda, but the ambulatory was surrounded by a wall of latticed timber or plain boards, the lower half of which could be removed altogether, whereas the upper half, suspended from hooks, could b swung upward and outward. Privacy was obtained by blinds of split bamboo, and the parent chamber was ,separated from the ambulatory by similar bamboo blinds with silk cords for raising or lowering them, or by curtains. The thick rectangular mats of uniform size which, fitting together so as to present a level unbroken surface, cover the floor of all modern Japanese houses, were not yet in use: floors were boarded, having only a limited space matted. This form of mansion underwent little modification until the 12th century, when the introduction of the Zen sect of Buddhism with its contemplative practice called for greater privacy. Interiors were then divided into smaller rooms by means of sliding doors covered with thin rice-paper, which permitted the passage of light while obstructing vision; the hanging lattices were replaced by wooden doors which could be slid along a groove so as to be removable in the daytime, and an alcove was added in the principal chamber for a sacred picture or Buddhist image to serve as an object of contemplation for a devotee while practising the rite of abstraction. Thus the main features of the Japanese dwelling-house were evolved, and little change took place subsequently, except that the brush of the painter was freely used for decorating partitions, and in aristocratic mansions unlimited care was exercised in the choice of rare woods.
The Buddhist temple underwent little change at Japanese hands except in the matter of decoration. Such as it was in Buddhist outline when first erected in accordance with Chinese Temple models, such it virtually remained, though in later A,vhitecture. times all the resources of the sculptor and the painter were employed to beautify it externally and internally.
The building, sometimes of huge dimensions, is invariably surrounded by a raised gallery, reached by a flight of steps in the centre of the approach front, the balustrade of which is a continuation of the gallery railing. This gallery is sometimes supported upon a deep system of bracketing, corbelled out from the feet of the main pillars. Within this raised gallery, which is sheltered by the oversailing eaves, there is, in the larger temples, a columned loggia passing round the two sides and the front of the building, or, in some cases, placed on the faade only. The ceilings of the loggias are generally sloping, with richly carved roof-timbers showing below at intervals; and quaintly carved braces connect the outer pillars with the main posts of the building. Some temples are to be seen in which,the ceiling of the loggia is boarded flat and decorated with large paintings of dragons in black and gold. The intercolumniation is regulated by a standard of about six or seven feet, and the general result of the treatment of columns, wall-posts, &c., is that the whole mural space, not filled in with doors or windows, is divided into regular oblong panels, which sometimes receive plaster, sometimes boarding and sometimes rich framework and carving or painted panels. Diagonal bracing or strutting is nowhere to be found, and in many cases mortises and other joints are such as very materially to weaken the timbers at their points of connection. It would seem that only the immense weight of the roofs and their heavy projections prevent a collapse of some of these structures in high winds. The principal faade of the temple is filled in one, two or three compartments with hinged doors, variously ornamented and folding outwards, sometimes in double folds. From these doorways, generally left open, the interior light is principally obtained, windows, as the term is generally understood, being rare. An elaborate cornice of wooden bracketing crowns the walls, forming one of the principal ornaments of the building. The whole disposition of pillars, posts, brackets and rafters is harmonically arranged according to some measure of the standard of length. A very important feature of the faade is the portico or porch-way, which covers the principal steps and is generally formed by producing the central portion of the main roof over the steps and supporting such projection upon isolated wooden pillars braced together near the top with horizontal ties, carved, moulded and otherwise fantastically decorated. Above these ties are the cornice brackets and beams, corresponding in general design to the cornice of the walls, and the intermediate space is filled with open carvings of dragons or other characteristic designs. The forms of roof are various, but mostly they commence in a steep slope at the top, gradually flattening towards the eaves so as to produce a slightly concave appearance, this concavity being rendered more emphatic by the tilt which is given to the eaves at the four corners. The appearance of the ends of the roof is half hip, half gable. Heavy ribs of tile-cresting with large terminals are carried along the ridge and the slope of the gable. The result of the ~hole is very picturesque, and has the advantage of looking equally satisfactory from any point of view. The interior arrangement of wall columns, horizontal beams and cornice bracketing corresponds with that on the outside. The ceiling is invariably boarded and subdivided by ribs into small rectangular coffers. Sometimes painting is introduced into these panels and lacquer and metal clasps are added to the ribs. When the temple is of very large dimensions an interior peristyle of pillars is introduced tc assist in supporting the roof, and in such cases each pillar carrim profuse bracketing corresponding to that of the cornice. Ths construction of the framework of the Japanese roof is such that thc weights all act vertically; there is no thrust on the outer walls and every available point of the interior is used as a means of support.
The floor is partly boarded and partly matted. The shrines, altars and oblatory tables are placed at the back in the centre, and there are often other secondary shrines at the sides. In temples of the best class the floor of the gallery and of the central portion of the main building from entrance to altar are richly lacquered; in those of inferior class they are merely polished by continued rubbing.
U - Conder, in the Proceedings of the Royal institute of British Architects.)
None of the magnificence of the Buddhist temple belongs to the Shinto shrine. In the case of the latter conservatism has been absolute from time immemorial. The shrines ShInt~ of Ise, which may be called the Mecca of Shinto Architecdevotees, are believed to present to-day precisely the lure.
appearance they presented in 478, when they were moved thither in obedience to a revelation from the Sun-goddess. It has been the custom to rebuild them every twentieth year, alternately on each of two sites set apart for the purpose, the features of the old edifice being reproduced in the new with scrupulous accuracy.
They are enlarged replicas of the primeval wooden hut described above, having rafters with their upper ends crossed; thatched or shingled roof; boarded floors, and logs laid on the roof-ridge at right angles for the purpose of binding the ridge and the rafters firmly together. A thatched roof is imperative in the orthodox shrine, but in modern days tiles or sheets of copper are sometimes substituted. At Ise, however, no such novelties are tolerated. The avenue of approach generally passes under a structure called toni. Originally designed as a perch for fowls which sang to the deities at daybreak, this toni subsequently came to be erroneously regarded as a gateway characteristic of the ShintO shrine. It consists of two thick trunks placed upright, their upper ends mortised into a horizontal log which projects beyond them at either side. The structure derives some grace from its extreme simplicity.
Textile Fabrics and Embroider yIn no branch of applied art does the decorative genius of Japan show more attractive results than in that of textile fabrics, and in none has there been more conspicuous progress during recent years. Her woven and embroidered stuffs have always been beautiful; but in former times few pieces of size and splendour were produced, if we except the curtains used for draping festival cars and the hangings of temples. Tapestry, as it is employed in Europe, was not thought of, nor indeed could the small hand-looms of the period be easily adapted to such work. All that has been changed, however. Arras of large dimensions, showing remarkable workmanship and grand combinations of colors, is now manufactured in KiOto, the product of years of patient toil on the part of weaver and designer alike. Kawashima of KiOto has acquired high reputation for work of this kind. He inaugurated the new departure a few years ago by copying a Gobelin, but it may safely be asserted that no Gobelin will bear comparison with the pieces now produced in Japan.
The most approved fashion of weaving is called tsuzure-ori (linked-weaving); that is to say, the cross threade are laid in with the fingers and pushed into their places with a comb by hand, very little machinery being used. The threads extend only to the outlines of each figure, and it follows that every part of the pattern has a rim of minute holes like pierced lines separating postage stamps in a sheet, the effect being that the design seems to hang suspended it1 the groundlinked into it, as the Japanese term implies.i A specimen of this nature recently manufactured by Kawashimas weavers measured 20 ft. by 13, and represented the annual festival at the Nikko mausolea. The chief shrine was shown, as were also the gate and the long flight of stone steps leading up to it, several other buildings, the groves of cryptomeria that surround the mausolea, and the festival procession. All the architectural and decorative details, all the carvings and colors, all the accessories everything was wrought in silk, and each of the 1500 figures forming the procession wore exactly appropriate costume. ,Even this wealth of detail, remarkable as it was, seemed less surprising than the fact that the weaver had succeeded in producing the effect of atmosphere and aerial perspective. Through the graceful cryptomerias distant mountains and the still more distant sky could be seen, and between the buildings in the foreground and those in the middle distance atmosphere appeared to be perceptible. Two years of incessant labor with relays of artisans working steadily throughout the twenty-four hours were required to finish this piece. Naturally such specimens are not produced in large numbers. Next in decorative importance to tsuzure-ori stands yuzen bir3do, commonly known among English-speaking people as cut velvet. Dyeing by the yuzen process is an innovation of modern times. The design is painted on the fabric, after which the latter is steamed, and the picture is ultimately fixed by methods which are kept secret. The soft silk known as habutaye is a favorite ground for such work, but silk crape also is largely employed. No other method permits the decorator to achieve such fidelity and such boldness of draughtsmanship. The difference between the results of the ordinary and the yuzen processes of dyeing is, in fact, the difference between a stencilled sketch and a finished picture. In the case of cut velvet, the yuzen process is supplemented as follows: The cutter, who works at an ordinary wooden bench, has no tool except a small sharp chisel with a V-shaped point. This chisel is passed into an iron pencil having at the end guards, between which the point of the chisel projects, so that it is impossible for the user to cut beyond a certain depth. When the velvet comes to him, it already carries a colored picture permanently fixed by the yzen process, but the wires have not been withdrawn. It is, in fact, velvet that has passed through all the usual stages of manufacture except the cutting of the thread along each wire and the withdrawal of the wires. The cutting artist lays the piece of unfinished velvet on his bench, and proceeds to carve into the pattern with his chisel, just as though he were shading the lines of the design with a steel pencil. ~Vhen the pattern is lightly traced, he uses his knife delicately; when the lines are strong and the shadows heavy, he makes the point pierce deeply. In short, the little chisel becomes in his fingers a painters brush, and when it is remembered that, the basis upon which he works being simply a thread of silk, his hand must be trained to such delicacy of muscular effort as to be capable of arresting the edge of the knile at varying depths within the diameter of the tiny filament, the difficulty of the achievement will be understood. Of course it is to be noted that the edge of the cutting tool is never allowed to trespass upon a line which the exigencies of the design require to be solid. The veining of a cherry petal, for example, the tessellation of a carps scales, the serration of a leafs edgeall these lines remain intact, spared by the cutters tool, while the leaf itself, or the petal, or the scales of the fish, have the threads forming them cut so as to show the velvet nap and to appear in soft, low relief. in one variety of this fabric, a slip of gold foil is laid under each wire, and left in position after the wire is withdrawn, the cutting tool being then used with freedom in some parts of the design, so that the gold gleams through the severed thread, producing a rich and suggestive effect. Velvet, however, is not capable of being made the basis for pictures so elaborate and microscopically accurate as those produced by the yuzen process on silk crape or habutaye. The rich-toned, soft plumage of birds or the magnificent blending of colors in a bunch of peonies or chrysanthemums cannot be obtained with absolute fidelity on the ribbed surface of velvet.
The embroiderers craft has been followed for centuries in Japan with eminent success, but whereas it formerly ranked E b t~ with dyeing and weaving, it has now come to be m rO eay. regarded as an art. Formerly the embroiderer was content to produce a pattern with his needle, now he paints a picture. So perfectly does the modern Japanese embroiderer elaborate his scheme of values that all the essential elements of pictorial effectschiaroscuro, aerial perspective and atmosphere are present in his work. Thus a graceful and realistic school has replaced the comparatively stiff and conventional style of former times.
Further, an improvement of a technical character was recently made, which has the effect of adding greatly to the durability of these embroideries. Owing to the use of paper among the threads of the embroidery and sizing in the preparation of the stuff forming the ground, every operation of folding used to cause perceptible injury to a piece, so that after a few years it acquired a crumpled and dingy appearance. But by the new method embroiderers now succeed in producing fabrics which defy all destructive influences except, of course, dirt and decay.
CeramicsAll research proves that up to the 12th century of the Christian era the ceramic ware produced in Japan was of a very rude character. The interest attaching to it is Pt,~Jod historical rather than technical. Pottery was certainly manufactured from an early date, and there is evi dence that kilns existed in some fifteen provinces in the 10th century. But although the use of the potters wheel had long been understood, the objects produced were simple utensils tc contain offerings of rice, fruit and fish at the austere ceremonials of the Shinto faith, jars for storing seeds, and vessels for commor domestic use. In the I3th century, however, the introduction 01 tea from China, together with vessels for infusing and serving it revealed to the Japanese a new conception of ceramic possibilities for the potters of the Middle Kingdom had then (Sung dynasty) fully entered the road which was destined to carry them ultimately to a high pinnacle of their craft. It had long been customary in Japan to send students to China for the purpose of studying philosophy and religion, and she now (1223) sent a potter, Kato Shirozaemon, who, on his return, opened a kiln at Seto in the province of Owari, and began to produce little jars for preserving tea and cups for drinking it. These were conspicuously superior to anything previously manufactured. Kato is regarded as the father of Japanese ceramics. But the ware produced by him and his successors at the Seto kilns, or by their contemporaries in other parts of the country, had no valid claim to decorative excellence. Nearly three centuries elapsed before a radically upward movement took place, and on this occasion also the inspiration came from China. In 1520 a potter named Gorodayu Goshonzui (known to posterity as Shonzui) made his way to Fuchow and thence to King-te-chen, where, after five years study, he acquired the art of manufacturing porcelain, as distinguished from pottery, together with the art of applying decoration in blue under the glaze. He established his kiln at Arita in Hizen, and the event marked the opening of the second epoch of Japanese ceramics. Yet the new departure then made did not lead far. The existence of porcelain clay in Hizen was not discovered for many years, and Shonzuis pieces being made entirely with kaolin imported from China, their manufacture ceased after his death, though knowledge of the processes learned by him survived and was used in the production of greatly inferior wares. The third clearly differentiated epoch was inaugurated by the discovery of true kaolin at Izumi-yama in Hizen, the discoverer being one of the Korean potters who came to Japan in the train of Hideyoshis generals returning from the invasion of Korea, and the date of the discovery being about 1605. Thus much premised, it becomes possible to speak in detail of the various wares for which Japan became famous.
The principal kinds of ware are Hizen, KiOto, Satsuma, Kutani, Owari, Bizen, Takatori, Banko, Izumo and Yatsushiro.
There are three chief varieties of Hizen ware, namely, (1) the enamelled porcelain of Aritathe old Japan of European collectors; (2) the enamelled porcelain of Nabeshima; and Hizen (3) the blue and white, or plain white, porcelain of Hirado. The earliest manufacture of porcelainas distinguished from potterybegan in the opening years of the 16th century, but its materials were exotic. Genuine Japanese porcelain dates from about a century later. The decoration was confined to blue under the glaze, and as an object of art the ware possessed no special merit. Not until the year 1620 do we find any evidence of the style for which Arita porcelain afterwards became famous, namely, decoration with vitrifiable enamels. The first efforts in this direction were comparatively crude; but before the middle of the 17th century, two expertsGoroshichi and Kakiemoncarried the art to a point of considerable excellence. From that time forward the Arita factories turned out large quantities of porcelain profusely decorated with blue under the glaze and colored enamels over it. Many pieces were exported by the Dutch, and some also were specially manufactured to their order. Specimens of the latter are still preserved in European collections, where they are classed as genuine examples of Japanese ceramic art, though beyond question their style of decoration was greatly influenced by Dutch interference. The porcelains of Arita were carried to the neighboring town of Imari for sale and shipment. Hence the ware came to be known to Japanese and foreigners alike as Imari-yaki (yaki = anything baked; hence ware).
The Nabeshima porcelainso called because of its production at private factories under the special patronage of Nabeshima Naoshige, feudal chief of Hizenwas produced at Okawachiyama.
It differed from Imari-yaki in the milky whiteness and Nabeshima. softness of its glaze, the comparative sparseness of its enamelled decoration, and the relegation of blue sous couverte to an entirely secondary place. This is undoubtedly the finest jewelled porcelain in Japan; the best examples leave nothing to be desired The factorys period of excellence began about the year I 680, ant culminated at the close of the 18th century.
The Hirado porcelainso called because it enjoyed the specia patronage of Matsuura, feudal chief of Hiradowas produced al Mikawa-uchi-yama, but did not attain excellence until. a~t d the middle of the 18th century, from which time until ra 0 about 1830 specimens of rare beauty were produced. They wen decorated with blue under the glaze, but some were pure whit with exquisitely chiselled designs incised or in relief. The productior was always scanty, and, owing to official prohibitions, the ware did not find its way into the general market.
The history of Kito warewhich, being for the most part faience, belongs to an entirely different category from the Hizen porcelains K -~ spoken of aboveis the history of individual ceramists 10 0. rather than of special manufactures. Speaking broadly, however, four different varieties are usually distinguished. They are raku-yaki, awata-yaki, iwakura-yaki and kiyomizu-yaki.
Raku-yaki is essentially the domestic faience of Japan; for, being entirely hand-made and fired at a very low temperature, R ~ its manufacture offers few difficulties, and has consea quently been carried on by amateurs in their own homes at various places throughout the country. The raku-yaki of KiOto is the parent of all the rest. It was first produced by a Korean who emigrated to Japan in the early part of the 16th century. But the term raku-yaki did not come into use until the close of the century, when Chjiro (artistic name, Choryu) received from Hideyoshi (the TaikO) a seal bearing the ideograph raku, with which he thenceforth stamped his productions. Thirteen generations of the same family carried on the work, each using a stamp with the same ideograph, its calligraphy, however, differing sufficiently to be identified by connoisseurs. The faience is thick and clumsy, having soft, brittle and very light pale. The staple type has black glaze showing little lustre, and in choice varieties this is curiously speckled and pitted with red. Salmon-colored, red, yellow and white glazes are also found, and in late specimens gilding was added. The raku faience owed much of its popularity to the patronage of the tea clubs. ~The nature of its paste and glaze adapted it for the infusion of powdered tea, and its homely character suited the austere canons of the tea ceremonies.
Awata-yaki is the best known among the ceramic productions of Kiflto. There is evidence to show that the art of decoration with enamels over the glaze reached Kieto from Hizen in Awata. the middle of the 17th century. Just at that time there flourished in the Western capital a potter of remarkable ability, called Nomura Seisuke. He immediately utilized the new method, and produced many beautiful examples of ~jewelled faience, having close, hard pate, yellowish-white, or brownish-white, glaze covered with a network of fine crackle, and sparse decoration in pure fullbodied colorsred, green, gold and silver. He worked chiefly at Awata, and thus brought that factory into prominence. Nomura Seisuke, or Ninsei as he is commonly called, was one of Japans greatest ceramists. Genuine examples of his faience have always been highly prized, and numerous imitations were subsequently produced, all stamped with the ideograph Ninsei. After Ninseis time, the most renowned ceramists of the Awata factories were Kenzan (1688-1740); Ebisei, a contemporary of Kenzan; Dhachi (1751-1763), who subsequently moved to Kiyomizu-zaka, another part of Kieto, the faience of which constitutes the Kiyomizu-yaki mentioned above; Kinkzan (1745-1760); Hezan (I69o-~-I72I); Taizan (1760-1800); Bizan (1810-1838); and Tanzan, who was still living in 1909. It must be noted that several of these names, as Kenzan, DOhachi, KinkOzan, Hozan and Taizan, were not limited to one artist. They are family names, and though the dates we have given indicate the eras of the most noted ceramists in each family, amateurs must not draw any chronological conclusion from the mere fact that a specimen bears such and such a name.
The origin of the Iwakura-yaki is somewhat obscure, and its Iwakura history, at an early date, becomes confused with that of the Awata yaki, from which, indeed, it does not materially differ.
In the term Kiyomizu-yaki may be included roughly all the faience of KiOto, with the exception of the three varieties described above.
K! m!zu The distinction between Kiyomizu, Awata and IwaY kura is primarily local. They are parts of the same city, and if their names have been used to designate particular classes of pottery, it is not because the technical or decorative features of each class distinguish it from the other two, but chiefly for the purpose of identifying the place of production. On the slopes called Kiyomizu-zaka and Goj-zaka lived a number of ceramists, all following virtually the same models with variations due to individual genius. The principal Kiyomizu artists were:
Ebisei, who moved from Awata to GojO-zaka in 1688; Eisen and Rokubei, pupils of Ebisei; Mokubei, a pupil of Eisen, but more celebrated than his master; Shuhei (1790-1810), Kentei (1782-1820), and Zengoro Hozen, generally known as Eiraku (1790-1850). Eisen was the first to manufacture porcelain (as distinguished from faience) in Kieto, and this branch of the art was carried to a high standard of excellence by Eiraku, whose speciality was a rich coralred glaze with finel~~ executed decoration in gold. The latter ceramist excelled also in the production of purple, green and yellow glazes, which he combined with admirable skill and taste. Some choice ware of the latter type was manufactured by him in Kish, by order of the feudal chief of that province. It is known as Kairaku-yen-yaki (ware of the Kairaku park).
No phrase is commoner in the mouths of Western collectors than Old Satsuma; no ware is rarer in Western collections. Nine Sat ma hundred and ninety-nine pieces out of every thousand SO that do duty as genuine examples of this prince of faiences are simply examples of the skill of modern forgers. In point of fact, the production of faience decorated with goid and colored enamels may be said to have commenced at the beginning of the 1 9th century in Satsuma. Some writers maintain, that it did actually commence then, and that nothing of the kind had existed there previously. Setting aside, however, the strong improbability that a style of decoration so widely practised and so highly esteemed could have remained unknown during a century and a half to experts working for one of the most puissant chieftains in Japan, we have the evidence of trustworthy traditions and written records that enamelled faience was made by the potters at Tatsumonjithe principal factory of Satsuma-ware in early daysas far back as the year 1676. Mitsuhisa, then feudal lord of Satsuma, was a munificent patron of art. He summoned to his fief the painter Tangena pupil of the renowned Tanyu, who died in 1674and employed him to paint faience or to furnish designs for the ceramists of Tatsumonji. The ware produced under these circumstances is still known by the name of Satsuma Tangen. But the number of specimens was small. Destined chiefly for private use or for presents, their decoration was delicate rather than rich, the color chiefly employed being brown, or reddish brown, under the glaze, and the decoration over the glaze being sparse and chaste. Not until the close of the 18th century or the beginning of the 19th did the more profuse fashion of enamelled decoration come to be largely employed. It was introduced by two potters who had visited Kioto, and there observed the ornate methods so well illustrated in the wales of Awata and Kiyomizu. At the same time a strong impetus was given to the production of faience at Tadenothen the chief factory in Satsumaowing to the patronage of Shimazu Tamanobu, lord of the province. To this increase in production and to the more elaborate application of vitrifiable enamels may be attributed the erroneous idea that Satsuma faience decorated with gold and colored enamels had its origin at the close of the 18th century. For all the purposes of the ordinary collector it may be said to have commenced then, and to have come to an end about 1860; but for the purposes of the historian we must look farther back.
The ceramic art in Satsuma owed much to the aid of a number of Korean experts who settled there after the return of the Japanese forces from Korea. One of these men, Boku Heii, discovered (1603) clay fitted for the manufacture of white craqueli faience. This was the subsequently celebrated Satsuma-yaki. But in Bokus time, and indeed as long as the factories flourished, many other kinds of faience were produced, the principal having rich black or fiamb glazes, while a few were green or yellow monochromes. One curious variety, called same-yaki, had glaze chagrined like the skin of a shark. Most of the finest pieces of enamelled faience were the work of artists at the Tadeno factory, while the best specimens of other kinds were by the artists of Tatsumonji.
The porcelain of Kutani is among those best known to Western collectors, though good specimens of the old ware have always been scarce. Its manufacture dates from the close of the 17th Kutanl century, when the feudal chief of Kaga took the industry under his patronage. There were two principal varieties of the ware:
ao-Kutani, so called because of a green (ao) enamel of great brilliancy and beauty which was largely used in its decoration, and Kirtani with painted and enamelled pate varying from hard porcelain to pottery. Many of the pieces are distinguished by a peculiar creamy whiteness of glaze, suggesting the idea that they were intended to imitate the soft-paste wares of China. The enamels are used to delineate decorative subjects and are applied in masses, the principal colors being green, yellow and soft Prussian blue, all brilliant and transparent, with the exception of the last which is nearly opaque. In many cases we find large portions of the surface completely covered with green or yellow enamel overlying black diapers or scroll patterns. The second variety of Kutani ware may often be mistaken for old Japan (i.e. Imari porcelain). The most characteristic examples of it are distinguishable, however, by the preponderating presence of a peculiar russet red, differing essentially from the full-bodied and comparatively brilliant color of the Arita pottery. Moreover, the workmen of Kaga did not follow the Arita precedent of massing blue under the glaze. In the great majority of cases they did not use blue at all in this position, and when they did, its place was essentially subordinate. They also employed silver freely for decorative purposes, whereas we rarely find it thus used on old Japan porcelain.
About the time (1843) of the ao-Kutani revival, a potter called lida Hachiroemon introduced a style of decoration which subsequently came to be regarded as typical of all Kaga procelains. Taking the Eiraku porcelains of Kioto as models, Hachiroemon employed red grounds with designs traced on them in gold. The style was not absolutely new in Kaga. We find similar decoration on old and choice examples of Kutani-yaki. But the character of the old red differs essentially from that of the modern manufacture the former being a soft, subdued color, more like a bloom than an enamel; the latter a glossy and comparatively crude pigment. In Hachiroemons time and during the twenty years following the date of his innovation, many beautiful examples of elaborately decorated Kutani porcelain were produced. The richness, profusion and microscopic accuracy of their decoration could scarcely have been surpassed; but, with very rare exceptions, their lack of delicacy of technique disqualifies them to rank as fine porcelains.
It was at the little village of Seto, some five miles from Nagoya, the chief town of the province of Owari, or BishU, that the celebrated Kato Shirozaemon made the first Japanese faience OwarL worthy to be considered a technical success. Shirozaemon produced dainty little tea-jars, ewers and other cha-noyu utensils. These, being no longer stoved in an inverted position, as had been the habit before Shirozaemons time, were not disfigured by the bare, blistered lips of their predecessors. Their pdle was close and well-manufactured pottery, varying in color from dark brown to russet, and covered with thick, lustrous glazes black, amber-brown, chocolate and yellowish grey. These glazes were not monochromatic: they showed differences of tint, and sometimes marked varieties of color; as when chocolate-brown passed into amber, or black was relieved by streaks and clouds of grey and dead-leaf red. This ware came to be known as Toshiroyaki, a term obtained by combining the second syllable of KatO with the two first of Shirozaernon. A genuine example of it is at present worth many times its weight in gold to Japanese dilettanti, though in foreign eyes it is little more than interesting. Shirozaemon was succeeded at the kiln by three generations of his family, each representative retaining the name of Tshiro, and each distinguishing himself by the excellence of his work. Thenceforth Seto became the headquarters of the manufacture of cha-no-yu utensils, and many of the tiny pieces turned out there deserve high admiration, their technique being perfect, and their mahogany, russet-brown, amber and buff glazes showing wonderful lustre and richness. Seto, in fact, acquired such a widespread reputation for its ceramic productions that the term seto-mono (Seto article) came to be used generally for all pottery and porcelain, just as China is in the West. Seto has now ceased to be a pottery-producing centre, and has become the chief porcelain manufactory of Japan. The porcelain industry was inaugurated in 1807 by Tamikichi, a local ceramist, who had visited Hizen and spent three years there studying the necessary processes. Owari abounds in porcelain stone; but it does not occur in constant or particularly simple forms, and as the potters have not yet learned to treat their materials scientifically, their work is often marred by unforeseen difficulties. For many years after Tamikichis processes had begun to be practised, the only decoration employed was blue under the glaze. Sometimes Chinese cobalt was used, sometimes Japanese, and sometimes a mixture of both. To Kawamoto Hansuke, who flourished about 1830-1845, belongs the credit of having turned out the richest and most attractive ware of this class. But, speaking generally, Japanese blues do not rank on the same decorative level with those of China. At Arita, although pieces were occasionally turned out of which the color could not be surpassed in purity and brilliancy, the general character of the blue sous couverte was either thin or dull. At Hirado the ceramists affected a lighter and more delicatetone than that of the Chinese, and, in order to obtain it, subjected the choice pigment of the Middle Kingdom to refining processes of great severity. The Hirado blue, therefore, belongs to a special aesthetic category. But at Owari the experts were content with an inferior color, and their blue-and-white porcelains never enjoyed a distinguished reputation, though occasionally we find a specimen of great merit.
Decoration with vitrifiable enamels over the glaze, though it began to be practised at Owari about the year 1840, never became a speciality of tile place. Nowadays, indeed, numerous examples of porcelains decorated in this manner are classed among Owari products. But they receive their decoration, almost without exception, in Tokyo or Yokohama, where a large number of artists, called e-isuke-shi, devote themselves eiitirely to porcelain-painting. These men seldom use vitrifiable enamels, pigments being much more tractable and less costly. The dominant feature of the designs is pictorial. They are frankly adapted to Western taste. Indeed, of this porcelain it may be said that, from the monster pieces of blue-and-white manufactured at Setovases six feet high and garden pillar-lamps half as tall again do not dismay the BishU ceramistto tiny coffee-cups decorated in Tokyo, with theil delicate miniatures of birds, flowers, insects, fishes and so forth, everything indicates the death of the old severe aestheticism. Tc such a depth of debasement had the ceramic art fallen in Owari, that before the happy renaissance of the past ten years, Nagoya discredited itself by employing porcelain as a base for cloisonn enamelling. Many products of this vitiated industry have found their way into the collections of foreigners.
Pottery was produced at several hamlets in Bizen as far back as the i4th century, but ware worthy of artistic notice did not make it~
appearance until the close of the 16th century, wher Bizen. the TaikO himself paid a visit to the factory at Imbe, Thenceforth utensils for the use of the tea clubs began to bi manufactured. This Bizen-yaki was red stoneware, with this diaphanous glaze. Made of exceedingly refractory clay, it under went stoving for more than three weeks, and was consequent!) remarkable for its hardness and metallic timbre. Some fifty yean later, the character of the choicest Bizen-yaki underwent a market change. It became slate-colored or bluish-brown faience, wit! p&e as fine as pipe-clay, but very hard. In the ao-Bizen (blu Bizen), as well as in the red variety, figures of mythical beings ant animals, birds, fishes and other natural objects, were modelled witl a degree of plastic ability that can scarcely be spoken of in too higi terms. Representative specimens are truly admirableevery line, every contour faithful. The production was very limited, and good pieces soon ceased to be procurable except at long intervals and heavy expense. The Bizen-yaki familiar to Western collectors is comparatively coarse brown or reddish brown, stoneware, modelled rudely, though sometimes redeemed by touches of the genius never entirely absent from the work of the Japanese artisan-artist. Easy to be confounded with it is another ware of the same type manufactured at Shidoro in the province of TOtOmi.
The Japanese potters could never vie with the Chinese in the production of glazes: the wonderful monochromes and polychromes of the Middle Kingdom had no peers anywhere. In Japan they were most closely approached by the faience TakatorL of Takatori in the province of Chikuzen. In its early days the ceramic industry of this province owed something to the assistance of Korean experts who settled there after the expedition of 1592. But its chief development took place under the direction of Igarashi J izaemon, an amateur ceramist, who, happening to visit Chikuzen about 1620, was taken under the protection of the chief of the fief and munificently treated. Taking the renowned yao-pien-yao, or transmutation ware of China as a model, the Takatori potters endeavoured, by skilful mixing of coloring materials, to reproduce the wonderful effects of oxidization seen in the Chinese ware. They did not, indeed, achieve their ideal, but they did succeed in producing some exquisitely lustrous glazes of the ,tlamb type, rich transparent brown passing into claret color, with flecks or streaks of white and clouds of iron dust. The pdte of this faience was of the finest description, and the technique in every respect faultless. Unfortunately, the best experts confined themselves to working for the tea clubs, and consequently produced only insignificant pieces, as tea-jars, cups and little ewers. During the 18th century, a departure was made from these strict canons. From this period date most of the specimens best known outside Japan cleverly modelled figures of mythological beings and animals covered with lustrous variegated glazes, the general colors being grey or buff, with tints of green, chocolate, brown and sometimes blue.
A ware of which considerable quantities have found their way westward of late years in the Awcfji-yaki, so called from the island of Awaji where it is manufactured in the village of Iga.
It was first produced between the years 1830 and 1840 AwafI. by one Kaju Mimpei, a man of considerable private means who devoted himself to the ceramic art out of pure enthusiasm. His story is full of interest, but it must suffice here to note the results of his enterprise. Directing his efforts at first to reproducing the deep green and straw-yellow glazes of China, he had exhausted almost his entire resources before success came, and even then the public was slow to recognize the merits of his ware. Nevertheless he persevered, and in 1838 we find him producing not only green and yellow monochromes, but also greyish white and mirror-black glazes of high excellence. So thoroughly had he now mastered the management of glazes that he could combine yellow, green, white and claret color in regular patches to imitate tortoise-shell. Many of his pieces have designs incised or in relief, and others are skilfully decorated with gold and silver. Awaji-yaki, or Mimpei-yaki as it is often called, is generally porcelain, but we occasionally find specimens which may readily be mistaken for Awata faience.
Banko faience is a universal favorite with foreign collectors. The type generally known to them is exceedingly light ware, for the most part made of light grey, unglazed clay, and having hand-modelled decoration in relief. But there are Banko. numerous varieties. Chocolate or dove-colored grounds with delicate diapers in gold and engobe; brown or black faience with white, yellow and pink designs incised or in relief; pottery curiously and deftly marbled by combinations of various colored clays these and many other kinds are to be found, all, however, presenting one common feature, namely, skilful finger-moulding and a slight roughening of the surface as though it had received the impression of coarse linen or crape before baking. This modern banko-yaki is produced chiefly at Yokkaichi in the province of Ise. It is entirely different from the original banko-ware made in Kuwana, in the samE province, by Numnanami Gozaemon at the close of the 18th century. Gozaemon was an imitator. He took for his models the raku faience of KiOto, the masterpieces of Ninsei and Kenzan, the rococc wares of Korea, the enamelled porcelain of China, and the blue-andwhite ware of Delft. He did not found a school, simply because ht had nothing new to teach, and the fact that a modern ware goes b~ the same name as his productions is simply because his sealth inscription on which (banko, everlasting) suggested the name oi the waresubsequently (1830) fell into the hands of one Mor Yusetsu, who applied it to his own ware. Mon YOsetsu, however, had more originality than Numanami. He conceived the idea 0 shaping his pieces by putting the mould inside and pressing the cia) with the hand into the matrix. Tue consequence was that hi~ wares received the design on the inner as well as the outer surface and were moreover thumb-markedessential characteristics of thi banko-yaki now so popular.
Among a multitude of other Japanese wares, space allows us t mention only two, those of Izumo and Yatsushiro. The chief of the former is faience, having light grey, close Izumc pate and yellow or straw-colored glaze, with or without erwle to which is applied decoration in gold and green enamel. Another variety has chocolate glaze, clouded with amber and flecked with gold dust. The former faience had its origin at the close of the 17th century, the latter at the close of the 18th; but the Izumoyaki now procurable is a modern production.
The Yatsushiro faience is a production of the province of Higo, where a number of Korean potters settled at the close of the ~ hi 17th century. It is the only Japanese ware in which the atsus ro. characteristics of a Korean original are unmistakably preserved. Its diaphanous, pearl-grey glaze, uniform, lustrous and finely crackled, overlying encaustic decoration in white slip, the fineness of its warm reddish pate, and the general excellence of its technique, have always commanded admiration. It is produced now in considerable quantities, but the modern ware falls far short of its predecessor.
Many examples of the above varieties deserve the enthusiastic admiration they have received, yet they unquestionably belong to a lower rank of ceramic achievements than the choice productions of Chinese kilns. The potters of the Middle Kingdom, from the early eras of the Ming dynasty down to the latest years of the 18th century, stood absolutely without rivals as makers of porcelain. Their technical ability was incomparablethough in grace of decorative conception they yielded the palm to the Japaneseand the representative specimens they bequeathed to posterity remained, until quite recently, far beyond the imitative capacity of European or Asiatic experts. As for faience and pottery, howeverr the Chinese despised them in all forms, with one notable exception, the yi-hsing-yao, known in the Occident as boccaro. Even the yi-hsing-yao, too, owed much of its popularity to special utility. It was essentially the ware of the tea-drinker. If in the best specimens exquisite modelling, wonderful accuracy of finish and pates of interesting tints are found, such pieces are, none the less, stamped prominently with the character of utensils rather than with that of works of art. In short, the artistic output of Chinese kilns in their palmiest days was, not faience or pottery,, but porcelain, whether of soft or hard paste. Japan, on the contrary, owes her ceramic distinction in the main to her faience. A great deal has been said by enthusiastic writers about the famille chrysanthemoponienne of Imari and the genre Kakiemon of Nabeshima, but these porcelains, beautiful as they undoubtedly are, cannot be placed on the same level with the kwan-yao and famille rose of the Chinese experts. The Imari ware, even though its thick biscuit and generally ungraceful shapes be omitted from the account, shows no enamels that can rival the exquisitely soft, broken tints of the famille rose; and the Kakiemon porcelain, for all its rich though chaste contrasts, lacks the delicate transmitted tints of the shell-like kwan-yao. So, too, the blue-and-white porcelain of Hirado, though assisted by exceptional tenderness of sous-pdte color, by milk-white glaze, by great beauty of decorative design, and often by an admirable use of the modelling or graving tool, represents a ceramic achievement palpably below the soft paste kai-pien-yao of King-te-chen. It is a curious and interesting fact that this last product of Chinese skill remained unknown in Japan down to very recent days. In the eyes of a Chinese connoisseur, no blue-and-white porcelain worthy of consideration exists, or ever has existed, except the kai-pien-yao, with its imponderable pdle, its wax-like surface, and its rich, glowing blue, entirely free from superficiality or garishness and broken into a thousand tints by the microscopic crackle of the glaze. The Japanese, although they obtained from their neighbor almost everything of value she had to give them, did not know this wonderful ware, and their ignorance is in itself sufficient to prove their ceramic inferiority. There remains, too, a wide domain in which the Chinese developed high skill, whereas the Japanese can scarcely be said to have entered it at all; namely, the domain of monochromes and polychromes, striking every note of color from the richest to the most delicate; the domain of truit and fiamb glazes, of yO-pien-yao (transmutation ware), and of egg-shell with incised or translucid decoration. In all that region of achievement the Chinese potters stood alone and seemingly unapproachable. The Japanese, on the contrary, made a specialty of faience, and in that particular line they reached a high standard of excellence. No faience produced either in China or any other Oriental country can dispute the palm with really representative specimens of Satsuma ware. Not without full reason have Western connoisseurs lavished panegyrics upon that exquisite production. The faience of the Kioto artists never reached quite to the level of the Satsuma in quality of pdte and glowing mellowness of decoration; their materials were slightly inferior. But their skill as decorators was as great as its range was wide, and they produced a multitude of masterpieces on which alone Japans ceramic fame might safely be rested.
When the mediatization of the fiefs, in 1871, terminated the local patronage hitherto extended so munificently to artists, the Japanese ceramists gradually learned Chany,~ of that they must thenceforth depend chiefly upon the Style after markets of Europe and America. They had to the Restoraappeal, in short, to an entirely new public, and ~
how to secure its approval was to them a perplexing problem. Having little to guide them, they often interpreted Western taste incorrectly, and impaired their own reputation in a corresponding degree. Thus, in the early years of the Meiji era, there was a period of complete prostitution. No new skill was developed, and what remained of the old was expended chiefly upon the manufacture of meretricious objects, disfigured by excess of decoration and not relieved by any excellence of technique. In spite of their artistic defects, these specimens were exported in considerable numbers by merchants in the foreign settlements, and their first cost being very low, they found a not unreniunerative market. But as European and American collectors became better acquainted with the capacities of the pre-Meiji potters, the great inferiority of these new specimens was recognized, and the prices commanded by the old wares gradually appreciated. What then happened was very natural: imitations of the old wares were produced, and having been sufficiently disfigured by staining and other processes calculated to lend an air of rust and age, they were sold to ignorant persons, who labored under the singular yet common hallucination that the points to be looked for in specimens from early kilns were, not technical excellence, decorative tastefulness and richness of color, but dinginess, imperfections and dirt; persons who imagined, in short, that defects which they would condemn at once in new porcelains ought to be regarded as merits in old. Of course a trade of that kind, based on deception, could not have permanent success. One of the imitators of old Satsuma was among the first to perceive that a new line must be struck out. Yet the earliest results of his awakened perception helped to demonstrate still further the depravedspirit that had come over Japanese art. For he applied himself to manufacture wares having a close affinity with the shocking monstrosities used for sepulchral purposes in ancient Apulia, where fragments of dissected satyrs, busts of nymphs or halves of horses were considered graceful excrescences for the adornment of an amphora or a pithos. This Makuzu faience, produced by the now justly celebrated Miyagawa ShOzan of Ota (near Yokohama), survives in the form of vases and pots having birds, reptiles, flowers, crustacea and so forth plastered over the surfacespecimens that disgrace the period of their manufacture, and represent probably the worst aberration of Japanese ceramic conception.
A production so degraded as the early Makuzu faience could not possibly have a lengthy vogue. Miyagawa soon began to cast about for a better inspiration, and found it in Adoption of the monochromes and polychromes of the Chinese Chinese Kang-hsi and Yung-cheng kilns. The extraordinary Models.
value attaching to the incomparable red glazes of China, not only in the country of their origin but also in the United States, where collectors showed a fine instinct in this matter, seems to have suggested to Miyagawa the idea of imitation. He took for model the rich and delicate liquid-dawn monochrome, and succeeded in producing some specimens of considerable merit. Thenceforth his example was largely followed, and it may now be said that the tendency of many of the best Japanese ceramists is to copy Chinese chef s-dteuvre. To find them thus renewing their reputation by reverting to Chinese models, is not only another tribute to the perennial supremacy of Chinese porcelains, but also a fresh illustration of the eclectic genius of Japanese art. All the products of this new effort are porcelains proper. Seven kilns are devoted, wholly or in part, to the new wares: belonging to Miyagawa ShOzan of Ota, Seiffl YOhei of KiOto, Takemoto Hayata and Kato Tomojiro of Tokyo, Higuchi Haruzane of Hirado, Shida Yasukyo of Kaga and Kato Masukichi of Seto.
Among the seven ceramists here enumerated, Seif of KiOto probably enjoys the highest reputation. If we except the ware of Satsuma, it may be said that nearly all the fine faience Self Ii of of Japan was manufactured formerly in KiOto. Nomura Kioto. Ninsei, in the middle of the 17th century, inaugurated a long era of beautiful productions with his cream-like fish-roe eraquel glazes, carrying jrich decoration of clear and brilliant vitrifiable enamels. It was he who gave their first really artistic impulse to the kilns of Awata, Mizoro and Iwakura, whence so many delightful specimens of faience issued almost without interruption until the middle of the 19th century and continue to issue to-day. The three Kenzan, of whom the third died in 1820; Ebisei; the four DOhachi, of whom the fourth was still alive in 1909; the Kagiya family, manufacturers of the celebrated KinkOzan ware; Hozan, whose imitations of Delft faience and his pdte-sur-pd~e pieces with fern-scroll decoration remain incomparable; Taizan YOhei, whose ninth descendant of the same name now produces fine specimens of Awata ware for foreign markets; Tanzan YOshitaro and his son Rokuro, to whose credit stands a new departure in the form of faience having p.~te-sur-p&e decoration of lace patterns, diapers and archaic designs executed in low relief with admirable skill and minuteness; the two Bizan, renowned for their representations of richly apparelled figures as decorative motives; Rokubei, who studied painting under Maruyama Okyo and followed the naturalistic style of that great artist; Mokubei, the first really expert manufacturer of translucid porcelain in Kioto; Shuhei, Kintei, and above all, Zengoro HOzen, the celebrated potter of Eiraku waresthese names and many others give to KiOto ceramics an eminence as well as an individuality which few other wares of Japan can boast. Nor is it to be supposed that the ancient capital now lacks great potters. Okamuia Yasutaro, commonly called Shozan, produces specimens which only a very acute connoisseur can distinguish from the work of Nomura Ninsei; Tanzan Rokuros half-tint enamels and soft creamy glazes would have stood high in any epoch; Taizan YOhei produces Awata faience not inferior to that of former days; Kagiya SObei worthily supports the reputation of the KinkOzan ware; Kawamoto Eijiro has made to the order of a well-known KiOto firm many specimens now figuring in foreign collections as old masterpieces; and ItO TOzan succeeds in decorating faience with seven colors sons couverte (black, green, blue, russetred, tea-brown, purple and peach), a feat never before accomplished. It is therefore an error to assert that KiOto has no longer a title to be called a great ceramic centre. Seifu YOhei, however, has the special faculty of manufacturing monochromatic and jewelled porcelain and faience, which differ essentially from the traditional Kioto types, their models being taken directly from China. But a sharp distinction has to be drawn between the method of Seifu and that of the other six ceramists mentioned above as following Chinese fashions. It is this, that whereas the latter produce their chromatic effects by mixing the coloring matter with the glaze, Seif 6 paints the biscuit with a pigment over which he runs a translucid colorless glaze. The KiOto artists process is much easier than that of his rivals, and although his monochromes are often of most pleasing delicacy and fine tone, they do not belong to the same category of technical excellence as the wares they imitate. From this judgment must be excepted, however, his ivory-white and cladon wares, as well as his porcelains decorated with blue, or blue and red sous couverte, and with vitrifiable enamels over the glaze. In these five varieties he is emphatically great. It cannot be said, indeed, that his cladon shows the velvety richness of surface and tenderness of color that distinguished the old Kuang-yao and Lungchuan-yao of China, or that he has ever essayed the moss-edged crackle of the beautiful Ko-yao. But his cladon certainly equals the more modern Chinese examples from the K~ng-hsi and Yun~-cheng kilns. As for his ivory-white, it distinctly surpasses the Chinese Ming Chen-yao in every quality except an indescribable intimacy of glaze and p&e which probably can never be obtained by either Japanese or European methods.
Miyagawa ShOzan, or Makuzu, as he is generally called, has never followed Seifus example in descending from the difficult manipuW a lation of colored glazes to the comparatively simpl Sk~n process of painted biscuit. This comment does not 0Z3. refer to the use of blue and red sous couverte. In that class of beautiful ware the application of pigment to the unglazed pdle is inevitable, and both Seif and Miyagawa, working or the same lines as their Chinese predecessors, produce porcelain~ that almost rank with choice Kang-hsi specimens, though they have not yet mastered the processes sufficiently to employ them in the manufacture of large imposing pieces or wares of moderate price. But in the matter of true monochromatic and polychromatic glazes, to ShOzan belongs the credit of having inaugurated Chinese fashions, and if he has never fully succeeded in achieving lang-yao (sang-de-breuf), chi-hung (liquid-dawn red), chiang-tou-hung (bean-blossom red, the peach-blow of American collectors), or above all pin-kwo-lsing (apple-green with red bloom), his efforts to imitate them have resulted in some very interesting pieces.
Takemoto and KatO of Tokyo entered the field subsequently to ShOzan, but followed the same models approximately. Takemoto, however, has made a speciality of black glazes, his -
aim being to rival the Sung Chien-yao, with its glaze Tokyo of mirror-black or ravenii-wing green, and its leveret era in s S. fur streaking or russet-moss dappling, the prince of all wares in the estimation of the Japanese tea-clubs. Like Shozan, he is still very far from his original, but, also like ShOzan, he produces highly meritorious pieces in his efforts to reach an ideal that will probably continue to elude him for ever. Of KatO there is not much to be said. He has not succeeded in winning great distinction, but he manufactures some very delicate monochromes, fully deserving to be classed among prominent evidences of the new departure. TokyO was never a centre of ceramic production. Even during the 300 years of its conspicuous prosperity as the administrative capital of the Tokugawa shoguns, it had no noted factories, doubtless owing to the absence of any suitable potters clay in the immediate vicinity. Its only notable production of a ceramic character was the work of Miura Kenya (1830-1843), who followed the methods of the celebrated Haritsu (I 6881704) of KiOto in decorating plain or lacquered wood with mosaics of raku faience having colored glazes. Kenya wa~ also a skilled modeller of figures, and his factory in the Irnado suburb obtained a considerable reputation for work of that nature. He was succeeded by Tozawa Benshi, an old man of over seventy in 1909, who, using clay from Owari or Hizen, has turned out many porcelain statuettes of great beauty. But although the capital of Japan formerly played only an insignificant part in Japanese ceramics, modern Tokyo has an important school of artist-artisans. Every year large quantities of porcelain and faience are sent from the provinces to the capital to receive surface decoration, and in wealth of design as well as carefulness of execution the results are praiseworthy. But of the pigments employed nothing very laudatory could be said until very recent times. They were generally crude, of impure tone, and without depth or brilliancy. Now, however, they have lost these defects and entered a period of considerable excellence. Figure-subjects constitute the chief feature of the designs. A majority of the artists are content to copy old pictures of Buddhas sixteen disciples, the seven gods of happiness, and other similar assemblages of mythical or historical personages, not only because such work offers large opportunity for the use of striking colors and the production of meretricious effects, dear to the eye of the average Western householder and tourist, but also because a complicated design, as compared with a simple one, has the advantage of hiding the technical imperfections of the ware. Of late there have happily appeared some decorators who prefer to choose their subjects from the natural field in which their great predecessors excelled, and there is reason to hope that this more congenial and more pleasing style will supplant its modern usurper. The best known factory in Tokyo for decorative purposes is the Hyochi-en. It was established in the Fukagawa suburb in 1875, with the immediate object of preparing specimens for the first Tokyo exhibition held at that time. Its founders obtained a measure of official aid, and were able to secure the services of some good artists, among whom may be mentioned Obanawa and Shimauchi. The porcelains of Owari and Arita naturally received most attention at the hands of the Hyochi-en decorators, but there was scarcely one of the principal wares of Japan upon which they did not try their skill, and if a piece of monochromatic Minton or Svres came in their way, they undertook to improve it by the addition of designs copied from old masters or suggested by modern taste. The cachet of the Fukagawa atelier was indiscriminately applied to all such pieces, and has probably proved a source of confusion to collectors. Many other factories for decoration were established from time to time in Tokyo. Of these some still exist; others, ceasing to be profitable, have been abandoned. On the whole, the industry may now be said to have assumed a domestic character. In a house, presenting no distinctive features whatsoever, one finds the decorator with a cupboard full of bowls and vases of glazed biscuit, which he adorns, piece by piece, using the simplest conceivable apparatus and a meagi-e supply of pigments. Sometimes he fixes the decoration himself, employing for that purpose a small kiln which stands in his back garden; sometimes he entrusts this part of the work to a factory. As in the case of everything Japanese, there is no pretence, no uselesi expenditure about the process. Yet it is plain that this school of Tokyo decorators, though often choosing their subjects badly, have contributed much to the progress of the ceramic art during the past few years. Little by little there has been developed a degree of skill which compares not unfavourably with the work of the old masters. Table services of Owari porcelain the ware itself excellently manipulated and of almost egg-shell fineness2re now decorated with floral scrolls, landscapes, insects, birds, figure-subjects and al sorts of designs, chaste, elaborate or quaint; and these services, representing so much artistic labor and originality, are, sold for prices that bear no due ratio to the skill required in their manufacture.
There is only one reservation to be made in speaking of the modern decorative industry of Japan under its better aspects. In TOkyO, KiOto, Yokohama and Kobern all of which places decorating ateliers (etsuke-dokoro), similar to those of TokyO, have been established in modern timesthe artists use chiefly pigments, seldom venturing to employ vitrifiable enamels. That the results achieved with these different materials are not comparable is a fact which every connoisseur must admit. The glossy surface of a porcelain glaze is ill fitted for rendering artistic effects with ordinary colors. The proper field for the application of these is the biscuit, in which position the covering glaze serves at once to soften and to preserve the pigment. It can scarcely be doubted that the true instincts of the ceramist will ultimately counsel him to confine his decoration over the glaze to vitrifiable enamels, with which the Chinese and Japanese potters of former times obtained such brilliant results. But to employ enamels successfully is an achievement demanding special training and materials not easy to procure or to prepare. The Tokyo decorators are not likely, therefore, to change their present methods immediately.
An impetus was given to ceramic decoration by the efforts of a new school, which owed its origin to Dr G. Wagener, an eminent German expert formerly in the service of the Japanese government. Dr Wagener conceived the idea of developing the art of decoration under the glaze, as applied to faience. Faience thus decorated has always been exceptional in Japan. Rare specimens were produced in Satsuma and KiOto, the color employed being chiefly blue, though brown and black were used in very exceptional instantes. The difficulty of obtaining clear, rich tints was nearly prohibitive, and though success, when achieved, seemed to justify the effort, this class of ware never received much attention in Japan. By careful selection and preparation of pate, glaze and pigments, Dr Wagener proved not only that the manufacture was reasonably feasible, but also that decoration thus applied to pottery possesses unique delicacy and softness. Ware manufactured by his direction at the Tokyo school of technique (shokk gakk), under the name of asahi-yaki, ranks among the interesting productions of modern Japan. The decorative color chiefly employed is chocolate brown, which harmonizes excellently with the glaze. But the ware has never found favor in Japanese eyes, an element of unpleasant garishness being imparted to it by the vitreous appearance of the glaze, which is manufactured according to European methods. The modern faience of Ito TOzan of KiOto, decorated with color under the glaze, is incomparably more artistic than the Tokyo asahi-yaki, from which, nevertheless, the KiOto master doubtless borrowed some ideas. The decorative industry in Tokyo owed much also to the kOshO-kaisha, an institution started by Wakai and Matsuo in 1873, with official assistance. Owing to the intelligent patronage of this company, and the impetus given to the ceramic trade by its enterprise, the style of the Tokyo etsuke was much improved and the field of their industry extended. It must be acknowledged, however, that the Tokyo artists often devote their skill to purposes of forgery, and that their imitations, especially of old Satsuma-yaki, are sometimes franked by dealers whose standing should forbid such frauds: In this context it may be mentioned that, of late years,decoration of a remarkably microscopic character has been successfully practised in KiOto, Osaka and Kobe, its originator being Meisan of Osaka. Before dismissing the subject of modern TOkyO ceramics, it may be added that KatO TomatarO, mentioned above in connection with the manufacture of special glazes, has also been very successful in producing porcelains decorated with blue sous couverte at his factory in the Koishikawa suburb.
1-liguchi of Hirado is to be classed with ceramrsts of the new school on account of one ware only, namely, porcelain having translucid M d decoration, the so-called grains of rice of American ~ collectors, designated holaru-de (firefly style) in Japan.
Hirado That, however, is an achievement of no small consequence, especially since it had never previously been essayed outside China. The Hirado expert has not yet attained technical skill equal to that of the Chinese. He cannot, like them, cover the greater part of a specimens surface with a lacework of transparent decoration, exciting wonder that pate deprived so greatly of continuity could have been manipulated without accident. But his artistic instincts are higher than those of the Chinese, and there is reasonable hope that,in time he may excel their best works. In other respects the Hirado factories do not produce wares nearly so beautiful as those manufactured there between 1759 and 1840, when the Hirado-yakz stood at the head of all Japanese porcelain on account of its pure, close-grained pate, its lustrous milk-white glaze, and the soft clear blue of its carefully executed decoration.
The Owari potters were slow to follow the lead of Miyagawa ShOzan and Seif YOhei. At the industrial exhibition in RiOto Ware ~, (1895) the first results of their efforts were shown, Owari attracting attention at once, In medieval times Owari was celebrated for faience glazes of various colors, much affected by the tea-clubs, but its staple manufacture from the beginning of the 19th century was porcelain decorated with blue under the glaze, the best specimens of which did not approach their Chinese prototypes in fineness of pdte, purity of glaze or richness of color. During the first twenty-five years of the Meiji era ,the Owari potters sought to compensate the technical and artistic defects of their pieces by giving them magnificent dimensions; but at the Tokyo industrial exhibition (1891) they were able to contribute some specimens showing decorative, plastic and graving skill of no mean order. Previously to that time, one of the Seto experts, Kato Gosuke, had developed remarkable ability in the manufacture of cladon, though in that field he was subsequently distanced by SeifO of KiOto. Only lately did Owari feel the influence of the new movement towards Chinese types. Its potters took fiamb glazes for models, and their pieces possessed an air of novelty that attracted connoisseurs. But the style was not calculated to win general popularity, and the manufacturing processes were too easy to occupy the attention of great potters. On a far higher level stood egg-shell porcelain, remarkable examples of which were sent from Seto to the KjOto industrial exhibition of 1895. Chinese potters of the Yung-lo era (1403-1414) enriched their country with a quantity of ware to which the name of total-ki (bodiless utensil) was given on account of its wonderfully attenuated pdle. The finest specimens of this porcelain had incised decoration, sparingly employed but adding much to the beauty of the piece. In subsequent eras the potters of King-te-chen did not fail to continue this remarkable manufacture, but its only Japanese representative was a porcelain distinctly inferior In more than one respect, namely, the egg-shell utensils of Hizen and Hirado, some of which had finely woven basket-cases to protect their extreme fragility. The Seto experts, however, are now making bowls, cups and vases that rank nearly as high as the celebrated Yung-lo totai-ki. In purity of tone and velvetlike gloss of surface there is distinct inferiority on the side of the Japanese ware, but in thinness of pale it supports comparison, and in profusion and beauty of incised decoration it excels its Chinese original.
Latest of all to acknowledge the impulse of the new departure have been the potters of Kaga. For many years their ware enjoyed the credit, or discredit, of being the most lavishly deco- Wa,i-~ I rated porcelain in Japan. It is known to Western collectors K
as a product blazing with red and gold, a very degenerate age, off spring of the Chinese Ming type, which Hozen of KiOto reproduced so beautifully at the beginning of the 19th century under the name of eiraku-yaki. Undoubtedly the best specimens of this kinran-de (brocade) porcelain of Kaga merit praise and admiration; but, on the whole, ware so gaudy could not long hold a high place in public esteem. The Kaga potters ultimately appreciated that defect. They still manufacture quantities of tea and coffee sets, and dinner or dessert services of red-and-gold porcelain for foreign markets; but about 1885 some of them made zealous and patient efforts to revert to the processes that won so much fame for the old Kutaniyaki, with its grand combinations of rich, lustrous, soft-toned glazes. The attempt was never entirely successful, but its results restored something of the Kaga kilns reputation. Since 1895, again, a totally new departure has been made by Morishita Hachizaemon, a ceramic expert, in conjunction with Shida Yasukyo, president of the Kaga products joint stock company (Kaga bussan kabushiki kaisha) and teacher in the Kaga industrial school. The line chosen by these ceramists is purely Chinese. Their great aim seems to be the production of the exquisite Chinese monochromes known as u-kwo-tien-tsing (blue of the sky after rain) and yueh-peh (clair-detune). But they also devote much attention to porcelains decorated with blue or red sous couverte. Their work shows much promise, but like all fine specimens of the Sino-Japanese school, the prices are too high to attract wide custom.
The sum of the matter is that the modern Japanese ceramist, after many efforts to cater for the taste of the Occident, evidently concludes that his best hope consists in devoting all his technical and artistic resources to reproducing the celebrated wares of China. In explanation of the fact that he did not essay this route in former times, it may be noted, first, that he had only a limited acquaintance with the wares in question; secondly, that Japanese connoisseurs never attached any value to their countrymens imitation of Chinese porcelains so long as the originals were obtainable; thirdly, that the ceramic art of China not having fallen into, its present state of decadence, the idea of competing with it did not occur to outsiders; and fourthly, that Europe and America had not developed their present keen appreciation of Chinese masterpieces. Yet it is remarkable that China, at the close of the Ioth century, should have again furnished models to Japanese eclecticism.
Lacquer.Japan derived the art of lacquering from China (probably about the beginning of the 6th century), but she ultimately carried it far beyond Chinese conception. At first her experts confined themselves to plain black lacouer. From the early part of the 8th century they began to ornament it with dust of gold or mother-of-pearl, and throughout the Heian epoch (9th to 12th century) they added pictorial designs, though of a formal character, the chief motives being floral subjects, arabesques and scrolls. All this work was in the style known as hira-makie (flat decoration); that is to say, having the decorative design in the same plane as the ground. In the days of the great dilettante Yoshimasa (1449-1490), lacquer experts devised a new style, laka-makie, or decoration in relief, which immensely augmented the beauty of the ware, and constituted a feature altogether special to Japan. Thus when, at the close of the 16th century, the Taiko inaugurated the fashion of lavishing all the resources of applied art on the interior decoration of castles and temples, the services of the lacquerer were employed to an extent hitherto unknown, and there resulted some magnificent work on friezes, coffered ceilings, door panels, altar-pieces and cenotaphs. This new departure reached its climax in the Tokugawa mausolea of Yedo and NikkO, which are enriched by the possession of the most splendid applications of lacquer decoration the world has ever seen, nor is it likely that anything of comparable beauty and grandeur will be again produced in the same line. Japanese connoisseurs indicate the end of the 17th century as the golden period of the art, and so deeply rooted is this belief that whenever a date has to be assigned to any specimen of exceptionally fine quality, it is unhesitatingly referred to the time of Joken-in (Tsunayoshi).
Among the many skilled artists who have practised this beautiful craft since the first on record, Kiyohara Norisuye (c. 1169), may be mentioned KOyetsu (1558-1637) and his pupils, who are especially noted for their inro (medicine-cases worn as part of the costume); Kajikawa KinjirO (c. 1680), the founder of the great Kajikawa family, which continued up to the 19th century; and Koma KyOhaku (d. 1715), whose pupils and descendants maintained his traditions for a period of equal length. Of individual artists, perhaps the most notable is Ogata KOrin (d. 1716), whose skill was equally great in the arts of painting and pottery. He was the eldest son of an artist, named Ogato SOken, and studied the styles of the KanO and Tosa schools successively. Among the artists who influenced him were KanOTsunenobu, Nomura Sotatsu and Koyetsu. His lacquer-ware is distinguished for a bold and at times almost eccentric impressionism, and his use of inlay is strongly characteristic. RitsuO (1663-1747), a pupil and contemporary of KOrin, and like him a potter and painter also, was another lacquerer of great skill. Then followed Hanzan, the two Shiome, Yamamoto ShunshU and his pupils, Yamada Joka and KwanshOsai Toyo (late I8th century). In the beginning of the 19th century worked ShOkwasai, who frequently collaborated with the metal-worker Shibayama, encrusting his lacquer with small decorations in metal by the latter.
No important new developments have taken place during modern times in Japans lacquer manufacture. Her artists follow the old M d ~ ways faithfully; and indeed it is not easy to see how wor~ they could do better. On the other hand, there has not been any deterioration; all the skill of former days is still active. The contrary has been repeatedly affirmed by foreign critics, but no one really familiar with modern productions can entertain such a view. Lacquer-making, however, being essentially an art and not a mere handicraft, has its eras of great masters and its seasons of inferior execution. Men of the calibre of KOyetsu KOrin, RitsuO, Kajikawa and Mitsutoshi must be rare in any age, and the epoch when they flourished is justly remembered with enthusiasm. But the Meiji era has had its Zeshin, and it had in 1909 Shirayama Fukumatsu, Kawanabe ltchO, Ogawa ShOmin, Uematsu HOmin, Shibayama SOichi, Morishita Morihachi and other lesser experts, all masters in designing and execution. Zeshin, shortly before he died, indicated Shirayama Fukumatsu as the man upon whom his mantle should descend, and that the judgment of this really great craftsman was correct cannot be denied by any one who has seen the works of Shirayama. He excels in his representations of landscapes and waterscapes, and has succeeded -in transferring to gold-lacquer panels tender and delicate pictures of natures softest moodspictures that show balance, richness, harmony and a fine sense of decorative proportion. Kawanabe ItchO is celebrated for his representations of flowers and foliage, and Morishita Morihachi and Asano Saburo (of Kaga) are admirable in all styles, but especially, perhaps, in the charming variety called togi-dashi (ground down), which is pre-eminent for its satin-like texture and for the atmosphere of dreamy softness that pervades the decoration. The togi-dashi design, when finely executed, seems to hang suspended in the velvety lacquer or to float under its silky surface. The magnificent sheen and richness of the pure kin-makie (gold lacquer) are wanting, but in their place we have inimitable tenderness and delicacy.
The only branch of the lacquerers art that can be said to have shown any marked development in the Meiji era is that in which parts of the decorative scheme consist of objects in gold, silver, shakudo, shibuichi, iron, or, above all, ivory or mother- N
of pearl. It might indeed be inferred, from some of D~Io the essays published in Europe on the subject of Japans ment ornamental arts, that this application of ivory and mother-of-pearl holds a place of paramount importance. Such is not the case. Cabinets, fire-screens, plaques and boxes resplendent with gold lacquer grounds carrying elaborate and profuse decoration of ivory and mother-of-pearl are not objects that appeal to Japanese taste. They belong essentially to the catalogue of articles called into existence to meet the demand of the foreign market, being, in fact, an attempt to adapt the lacquerers art to decorative furniture for European houses. On the whole it is a successful attempt. The plumage of gorgeously-hued birds, the blossoms of flowers (especially the hydrangea), the folds of thick brocade, microscopic diapers and arabesques, are built up with tiny fragments of iridescent shell, in combination with silver-foil, goldlacquer and colored bone, the whole producing a rich and sparkling effect. In fine specimens the workmanship is extraordinarily minute, and every fragment of metal, shell, ivory or bone, used to construct the decorative scheme, is imbedded firmly in its place. But in a majority of cases the work of building is done by means of paste and glue only, so that the result lacks durability. The employment of mother-of-pearl to, ornament lacquer grounds dates from a period as remote as the 8th century, but its use as a material for constructing decorative designs began in the 17th century, and was due to an expert called Shibayama, whose descendant, Shibayama SOichi, has in recent years been associated with the same work in TOkyO.
In the manufacture of Japanese lacquer there are three processes. The first is the extraction and preparation of the lac; the second, its application; and the third, the decoration of the lacquered surface. The lac, when taken from an incision ~ in the trunk of the Rhus vernicifera (urushi-no-ki), contains approximately 70% of lac acid, 4% of gum arabic, 2% of albumen, and 24% of water. It is strained, deprived of its moisture, and receives an admixture of gamboge, cinnabar, acetous protoxide or some other coloring matter. The object to be lacquered, which is generally made of thin wl?ite pine, is subjected to singularly thorough and painstaking treatment, one of the processes being to cover it with a layer of Japanese paper or thin hempen cloth, which is fixed by means of a pulp of rice-paste and lacquer. In this way the danger of warping is averted, and exudations from the wooden surface are prevented from reaching the overlaid coats of lacquer. Numerous operations of luting, sizing, lacquering, polishing, drying, rubbing down, and so on, are performed by the nurimono-shi, until, after many days treatment, the object emerges with a smooth, lustrelike dark-grey or colored surface, and is ready to pass into the hands of the makie-shi, or decorator. The latter is an artist; those who have performed the preliminary operations are merely skilled artisans. The makie-shi may be said to paint a picture on the surface of the already lacquered object. He takes for subject a landscape, a seascape, a battle-scene, flowers, foliage, birds, fishes, insectsin short, anything. This he sketches in outline with a paste of white lead, and then, having filled in the details with gold and colors, he superposes a coat of translucid lacquer, which is finally subjected to careful polishing. If parts of the design are to be in relief, they are built up with a putty of black lacquer, white lead, camphor and lamp-black. In all fine lacquers gold predominates so largely that the general impression conveyed by the object is one of glow and richness. It is also an inviolable rule that every part must show beautiful and highly finished work, whether it be an external or an internal part. The makie-shi ranks almost as high as the pictorial artist in Japanese esteem. He frequently signs his works, and a great number of names have been thus handed down during the past two centuries.
Cloisonn Enamel.Cloisonn enamel is essentially of modern development in Japan. The process was known at an early period, and was employed for the purpose of subsidiary decoration from the close of the 16th century, but not until the 19th century did Japanese experts begin to manufacture the objects known in Europe as enamels; that is to say, vases, plaques, censers, bowls, and so forth, having their surface covered with vitrified pastes applied either in the chain plev or the cloisonn style. It is necessary to insist upon this fact, because it has been stated with apparent authority that numerous specimens which began to be exported from 1865 were the outcome of industry commencing in the 16th century and reaching its point of culmination at the beginning of the 18th. There is not the slenderest ground for such a theory. The work began in 1838, and Kaji Tsunekichi of Owari was its originator. During 20 years previously to the reopening of the country in 1858,
i Obtained from the shell of the Halictis.
cloisonn enamelling was practised in the manner now understood by the term; when foreign merchants began to settle in Yokohama, several experts were working skilfully in Owari after the methods of Kaji Tsunekichi. Up to that time there had been little demand for enamels of large dimensions, but when the foreign market called for vases, censers, plaques and such things, no difficulty was found in supplying them. Thus, about the year 1865, there commenced an export of enamels which had no prototypes in Japan, being destined frankly for European and American collectors. From a technical point of view these specimens had much to recommend them. The base, usually of copper, was as thin as cardboard; the cloisons, exceedingly fine and delicate, were laid on with care and accuracy; the colors were even, and the designs showed artistic judgment. Two faults, however, marred the workfirst, the shapes were clumsy and unpleasing, being copied from bronzes whose solidity justified forms unsuited to thin enamelled vessels; secondly, the colors, sombre and somewhat impure, lacked the glow and mellowness that give decorative superiority to the technically inferior Chinese enamels of the later Ming and early Tsing eras. Very soon, however, the artisans of Nagoya (Owari), Yokohama and Tokyowhere the art had been taken upfound that faithful and fine workmanship did not pay. The foreign merchant desired many and cheap specimens for export, rather than few and costly. There followed then a period of gradual decline, and the enamels exported to Europe showed so much inferiority that they were supposed to be the products of a widely different era and of different makers. The industry was threatened with extinction, and would certainly have dwindled to insignificant dimensions had not a few earnest artists, working in the face of many difficulties and discouragements, succeeded in striking out new lines and establishing new standar4s for excellence.
Three clearly differentiated schools now (1875) came into existence. One, headed by Namikawa Yasuyuki of KiOto, took for its objects N the utmost delicacy and perfection of technique, rich ness of decoration, purity of design and harmony of color. The thin clumsily-shaped vases of the Kaji school, with their uniformly distributed decoration of diapers, scrolls and arabesques in comparatively dull colors, ceased altogether to be produced, their place being taken by graceful specimens, technically flawless, and carrying designs not only free from stiffness, but also executed in colors at once rich and soft. This school may be subdivided, KiOto representing one branch, Nagoya, TOkyO and Yokohama the other. In the products of the KiOto branch the decoration generally covered the whole surface of the piece; in the products of the other branch the artist aimed rather at pictorial effect, placing the design in a monochromatic field of low tone. It is plain that such a method as the latter implies great command of colored pastes, and, indeed, no feature of the manufacture is more conspicuous than the progress made during the period1880-1900in compounding and firing vitrifiable enamels. Many excellent examples of cloisonn enamel have been produced by each branch of this school. There has been nothing like them in any other country, and they stand at an immeasurable distance above the works of the early Owari school represented by Kaji Tsunekichi and his pupils and colleagues.
The second of the modern schools is headed by Namikawa Sosuke of Tokyo. It is an easily traced outgrowth of the second branch of the Cloisonless first school just described, for one can readily underEameis stand that from placing the decorative design in a monochromatic field of low tone, which is essentially a pictorial method, development would proceed in the direction of concealing the mechanics of the art rn ,order to enhance the pictorial effect. Thus arose the so-called cloisonless enamels (musenjsppo). They are not always without cloisons. The design is generally framed at the outset with a ribbon of thin metal, precisely after the manner of ordinary cloisonn ware. But as the work proceeds the cloisons are hiddenunless their presence is necessary to give emphasis to the designand the final result is a picture in vitrified enamels.
The characteristic productions of the third among the modern schools are monochromatic and translucid enamels. All students of the ceramic art know that the monochrome porceMonochro- lains of China owe their beauty to the fact that the;afic t color is in the glaze, not under it. The ceramist names. finds no difficulty in applying a uniform coat of pigment to porcelain biscuit, and covering the whole with a diaphanous glaze. The color is fixed and the glaze set by secondary firing at a lower temperature than that necessary for hardening the p4te. Such porcelains, however, lack the velvet-like softness and depth of tone so justly prized in the genuine monochrome, where the glaze itself contains the coloring matter, pte and glaze being tired simultaneously at the same high temperature. It is apparent that a vitrified enamel may be made to perform, in part at any rate, the function of a porcelain glaze. Acting upon that theory, the experts of TokyO and Nagoya have produced many very beautiful specimens of monochrome enamelyellow (canary or straw), rose du Barry, liquid-dawn, red, aubergine purple, green (grass or leaf), dove-grey and lapis lazuli bl,ue. The pieces do not quite reach the level of Chinese monochrome porcelains, but their inferiority is not marked. The artists great difficulty is to hide the metal base completely. A monochrome loses much of its attractiveness when the color merges into a metal rim, or when the interior of a vase is covered with crude unpolished paste. But to spread and fix the enamel so that neither at the rim nor in the interior shall there be any break of continuity, or any indication that the base is copper, not porcelain, demands quite exceptional skill.
The translucid enamels of the modern school are generally associated with decorative bases. In other words, a suitable design is chiselled in the metal base so as to be visible through Translucid the diaphanous enamel. Very beautiful effects of,broken E ~
and softened lights, combined with depth and delicacy of hjame.
color, are thus obtained. But the decorative designs which lend themselves to such a purpose are not numerous. A gold base deeply chiselled in wave-diaper and overrun with a paste of aubergine purple is the most pleasing. A still higher achievement is to apply to the chiselled base designs executed in colored enamels, finally covering the whole with translucid paste. Admirable results are thus produced; as when, through a medium of cerulean blue, bright goldfish and blue-backed carp appear swimming in silvery waves, or brilliantly plumaged birds seem to soar among fleecy clouds. IThe artists of this school show also much skill in using enamels for the purposes of subordinate decorationsuspending enamelled butterflies, birds or floral sprays, among the reticulations of a silver vase chiselled a jour; or filling with translucid enamels parts of a decorative scheme sculptured in iron, silver, gold or shakudo.
V.EcoNoMIc CONDITIONS
Communications.From the conditions actually existing in the 8th century after the Christian era the first compilers of Japanese history inferred the conditions which might Roads and have existed in the 7th century before that era. One Posts in of their inferences was that, in the early days, corn- Early munication was by water only, and that not until Times.
549 B.C. did the most populous region of the empirethe west coastcome into possession of public roads. Six hundred years later, the local satraps are represented as having received instructions to build regular highways, and in the 3rd century the massing of troops for an over-sea expedition invested roads with new value. Nothing is yet heard, however, about posts. These evidences of civilization did not make their appearance until the first great era of Japanese reform, the Taika period (645650), when stations were established along the principal highways, provision was made of post-horses, and a system of bells and checks was devised for distinguishing official carriers. In those days ordinary travellers were required to carry passports, nor had they any share in the benefits of the official organization, which was entirely under the control of the minister of war. Great difficulties attended the movements of private persons. Even the task of transmitting to the central government provincial taxes paid in kind had to be discharged by specially organized parties, and this journey from the north-eastern districts to the capital generally occupied three months. At the close of the 7th century the emperor Mommu is said to have enacted a law that wealthy persons living near the highways must supply rice to travellers, and in 745 an empress (Koken) directed that a stock of medical necessaries must be kept at the postal stations. Among the benevolent acts attributed to renowned Buddhist priests posterity specially remembers their efforts to encourage the building of roads and bridges. The great emperor Kwammu (782806) was constrained to devote a space of five years to the reorganization of the whole system of post-stations. Owing to the anarchy which prevailed during the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries, facilities of communication disappeared almost entirely, even for men of rank a long journey involved danger of starvation or fatal exposure, and the pains and perils of travel became a household word among the people.
Yoritomo, the founder of feudalism at the close of the 12th century, was too great a statesman to underestimate the value of roads and posts. The highway between his stronghold, Kamakura, and the imperial city, KiOto, began in his time to develop features which ultimately entitled it to be called one of the finest roads in the world. But after Yoritomos death the land became once more an armed camp, in which the rival barons discouraged travel beyond the limits of their own domains. Not until the Tokugawa family obtained military control of the whole empire (I6o3), and, fixing its capital at Yedo, required the feudal chiefs to reside there every second year, did the problem of roads and post-stations force itself once more on official attention. Regulations were now stricti enforced, fixing the number of horses and carriers available at eac station, the loads to be carried by them and their charges, as well as the transport services that each feudal chief was entitled to demand and the fees he had to pay in return. Tolerable hostelries now came into existence, but they furnished only shelter, fuel and the coarsest kind of food. By degrees, however, the progresses of the feudal chiefs to and from Yedo, which at first were simple and economical, developed features of competitive magnificence, and the importance of good roads and suitable accommodation received increased attention. This found expression in practice in 1663. A system more elaborate than anything antecedent was then introduced under the name of flying transport. Three kinds of couriers operated. The first class were in the direct employment of the shogunate. They carried official messages between Yedo and Osakaa distance of 348 milesin four days by means of a well organized system of relays. The second class maintained communications between the fiefs and the Tokugawa court as well as their own families in Yedo, for in the alternate years of a feudatorys compulsory residence in that city his family had to live there. The third class were maintained by a syndicate of 13 merchants as a private enterprise for transmitting letters between the three great cities of KiOto, Osaka and Yedo and intervening places. This syndicate did not undertake to deliver a letter direct to an addressee. The method pursued was to expose letters and parcels at fixed places in the vicinity of their destination, leaving the addressees to discover for themselves that such things had arrived. Imperfect as this system was, it represented a great advance from the conditions in medieval times.
The nation does not seem to have appreciated the deficiencies of the syndicates service, supplemented as it was by a network of waterways which greatly increased the facilities for transport. After the cessation of civil wars under the sway of the Tokugawa, the building and improvement of roads went on steadily. It is not too much to say, indeed, that when Japan opened her doors to foreigners in the middle of the 19th century, she possessed a system of roads some of which bore striking testimony to her medieval greatness.
Tb The most remarkable was the TOkaidO (eastern-seaway), e so called because it ran eastward along the coast from o ~ KiOto. This great highway, 345 m. long, connected Osaka and KiOto with Yedo. The date of its construction is not recorded, but it certainly underwent signal improvement in the 12th and 13th centuries, and during the two and a half centuries of Tokugawa sway in Yedo. A wide, well-made and well-kept avenue, it was lined throughout the greater part of its length by giant pine-trees, rendering it the most picturesque highway in tbe world. Iyeyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty of shoguns, directed that his body should be interred at NikkO, a place of exceptional beauty, consecrated eight hundred years previously. This meant an extension of the TOkaidO (under a different name) nearly a hundred miles northward, for the magnificent shrines erected then at NikkO and the periodical ceremonies thenceforth performed there demanded a correspondingly fine avenue of approach. The original TOkaidO was taken for model, and Yedo and Nikko were joined by a highway flanked by rows of cryptomeria. Second only to the TOkaidO is Th the NakasendO (mid-mountain road), which also was Na. d~ constructed ~o join KiOto with Yedo, but follows an sen O inland course through the provinces of Yamashiro, Omi, Mino, Shinshu, KOtzuke and Musashi. Its length is 340 m., and though not flanked by trees or possessing so good a bed as the TOkaidO, it is nevertheless a sufficiently remarkable highway. A
Th third road, the OshOkaidO runs northward from Yedo o h~k 1d~ (now Tokyo) to Aomori on the extreme north of the S U 5 O~ main island, a distance of 445 iii., and several lesser highways give access to other regions.
The question of road superintendence received early attention from the government of the restoration. At a general assembly Modern of local prefects held at Tokyo in June 1875 it was s,,,,~- decided to classify the different roads throughout the intendence empire, and to determine the several sources from of Roads. which the sums necessary for their maintenance and repair should be drawn. After several days discussion all roads were eventually ranged under one or other of the following heads:
I. National roads, consisting of Class I. Roads leading from Tokyo to the various treaty ports.
Class 2. Roads leading from Tokyo to the ancestral shrines in the province of Is, and also to the Cities or to military stations.
Class 3. Roads leading from Tokyo to the prefectural offices, and those forming the lines of conoexion between cities and military stations.
II. Prefectural roads, consisting of Class I. Roads connecting different prefectures, or leading from military stations to their outposts.
Class 2. Roads connecting the head offices of cities and prefectures with their branch offices.
Class 3. Roads connecting noted localities with the chief town of such neighborhoods, or leading to seaports convenient of access.
III. Village roads, consisting of Class I. Roads passing through several localities in succession, or merely leading from one locality to another.
Class 2. Roads specially constructed for the convenience of irrigation, pasturage, mines, factories, &c., in accordance with measures determined by the people of the locality. -
Class 3. Roads constructed for the benefit of Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples, or to facilitate the cultivation of rice-fields and arable land.
Of the above three headings, it was decided that all national roads should be maintained at the national expense, the regulations for their up-keep being entrusted to the care of the prefectures along the line of route, and the cost incurred being paid from the Imperial treasury. Prefectural roads are maintained by a joint contribution from the government and from the particular prefecture, each paying one-half of the sum needed. Village roads, being for the convenience of local districts alone, are maintained at the expense of such districts under the general supervision of the corresponding prefecture. The width of national roads was determined at 42 ft. for class I, 36 ft. for class 2, and 30 ft. for class ~ the prefectural roads were to be from 24 to 30 ft., and the dimensions of the village roads were optional, according to the necessity of the case.
The vehicles chiefly employed in ante-Meiji days were ox-carriages, norimono, kago and carts drawn by hand. Ox-carriages were used only by people of the highest rank. They were often Vehkles constructed of rich lacquer; the curtains suspended in front were of the finest bamboo workmanship, with thick cords and tassels of plaited silk, and the draught animal, an ox of handsome proportions, was brilliantly caparisoned. The care and expense lavished upon these highly ornate structures would have been deemed extravagant even in medieval Europe. They have passed entirely out of use, and are now to be seen in museums only, but the type still exists in China. The norimono resembled a miniature house slung by its roof-ridge from a massive pole which projected at either end sufficiently to admit the shoulders of a carrier. It, too, was frequently of very ornamental nature and served to carry aristocrats or officials of high position. The kago was the humblest of all conveyances recognized as usable by the upper classes. It was an open palanquin, V-shaped in cross section, slung from a pole which rested on the shoulders of two bearers. Extraordinary skill and endurance were shown by the men who carried the norimono and the kago, but none the less these vehicles were both profoundly uncomfortable. They have now been relegated to the warehouses of undertakers, where they serve as bearers for folks too poor to employ cat~ialques, their place on the roads and in the streets having been completely taken by the jinrikisha, a two-wheeled vehicle pulled by one or two men who think nothing he of running 20 m. at the rate of 6 m. an hour. The jinrikisha was devised by a Japanese in 1870, and since then it has come into use throughout the whole of Asia eastward of the Suez Canal. Luggage, of course, could not be carried by norimono or kago. It was necessary to have recourse to packmen, packhorses or baggage-carts drawn by men or horses. All these still exist and are as useful as ever within certain limits. In the cities and towns horses used as beasts of burden are now shod with iron, but in rural or mountainous, districts straw shoes are substituted, a device which enables the animals to traverse rocky or precipitous roads with safety.
Railways.It is easy to understand that an enterprise like railway construction, requiring a great outlay of capital with returns long delayed, did not at first commend itself to the Japanese, who were almost entirely ignorant of co-operation as a factor of business organization. Moreover, long habituated to snail-like modes of travel, the people did not rapidly appreciate the celerity of the locomotive. Neither the ox-cart, the norimono, nor the kago covered a daily distance of over 20 m. on the average, and the packhorse was even slower. Amid such conditions the idea of railways would have been slow to germinate had not a catastrophe furnished some impetus. In 1869 a rice-famine occurred in the southern island, Kiiishiu, and while the cereal was procurable abundantly in the northern provinces, people in the south perished of hunger owing to lack of transport facilities. Sir Harry Parkes, British representative in Tokyo, seized this occasion to urge the construction of railways. Ito and Okuma, then influential members of the government, at once recognized the wisdom of his advice. Arrangements were made for a loan of a million sterling in London on the security of the customs revenue, and English engineers were engaged to lay a line between Tokyo and Yokohama (18 m.). Vehement voices of opposition were at once raised in private and official circles alike, all persons engaged in transport business imagined themselves threatened with ruin, and conservative patriots detected loss of national independence in a foreign loan. So fierce was the antagonism that the military authorities refused to permit operations of survey in the southern suburb of Tokyo, and the road had to be laid on an embankment constructed in the sea. Ito and Okuma, however, never flinched, and they were ably supported by Marquis M. Inouye and M. Mayejima. The latter published, in 1870, the first Japanese work on railways, advocating the building of lines from Tokyo to KiOto and Osaka; the former, appointed superintendent of the lines, held that post for 30 years, and is justly spoken of as the father of Japanese railways.
September 1872 saw the first official opening of a railway (the Tokyo-Yokohama line) in Japan, the ceremony being performed by the emperor himself, a measure which effectually silenced all further opposition. Eight years from the time of turning the first sod saw 71 m. of road open to traffic, the northern section being that between Tokyo and Yokohama, and the southern that between KiOto and Kobe. A period of interruption now ensued, owing to domestic troubles and foreign complications, and when, in 1878, the government was able to devote attention once again to railway problems, it found the treasury empty. Then for the first time a public works loan was floated in the home market, and about 300,000 of the total thus obtained passed into the hands of the railway bureau, which at once undertook the building of a road from KiOto to the shore of Lake Biwa, a work memorable as the first line built in Japan without foreign assistance.f During all this time private enterprise had remained wholly inactive in the matter of railways, and it became a matter of importance to rouse the people from this apathetic attitude. For the ordinary process of organizing a joint-stock company and raising share-capital the nation was not yet prepared. But shortly after the abolition of feudalism there had come into the possession of the former feudatories state loan-bonds amounting to some 18 millions sterling, which represented the sum granted by the treasury in commutation of the revenues formerly accruing to these men from their fiefs. Already events had shown that the feudatories, quite devoid of business experience, were not unlikely to dispose of these bonds and devote the proceeds to unsound enterprises. Prince Iwakura, one of the leaders of the Meiji statesmen, persuaded the feudatories to employ a part of the bonds as capital for railway construction, and thus the first private railway company was formed in Japan under the name Nippon tetsudo kaisha (Japan railway company), the treasury guaranteeing 8% on the paid-up capital for a period of 15 years. Some time elapsed before this example found followers, but ultimately a programme was elaborated and carried out having for its basis a grand trunk line extending the whole length of the main island from Aomori on the north to Shimonoseki on the south, a distance of 1153 m.; and a continuation of the same line throughout the length of the southern island of KiQshiO, from Moji on the northwhich lies on the opposite side of the strait from Shimonosekito Kagoshima on the south, a distance of 2323/4 m.; as well as a line from Moji to Nagasaki, a distance of 1631/8 m. Of this main road the state undertook to build the central section (376 m), between TOkyO and KObe (via Kioto); the Japan railway company undertook the portion (457 m.) northward of Tokyo to Aomori; the Sanyo railway company undertook - the portion (320 In.) southward of Tokyo to Shimonoseki; and the KiOshiO railway company undertook the lines in Kishi. The whole line is now in operation. The first project was to carry the TOkyo-KiOto line through the interior of the island so as to secure it against enterprises on the part of a maritime enemy. Such engineering difficulties presented themselves, however, that the coast route was ultimately chosen, and though the line through the interior was subsequently constructed, strategical considerations were not allowed completely to govern its direction.
When this building of railways began in Japan, much discussion was taking place in England and India as to the relative advantages of the wide and narrow gauges, and so strongly did the arguments in favor of the latter appeal to the English advisers of the Japanese government that the metre gauge was chosen. Some fitful efforts made in later years to change the system proved unsuccessful. The lines are single, for the most part; and as the embankments, the cuttings, the culverts and the bridge-piers have not been constructed for a double line, any change now would be very costly. The average speed of passenger trains in Japan is 18 m. an hour, the corresponding figure over the metre-gauge roads in India being 16 m., and the figure for English parliamentary trains from 19 to 28 m. British engineers surveyed the routes for the first lines and superintended the work of construction, but within a few years the ,l apanese were able to dispense with foreign aid altogether, both in building and operating their railways. They also construct carriages, wagons and locomotives, and they may therefore be said to have become entirely independent in the matter of railways, for a government iron-foundry at Wakamatsu in Kishifl is able to manufacture steel rails.
The total length of lines open for traffic at the end of March 1906 was 4746 m., 1470 m. having been built by the state and 3276 by private companies; the former at a cost of 16 millions sterling for construction and equipment, and the latter at a cost of 25 millions. Thus the expenditure by the state averaged 10,884 per mile, and that by private companies, 763 I. This difference is explained by the facts that the state lines having been the pioneers, portions of them were built before experience had indicated cheap methods; that a very large and costly foreign staff was employed on these roads in the early days, whereas no such item appeared in the accounts of private lines; that extensive works for the building of locomotives and rolling stock are connected with the governments roads, and that it fell to the lot of the state to undertake lines in districts presenting exceptional engineering difficulties, such districts being naturally avoided by private companies. The gross earnings of all the lines during the fiscal year I 9051906 were 7 millions sterling, approximately, and the gross expenses (including the payment of interest on loans and debentures) were under 31/8 millions, so that there remained a net profit of 31/8 millions, being at the rate of a little over 81/8% on the invested capital. The facts that the outlays averaged less than 47% of the gross income, and that accidents and irregularities are not numerous, prove that Japanese management in this kind of enterprise is efficient.
When the fiscal year1906-1907opened, the number of private companies was no less than, 36, owning and operating 3276 m. of railway. To say that this represented an average Nationalof 91 m. per company is to convey an over-favorable ~atJoa oi idea, for, as a matter of fact, 15 of the companies Private averaged less than 24 m. Anything like efficient co- Rat! ways operation was impossible in such circumstances, and constant complaints were heard about delays in transit and undue expense. The defects of divided ownership had long suggested the expediency of nationalization, but not until 1906 could the diet be induced to give its consent. On March 31 of that year,, a railway nationalization law was promulgated. It enacted that, within a period of 10 years from 1906 to 1915, the state should purchase the 17 principal private roads, which had a length of 2812 m., and whose cost of construction and equipment had been 231/8 millions sterling. The original scheme included 15 other railways, with an aggregate mileage of only 353 m.; but these were eliminated as being lines of local interest only. The actual purchase price of the 17 lines was calculated at 43 millions sterling (about double their cost price), on the following basis: (a) An amount equal to 20 times the sum obtained by multiplying the cost of construction at the date of purchase by the average ratio of the profit to the cost of construction during the six business terms of the company from the second half-year of 1902 to the first half-year of 1905. (b) The amount of the actual cost of stored articles converted according to current prices thereof into public loan-bonds at face value, except in the case of articles which had been purchased with borrowed money. The government agreed to hand over the purchase money within 5 years from the date of the acquisition of the lines, in public loan-bonds bearing 5% interest calculated at their face value; the bonds to be redeemed out of the net profits accruing from the purchased railways. It was calculated that this redemption would be effected in a period of 32 years, after which the annual profit accruing to the state from the lines would be 51/8 millions sterling. But the nationalization scheme, though apparently the only effective method of linking together and co-ordinating an excessively subdivided system of lines, has proved a source of considerable financial embarrassment. For when the state constituted itself virtually the sole owner of railways, it necessarily assumed responsibility for extending them so that they should suffice to meet the wants of a nation numbering some 50 millions. Such extension could be effected only by borrowing money. Now the government was pledged by the diet in 1907 to an expenditure of 111/8 millions (spread over 8 years) for extending the old state system of roads, and an expenditure of 63/4 millions (spread over 12 years) for improving them. But from the beginning of that year, a period of extreme commercial and financial depression set in, and the treasury had to postpone all recourse to loans for whatever purpose, so that railway progress was completely checked in the field alike of the original and the acquired state lines. Moreover, all securities underwent such sharp depreciation that, on the one hand, the government hesitated to hand over the bonds representing the purchase-price of the railways, lest such an addition to the volume of stocks should cause further depreciation, and, on the other, the former owners of the nationalized lines found the character of their bargain greatly changed. In these circumstances the government decided to tak~ a strong step, namely, to place the whole of the railways owned ~y itthe original state lines as well as those nationalizedin an account independent of the regular budget, and to devote their entire profits to works of extension and improvement, supplementing the amount with loans from the treasury when necessary.
In the sequel of the war of 19045 Japan, with Chinas consent, acquired from Russia the lease of the portion of the South-Manchuria S railway (see MANCHURIA) between Kwang-cheng-tsze Oil (Chang-chun) on the north and Tairen (Dalny), Port Magchurja Arthur and Niuchwang on the southa total length ~ ~ of 470 m. At the close of 1906 this road was handed over to a joint-stock company with a capital of 20 millions sterling, the government contributing 10 millions in the form of the road and its associated properties; the public subscribing 2 millions, and the company being entitled to issue debentures to the extent of 8 millions, the princ~pal and interest of these debentures being officially guaranteed. Four millions worth of debentures were issued in London in 1907 and 4 millions in 1908. This companys programme is not limited to operating the railway. It also works coal-fields at Yentai and Fushun; has a line of steamers plying between Tairen and Shanghai; and engages in enterprises of electricity, warehousing and the management of houses and lands within zones 50 Ii (17 m.) wide on either side of the line. The government guarantees 6% interest on the capital paid up by the general public.
Not until 1905 did Japan come into possession of an electric railway. It was a short line of 8 m., built in Kito for the purposes pjec~ri of a domestic exhibition held in that city. ThenceRaliwa ~ forth this class of enterprise grew steadily in favor, so that, in 1907, there were 16 companies with an aggregate capital of 8 millions sterling, having 165 m. open to traffic and 77 m. under construction. Fifteen other companies with an aggregate capital of 3 millions had also obtained charters. The principal of these is the Tky railway company, with a subscribed capital of 6 millions (3~ paid up), 90~ m. of line open and 149 m. under construction. In 1907 it carried 153 million passengers, and its net earnings were 300,000.
(Continued in Japan: History
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Japan'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/j/japan.html. 1910.
