JAPAN. 493 



Large waxwork exhibitions are very popular in Japan. The 

 figures are far better executed than European ones, and photo- 

 graphs of the faces of them would supply most perfect material 

 for studying the facial expressions of the various emotions. 



In some of the theatrical books, figures are given of the 

 gestures to be used in declamation and in expressing the various 

 passions. 



Japanese picture-books are full of interest. Some of the 

 most striking peculiarities in method of representation are 

 closely paralleled in European art of a few centuries ago. 

 The discharge of a gun or a cannon is represented as a long 

 band of fire stretching from the muzzle to the object hit; and 

 in a picture of a volley from a line of soldiers, a long streak 

 proceeds across the page from every one of the muskets. 



In engravings illustrating old Dutch travels, such as Barent's 

 Voyage, a closely similar style is adopted ; a line is to be seen 

 drawn from the muzzle of a gun to the body of a Polar Bear, 

 and the bullet is shown in mid-flight. Such a mode of repre- 

 sentation survived in cheap European prints till quite recent 

 times. I bought at a stall in London, not long ago, such a 

 print representing the shooting of Marshal ISTey, published in 

 London in 1815, within a few days of his execution; in which 

 similar lines are drawn from the muskets of the firing party, 

 and all the bullets are shown on their course. 



It is just possible that this method of representing discharges 

 of fire-arms was derived from the Europeans by the Japanese, and 

 is not an instance of the independent commission of a parallel 

 error on their part. One of the most difficult problems in draw- 

 ing is to separate what is actually seen from what is at the same 

 time mentally present. Many a beginner looking at distant 

 hills infers from their appearance that they are covered with 

 trees, and proceeds to paint them green and cover them with 

 detail, the result being failure. Only after practice does he 

 detect the fact that hills seen at a distance are really blue, and 

 that the details to be made out in a general glance are in reality 

 very slight. No doubt it is from a similar error that the bullet 

 is drawn in a representation of a discharge of fire-arms. 



Art is employed largely in Japan in connection with religion. 



