THE ARTIST AND THE BIRD 



Seen through Western eye, his work may lack 

 perspective and a knowledge of light and shade, 

 but, none the less, the Japanese has a mar- 

 vellous power of grasping the spirit behind the 

 physical manifestation, and he fearlessly employs 

 any means which may enable him to express it. 

 It may fairly be said that the Japanese artist 

 draws his inspiration to a very large extent from 

 birds and flowers. In no country in the world 

 does bird life take so prominent a place. Mr. 

 Ken Hoshino, the well-known Japanese art ex- 

 pert, has kindly written at our request the fol- 

 lowing comments on the more recent work of his 

 countrymen, and we feel certain our readers will 

 be interested to learn how the subject of the de- 

 lineation of wild nature is regarded from the 

 stand-point of the East. Mr. Hoshino writes : — 

 That Hokusai was one of the greatest artists 

 of the world cannot be disputed. All his pictures 

 exhibit life and movement most marvellously. 

 Next to Hokusai' s pictures I place two pic- 

 tures by Zeshin, * Flight of Ravens in Sunset 

 Sky ' and ' Seven Gods of Luck in the Treasure 

 Boat.' I think his pictures are always very 

 original. In ' Flight of Ravens in the Sunset 

 Sky,' I see only a couple of ravens, and the 

 orange-colour background in the extreme top of 

 the picture, leaving the nine-tenths of the paper 

 in blank — ^yet the balance of the picture is not 

 violated in the least. I seem to see hundreds 

 of ravens flying in the sunset sky. Next to 

 Zeshin' s pictures I place the pictures by Gekko. 

 Many bird studies of Gekko, Seiko, and Kogio 

 are most exquisite. It seems to me that Japanese 

 artists cannot compete with European artists in 

 landscape or portrait painting : but in the study 

 of birds and flowers they exhibit most wonderful 

 knowledge and skill. Most of the greatest artists 



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