624 THE ART OF CASTING BRONZE IN JAPAN. 



of tigers, Okyo of carp, etc. — so among the founders several are 

 similarly renowned ; thus Seimin chiefly owes his fame to the perfect 

 modeling of his tortoises, Toiiu Somin for the vigor and life expressed 

 in their dragons, and Kamejo for the delicate and truthful rendering of 

 her quails. It is needless to say that they did not confine themselves 

 to these, but executed other works not less demonstrative of their skill. 



The human figure, however, does not form i)art of their naturalistic 

 studies. The forms and movements of lower annual life are expressed 

 with a truthfulness which has never been surpassed, but in representing 

 man they seem rarely to have been able to free themselves from the 

 conventionalities of the art dogmas of the old Sinico-Japanese schools, 

 and seldom show even traces of that close observation of nature which 

 characterizes their other works. 



One of the finest examples is a seated figure of Ban-kurobe in the 

 garb of a ])ilgrim, cast by Murata Kunihisa, in 1783 ("now in the famous 

 Cernuschi collection, Paris). PI. LXIX. 



Portrait statues are of extreme rarity, those representing famous 

 personages being merely conventional creations which are supposed to 

 portray the type or class to which they belonged rather than the indi- 

 viduals themselves. This example would seem to be one in which an 

 attempt has been made to produce with truthfulness a characteristic 

 likeness of the man whom it is intended to commemorate. 



With the death of the last representative of this brilliant group of 

 art founders near the end of the first half of the present century, the 

 art gradually x)assed into a stage of decadence, the lowest depths of 

 which it but recently reached, and from which it is only just emerging. 



Vast numbers of bronzes have indeed been cast, but they are too 

 often of meretricious design and tawdry ornament, or debased copies 

 of the creations of Seimin, Toiin, and their distinguished contempora- 

 ries. Fortunately there are a few notable exceptions to this later 

 statement. In the first decades of the second half of tlds century 

 Dosai, Gidd, Somin, Joun, Tanchosai, Toryusai, andlzan (specimens of 

 whose works are exhibited) did much excellent work, and ably sustained 

 under considerable difficulties the reputation of their famous predeces- 

 sors. Among more recent founders, a distinguished position should be 

 given to Suzuki Chokichi (now living), whose well-known magnificent 

 example of cera perduta casting is in the South Kensington Museum. 

 It is an ancient incense burner with doves and peacocks, the doves 

 especially being nuisterpieces of modeling, and an embodiment in 

 bronze of the highest developments of the naturalistic school, of which 

 Chokichi is an earnest and ardent follower. 



And I here should like to say a word on the excessive crude and vul- 

 gar ornament which disfigures too many modern Japanese bronzes. 

 Such ornament is never found on any vase, brazier, or other object 

 intended for use by the Japanese themselves, but is confined to those 

 articles specially made for sale to foreigners. (The collection exhibited 



