THE ART OF CASTING BRONZE IN JAPAN. 625 



to illustrate the forms and ornaments of Japanese bronzes before the 

 oiDening of the country to foreign trade amply demonstrates this.) 

 These are all veritable " pot-boilers " cast by men often capable of doing 

 better things, who earn more by the production of these vulgar mon- 

 strosities for exportation than others who still endeavor to follow the 

 simple canons of Japanese art. Modern Jai^anese bronze founders, 

 like their brethren in pictorial art, hence work in an adverse environ- 

 ment, and under many disadvantages unknown to their predecessors. 

 In the early centuries religious enthusiasm, the quiet seclusion of tbe 

 monastery, and the patronage of a powerful priesthood stimulated, 

 fostered, and supi)orted the old artists in their work, so that all their 

 powers were put forth in the execution of the grand masterpieces of 

 those times. 



In later times the same result was achieved under the system of 

 feudalism which i)revailed in the country. Workers in bronze were 

 attached to the courts of the greater daimyos (territorial noble); 

 their incomes were secure, they were free to work out their designs as 

 they wished, and need only do so when they felt inspired. 



During recent years the Emperor has done much for the encourage- 

 ment of a select few of the chief art workers in bronze in the revival 

 of their old art, the result being that some of the objects of modern 

 work which adorn the imperial palace are of extreme beauty, and 

 equal those of the older masters in gracefulness of form and sobriety 

 of ornament. But for the great majority there is no such patronage, 

 yet the bronze founders must live, and to live means for too many that 

 they must waste their talents in producing work in designing which they 

 are hampered by the demands of commerce and the chief, or rather sole, 

 end of which is merely pecuniary remuneration. Up to the eighteenth 

 century we rarely find the name of the artist or founder attached to 

 any bronze. Most of the existing specimens of the earlier bronzes 

 were made, as we have seen, for use in the ceremonies and ritual of 

 the Buddliist religion, and were not usually allowed to bear any name, 

 excepting when they were ex voto offerings, and then only the names 

 of the donors. The records of the temples are also silent, with few 

 exceptioiis, even on the authorship of the grand masterpieces to which 

 they often owe their popularity and fame. The dedicators alone are 

 remembered and the artists forgotten. Being almost invariably men of 

 plebeian origin, the bronze founders occui)ied a lower status in life than 

 the caligrapher, painter, or armorer, and their lives have not been 

 thought worthy of record. All the knowledge we have of even the 

 great masters of the last generation is derived solely from their works 



Several charming specimens of both the larger and smaller bronzes, 

 esi^ecially of the latter, as late as the last hundred years, are unfortu- 

 nately not signed (see especially the candlesticks of fine open work lent 

 by Sir Trevor Lawrence), and many of equal merit are signed by artists 

 whose names do not appear in the lists of noted bronze workers. So 

 SM94 40 



