Chap, xix.l RELIGIOUS ART IN lATAN. 427 



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 Ney, 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 drawing 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. 

 Lives of the Saints, elaborately illuminated and illustrated, are 

 executed on long rolls, or depicted on sheets arranged for 

 suspension on walls. Similarly pictures of the various deities 

 represented in groups, or singly, are suspended for devotional 

 purposes, and many of them curiously resemble, in general 

 appearance, early European representations of a similar cha- 

 racter. Pictures are also suspended in shrines representing the 

 nature of the prayer of the suppliant ; as, for example, a picture 

 of a mother praying for her child. Pictures representing the 

 pleasures of Heaven and torments of Hell are also common. 

 These various religious pictures are sold in the vicinity of the 

 temples. 



