454 
Japan, too, in the eighteenth and nine- 
eenth centuries. These developments 
in China and Japan seemed to 
Fenollosa “to lie below the level of 
mention.” , 
On the other hand, the comparative 
scarcity of paintings belonging to the 
native Japanese tradition, types of art 
which, if their origin can be found in 
China, cannot be said to have devel- 
oped there to any corresponding 
degree of importance, was not a result 
of inadvertence. Works of the medie- 
val period, when this school was most 
predominant, have the intrinsic rarity 
of age. 
The disproportion in quantity 
between the paintings of the “‘native”’ 
school and the ‘‘Chinese”’ school has 
facilitated the erroneous opinion that 
Japanese art is a mere imitation of 
Chinese art. Such medieval scrolls 
as the Burning of the Sanj6 Palace 
or the Kibi’s Adventures in China 
(details in pl. 1, figs. 1 and 2) are of 
immense importance not because they 
are especially old or rare, but because 
in them can be appreciated the art 
traditions of Japan when Chinese 
influence is not apparent. 
In examining paintings of this class 
two facts stand out. They deal with 
history, fiction, biography, or some 
combination of these themes. They 
depict figures generally in _ lively 
action and exhibiting a wide variety 
of emotions. The interest created by 
the artist for his audience begins and 
ends with the human being and his 
emotions. This illustrative and figure 
art stands in marked contrast to the 
figure-in-landscape setting which dom- 
inates Chinese academic art or to 
the staid figure compositions which 
deal with Chinese moral or historical 
subjects. 
The Japanese point of view is nar- 
rative and not philosophical, and the 
story-telling element is accompanied 
by incidental humor, lively detail, 
and a keen perception of the sub- 
jective relationship of one figure with 
another. To enhance the rendering 
ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1948 
in pictorial form active line work is 
enriched by strong color. 
This same tendency reaches _ its 
climax in the popular prints of the 
Ukiyoé School. The productions are 
plebian and limited under the feudal 
regime to subjects which deal with the 
pleasures of life to the nearly absolute 
exclusion of any content which could 
have a political interpretation. With- 
in this restricted field is the same 
characteristic of active line, strong 
color, and human interest which had 
expressed itself in the Yamatoé paint- 
ings of the medieval period. Indeed, 
many of the later print artists prefixed 
the words Yamato or Japanese-style 
painter to their signatures. 
The print by Kiyomitsu (pl. 2, 
left) shows a woman dressing. It 
is one of those rare subjects in which 
the Japanese and Western attitudes 
nearly coincide. There is a suggestion 
of the physical beauty of the feminine 
figure quite apart from the usual 
charm of rhythmic drapery line. 
The response here subtly evoked 
appeals to our emotions, not to our 
heads. The interest is direct, not 
based on an_ intellectual compre- 
hension backed by academic learning. 
Between the medieval scroll paint- 
ing and the mature print came the 
decorative school, another phase which 
expressed itself in art forms of purely 
Japanese development. The major 
works of KGéetsu, Sdtatsu, and KGrin, 
which roughly cover the seventeenth 
century, present a tradition in the use 
of brilliant color, flatly applied in 
large areas, which is hardly to be 
found in any other artistic heritage. 
The use of gold grounds for screen 
paintings became common. Both in 
physical form and manner of treat- 
ment there has been created one of 
the great original art traditions which 
has graced the culture of a people. 
The pair of flower screens by Sdtatsu 
(detail in pl.2, right, upper) and the fa- 
mous wave screen by KGrin reveal an 
interest in nature which seems par- 
ticularly Japanese. It would be dif- 
