456 
The masks, carved of wood and 
covered with gesso and lacquer, por- 
tray characters often chosen from the 
traditions of Japan, in plays written 
by Japanese authors. In them are 
frozen particular features or particular 
emotions. ‘The jolliness of age, the 
jealousy of woman (pl. 3, fig. 2), the 
sorrowing spirit of a ghost are repre- 
sented not in the realistic spirit of 
western individuality, but in a more 
classic balance. A typical human 
feeling is weighed against traditional 
ethic values whether they be Buddhist 
karma, feudal loyalty, or family 
responsibility. These sculptured por- 
traits of emotional types, often too 
subtle for us in the West to recognize 
with ease, became in the hands of the 
Japanese carver an art form not paral- 
leled elsewhere and one also superbly 
illustrative of a national esthetic 
attitude. The face of the human 
being, beautiful, manly, happy, or 
suffering, has a worldly value in plays 
of ethical content. 
On a minor scale the netsuké of 
Japan illustrate to perfection the nar- 
rative style of figure treatment as 
opposed to the more symbolic Chinese 
method. 
The costumes which the No actors 
wore also reveal a taste in elaborate 
textiles which for gorgeousness of color, 
freedom of patterning, and elabora- 
tion of technique mark a distinct 
departure from any produced on the 
continent. The No robe (pl. 4, fig. 1) 
impresses one first by its brilliant color, 
next perhaps by the effective quartered 
background. Cloud designs are woven 
with various colored extra wefts. The 
gold waves are done in gold brocading. 
The ship sails and pine branches are 
long floats of flossy silk. The quarter- 
ing effect is achieved by the use of pre- 
dyed warps. Sumptuous patterning 
is brought about in the ground itself, 
in brocading and especially in the 
loose embroidery-like floats of bright 
silk threads. Technical mastery com- 
bined with a feeling for materials gives 
a special character to the No robes. 
The nationalism of Japan’s so-called 
ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1948 
minor arts has never been questioned 
or compared disparagingly to those of 
China in the fields of sword making or 
of lacquer work. ‘The virtue of a 
comprehensive exhibition of many of 
the arts of Japan lies just in this fact 
that the more varied the arts studied, 
the clearer becomes the picture of the 
original aspects of Japanese achieve- 
ment. 
Only after one has analyzed for 
oneself the salient Japanese charac- 
teristics can one look at works of art 
painted by Japanese in the Chinese 
manner and perhaps see them with 
Chinese eyes, so that these paintings 
appear distinctly different. To take 
an example, the epitomizing, staccato 
manner of Naonobu (detail in pl. 4, 
fig. 2) reveals a tenseness of approach 
which runs counter to the attitude so 
often expressed about Chinese 
pictures—that painting is poetry and 
poetry painting. It is the emphasis on 
and the interest in visualization which 
gives a peculiar charm and power to 
these sages. Ink values, reduced 
nearly to dark and medium tones, 
become a mode of interpretation. The 
imagination which produced these 
values is close cousin to that displayed 
by the great decorative school painters 
of Japan. 
For a long time people have tried to 
explain Japanese art in terms of 
Chinese culture. The art of any na- 
tion which has had a true renaissance 
period may justifiably be compared 
with that of its prototype, but are the 
arts of Italy belittled because there 
was a time when the arts of ancient 
Rome or of Greece seemed of para- 
mount importance in forming a new 
style? If one insists that only a people 
who have produced a great philosophy 
can produce a great art, then perhaps 
it would be possible to claim a superi- 
ority for the art of China. Yet to all 
who believe that art itself is a kind of 
vitalizing intuition, the art of Japan 
will appear in its proper original 
aspects and will measure against the 
other great art traditions of the 
world. 
