JAPAN 



are a nation of artists. 

 A striking character- 

 istic of their art is 

 that they display it 

 largely in articles of 

 practical utility. 

 There are no more 

 industrious people on 

 the earth. Having 

 no Sabbath, they take 

 a holiday only when 

 there is nothing to 

 do. Their spade in- 

 dustry turns the 

 country into a vast 

 beautifully kept 

 garden, in which one 

 might almost look in 

 vain for a weed. The 

 Japanese turn every- 

 thing to useful 

 account; in their 

 application of the 

 commoner and ap- 

 parently often worth- 

 less materials artistic 

 feeling is exercised, 

 together with thrift 

 and practical common 

 sense. " Viewed in 

 this light," says Sir 

 Rutherford Alcock, 

 " it is not too much to 



say that no nation in ancient or modern times has been richer in art motifs and original 

 types than the Japanese." Art in Japan is not, as in Europe, the grafting of some style upon 

 another, and the accumulated knowledge of all the various schools since remote antiquity. It 

 has been a growth unaffected by outside influences, and is self-contained, self-sustaining, and 

 strictly national. If we compare the decorative art of Japan with that of China, we see how 

 far the Japanese have left their former masters behind, and how thoroughly they have produced 

 a school of art peculiarly their own. Mr. Cutler has well said: "If we study the decorative 

 art of the Japanese, we find the essential elements of beauty in design, fitness for the purpose 

 which the object is intended to fulfil, good workmanship and constructive soundness, which 

 give value to the commonest article, and some touch of ornament by a skilful hand, 

 together creating a true work of art." 



Pictorial art as understood in Europe can hardly be said to have any existence in Japan, 

 whose art is essentially decorative, most of the designs consisting of natural objects treated 

 in a conventional way. The flowers may not be rigidly correct botanically, and the birds 

 may not be absolutely without blemish in the eyes of an ornithologist, but they show a 

 truth to nature which declares that every blade of grass, each leaf and feather depicted, has 

 been the object of loving and most patient study. 



In their methods of ornamentation the Japanese, like the Chinese, treat every object flatly. 

 It is not a picture that they produce, but a decoration full of extraordinary beauty. The 



PROFESSIONAL JAPANESE WRESTLERS. 



