MODERN PROBLEMS IN PAINTING 673 



facility of modern methods robs the student of that severe training 

 which gave the finish to the work of old masters. Even the universal 

 use of photographs, which have come to be an important factor of 

 art-work in these days, saves the artists from the necessity of the 

 arduous copying of masterpieces which was the essential point of 

 traditional teaching. Who is not a painter nowadays? We have so 

 many amateurs that there are no great masters. We have made so 

 much of ourselves that there is very little left in others. 



We of the East often wonder whether your society cares for art. 

 You seem not to want art, but decoration, decoration in the 

 sense of subjugating beauty for the sake of display. In the rush 

 for wealth there is no time for lingering before a picture. In the 

 competition of luxury, the criterion is not that the thing should be 

 more interesting, but that it should be more expensive. The paint- 

 ings that cover the walls are not of your choice, but those dictated 

 by fashion. What sympathy can you expect from art when you 

 offer none? Under such conditions art is apt to retaliate either with 

 incipient flattery or with brutal sarcasm. Meanwhile the true art 

 weeps. Do not let my expressions offend you. Japan is eager to 

 follow in your footsteps, and is fast learning not to care for art. 



The social conditions of modern Japan have laid grave problems on 

 her art. Indeed, it is with a feeling of sadness that I approach the 

 subject, for at the present moment Japanese painting is threatened 

 with entire destruction. The danger is due to the effects of the 

 series of wars that have continually disturbed us since the middle 

 of the last century, and also the occidentalization of the national 

 life. The advent of the American Embassy in 1853 precipitated the 

 revolution which was to end in the Restoration, the restoration of the 

 classic rule of the Mikado in 1868. This movement was the outcome 

 of the Japanese Renaissance which began in the eighteenth century 

 to recall us to a consciousness of the age preceding the Shogunates. 

 The whole energy of our scholarship was then concentrated on the 

 research and reconstruction of the literature and arts of the Xara 

 and early Kioto period which had so long been obscured during the 

 feudal age, especially during the long wars of the Ashikagas 

 which we have already mentioned. The early half of the last century 

 is marked by the rise of a classic school of painting as a resultant 

 of this revival of ancient knowledge. The age was rich in artistic 

 activity in all branches. Even the old-fashioned school of Kano 

 caught new inspiration by a return to Scssiu and a renewed study 

 of the Sung masters. The Bunjin school in the style of the later 

 Ming and early Manchu dynasty were in full swing. Kioto was famous 

 through the names of Okio, Goshun, and Ganku. Hokusai was living 

 until 1S48. But the political agitations which then came over the 

 nation turned our energies into other channels beside that of art. The 



