676 MODERN PAINTING 



masters lies as deep a philosophy of life and a religion of beauty 

 as those which animated the creations of your own. The mode of 

 expression is different, but the intensity of the emotion is the same. 



There is a certain phase of Japanese painting which is difficult for 

 Western comprehension on account of its very Eastern nature. The 

 monistic trend of the Eastern thought has led to concentration 

 where it became expansive in yours. The microcosmic notion of 

 our later philosophy has even accentuated the tendency to express 

 with simplest means the most complex ideas. In some cases, color and 

 shading have been discarded in the eagerness of preserving the 

 purity of the idea. It is not symbolism but infinite suggestiveness. 

 It is not the simplicity of the child but the directness of the master- 

 mind. An ink-landscape of Kakei or Sessiu is a world in itself, 

 replete with the meaning of life. Without actual examples before us 

 it is hard to make myself understood. To take an analogy, the self- 

 completeness of those masters is in its own way the self-completeness 

 you find in the Mona Lisa of Leonardo or The Gilder of Rembrandt. 



The fact that these concentrated poems were enjoyed by our 

 society was the proof of its culture. It showed the ability of the 

 public to sympathize and fill out the background which the artist 

 has purposely left unfilled. The public was as much the painter as 

 the painter himself, for both were required to complete an idea. 

 It belonged to the age when the tea-ceremony was universally 

 practiced, as a serious attempt to perfect the art of sympathy. You 

 are doubtless aware that the tea-ceremony is called a ceremony 

 because it is not a ceremony. It was a vital method of realizing the 

 harmonious appreciation of the facts of mundane life. The guest and 

 the host were alike called upon to create the unity of the room, 

 and the rhythm of the conversation. 



I do not assert that Japanese painting has been always able to 

 keep up to this high standard. Like the tea-ceremony, it has often 

 become formal and meaningless. We feel the fatigue of the art- 

 impulse instead of its virility. But the worship of the suggestive 

 has been an integral part of our art-consciousness. The ideal was 

 always there, however we may have failed to approach it. 



The conservative thinks that it is a great pity these ancient ideals 

 should be lost. I, for one, who belong to the humble ranks of the 

 conservatives, find it deplorable that the traditions of Chinese and 

 Japanese painting should be entirely ignored. I do not mean to 

 say that we should not study the Western methods, for thereby we 

 may add to our own method of expression. Nor do I desire that 

 we should not. assimilate the wealth of ideas which your civilization 

 has amassed. On the contrary, the mental equipment of Japanese 

 painting needs strengthening through the accretion of the world's 

 ideals. We can only become more human by becoming more uni- 



