MODERN PROBLEMS IN PAINTING 677 



versal. The value of a suggestion is in the depth of the thought 

 that it conveys. What I wish to protest against is the attitude of 

 imitation which is so destructive of individuality. 



Disastrous as have been the consequences of the sweeping inunda- 

 tions of Western ideals, its ravages on Japanese painting might have 

 been comparatively slight had it not been accompanied with modern 

 industrialism. It may be that Western art is also suffering from 

 the effects of industrialism, but to us its menace is more direful as 

 we hear it beating against the bulwarks of our old economic life. To 

 us it seems that industrialism is making a handmaiden of art, as 

 religion and personal glorification have made of it in the past. 

 Competition imposes the monotony of fashion instead of the variety 

 of life. Cheapness is the goal, not Beauty. The democratic indif- 

 ference of the market stamps everything with the mark of vulgar 

 equality. In place of the hand-works, where we feel the warmth of 

 the human touch of even the humblest worker, we are confronted 

 with the cold-blooded touch of the machine. The mechanical habit 

 of the age seizes the artist and makes him forget that his only reason 

 for existence is to be the one, not the many. He is impelled not to 

 create but to multiply. Painting is becoming more and more an 

 affair of the hand rather than of the mind. 



The task of preserving Japanese painting against all these antago- 

 nistic influences is not easy. It is a matter of no small wonder that 

 we should have produced within recent years a new school of national 

 painting. Our hope in the future lies in the tenacity of the Japanese 

 race which has kept its individuality intact since the dawn of its 

 history. Two generations cannot change the idiosyncrasies of twenty 

 centuries. The bulk of our traditions still remains practically un- 

 harmed. Of late years there has been a marked tendency to a deeper 

 recognition of the best in our ancient culture. We are glad to see in the 

 heroic sacrifices of our people in the present war that the spirit of old 

 Japan is not dead. Our greatest hope is in the very vitality of art 

 itself which enabled it to thrive in spite of the various adversities 

 which it had encountered in the past. A grim pride animates us in 

 facing the enormous odds which modern society has raised against 

 us. At the present day we feel ourselves to be the sole guardians of 

 the art-inheritance of Asia. The battle must be one fought out to the 

 last. 



Perhaps it may have seemed to you lhat I have painted in too 

 dark a color the modern problems of art. There is a brighter side 

 of the question. Western society itself is awakening to a better 

 understanding of the problem. The suspense of art-activities at the 

 present moment has aroused the anxious inquiry of serious thinkers 

 into the cause of the universal decadence. It is time, indeed, that 

 we should begin To work for the true adjustment of society to art. 



