Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/292

224 The art of Japan like most other elements in her civilization is of Chinese origin. Concurrently with the introduction by way of the Middle Kingdom of that stream of abstract idealism known as Northern Buddhism, China became the fountain head whence until comparatively recent times a succession of æsthetic ideas spread over Japan. Modern Chinese art is justly held to possess little merit, but in the days when it exerted its dominating influence upon the Japanese mind it had attained a very high standard of excellence, and in particular some of the Chinese painters were among the greatest the world has ever known. With the exception of a few original modifications, the product of temperament and historical situation, everything in Japanese art has come from China; yet the generic ideas have been so worked over and transformed in the process that the resultant is distinctly not Chinese but Japanese. The influence of Buddhism has been very great; it would indeed, be difficult to overestimate it. Most of the earlier artists were Buddhist priests, and, until the revival of Shintō as the State religion, during the present reign, Buddhism was directly and indirectly one of the principal promoters and patrons of the arts.