Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/113

RV 91 been of very mediocre quality, not for an instant supporting comparison with the studies in marble bequeathed to the world by the ancient Greeks. Should time have in store for Japan vicissitudes such as overtook the prehistoric world of the West, it is not difficult to imagine that some race of explorers, thirty or forty centuries hence, discovering the stupendous masonry and the huge granite blocks of the Tōkyō and Ōsaka castles, may draw an inference similar to that suggested by the ruins of Tirynth and its sister cities of Argolis, and may conclude that japan was once inhabited by a race of giants. But they certainly will not find anything to suggest that the men who applied granite to such colossal uses understood the value of the imperishable material suggested by Nature herself as a medium for transmitting artistic conceptions to posterity. The most reasonable explanation of the inferiority shown by the Japanese in this respect is that the quality of the stone generally available in their country defied any fine exercise of glyptic skill. Japan is not without stores of good marble, which are now beginning to be successfully utilised for purposes of sculpture. But in remote ages their existence does not appear to have been suspected, and the artist, being supplied only with granite and coarse sandstone, was not encouraged to attempt work inconsistent with the quality of the material. Some critics maintain, indeed, that the technical difficulties attending sculpture in stone proved insuperable to the Japanese. But such a theory can scarcely be reconciled with the singular ability they showed in bringing still more refractory substances within artistic control. Further, the evidence furnished by their ancient tombs shows that, in