Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/191

 Masks carved by celebrated experts are among the most valued treasures of aesthetic Japan. They are wrapped in silk and preserved in lacquered boxes with all the care appropriate to fine works of art; and they deserve such attention, for in this class of sculpture Japan stands unequalled and unapproached by any other country. Miniature reproductions of classic types, carved in ivory, wood, or metal, sometimes merely as examples of skilled sculpture, sometimes in groups of two or more to form netsuke,—presently to be spoken of,—and sometimes as ornaments for sword-furniture, are included in many foreign assemblages of Japanese art-objects, but the finest masks of the mimetic dance have seldom come within reach of Western collectors.

The names and dates of celebrated mask-carvers are these:—

N. B. The above are distinguished as Jissaku, or "true sculptors."