Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/219

 pictorial artist of the Toba-ye in the twelfth? There is no escape from the general conclusion that Japanese art derived its motives and its methods from foreign sources, but, on the other hand, both in sculpture and in painting it shows developments which owe nothing to alien suggestion, and must be placed to the sole credit of Japanese genius. That distinction has already been noted with regard to the Ukiyo-ye (genre-picture), and its truth in the realm of sculpture is established partly by the works of Jōchō and his successors in the religious school, and completely by the carving of netsuke and girdle-pendants in general. The netsuke is a combination of the Toba-ye and the Ukiyo-ye. It shows all the humour of the former without the grotesque exaggerations of form, and it has all the naturalistic graces and human interest of the latter. There is nothing exactly corresponding to it in the sculpture of any other country, and one imagines that the first appearance of such an object ought to be historically recorded. But the difficulty that confronts the student in tracing any school of Japanese pictorial art to its source, presents itself in the case of the netsuke also: public attention was not directed to the new departure until its success had become conspicuous, and in the meanwhile the pioneers had passed out of sight and memory. There is a vague Japanese tradition that the first sculptor who made a specialty of netsuke-carving was one Ri-fū-ho of Kyōtō. He is said to have flourished from 1625 to 1670. "Ri-fū-ho" is not a family name or a personal name. It is one of the professional appellations which Japanese experts generally take. Nothing is known of the man or of his work. He is referred to also as "Hinaya," and some English writers have