Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/229

 pense of surface-finish. The undisguised touches of the chisel tell a story of technical force and directness which could not be suggested by perfectly smooth surfaces. To subordinate process to result is the European canon. To show the former without marring the latter is the Japanese ideal. Many of Kōun's sculptures appear unfinished to eyes trained in Occidental galleries, whereas the Japanese connoisseur detects evidence of a technical feat in their seeming roughness.

Architectural decoration in Europe and America ought to provide much employment for the Japanese wood-carver. In his own country temples, shrines, and mausolea used to offer a wide field for his chisel; but since feudalism fell and since the State turned its back upon religion, the greatly reduced revenues of sacred edifices barely suffice for their support and leave no margin for their embellishment. There has not, however, been any diminution of the old glyptic skill and originality. On the contrary, at least as much talent as ever is now available. Formerly a large part of the decorative sculpture for temples and mausolea was done in sections, which were afterwards pieced together with nails and glue. Examples of that method may be seen in some of the most effective carvings of the Nikkō mausolea. The head and neck of a phnix, for instance, are sculptured in three or four segments, and the tail-feathers in five or six. Elaborate chiselling in relief on a solid ground was seldom attempted in wood, admirable as was the work of that kind achieved in metal. But at glyptic exhibitions in Tōkyō during recent years beautiful specimens of solid carvings in relief have been shown. Such work, if judiciously applied