Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/347

 money in charity was regarded as an indication of his artistic sense, and it is confidently believed that Yasumoto Kamekichi's carving is inferior to that of Matsumoto Kisaburo because the latter was profusely generous whereas the former has none of the milk of human kindness. The Japanese artist is content to work amid the humblest surroundings and to live in the most frugal manner. He attaches no special value to the products of his skill, regarding them merely as studies preparatory to better efforts. Many art-artisans rose to fame from the lowliest positions. Teijo was originally a barber; Kuribara Keishi kept a bean-curd booth; Okazaki Sessei served as a common menial in his youth. Innumerable instances of that kind might be quoted, but there is not any example of an artist who was ashamed of his insignificant beginnings. Shame seems to have been confined to association with inferior work. Hojutsu, the celebrated ivory-carver, destroyed many works on the eve of completion, and it was Zengoro Hozen's habit to bake three examples of every fine piece of pottery or porcelain, keeping only the best of the three and breaking the other two.

With regard to the training of the art-artisan, it was generally obtained by apprenticeship in the atelier of some master. Naturally there were cases of men who began to work without any instruction. Matsumoto Kisaburo commenced his career by making a statue of an idiot woman whom he saw begging in the streets of Kumamoto; Ikko was counted an imbecile up to the age of nineteen, but subsequently became a famous carver without studying under any master; Ogino Shōmin, Tomochika, Hojutsu, all were denied the advantage of a teacher, and Itao