Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/36

RV 16 Japanese pictorial art is permeated with Chinese affinities. The one is indeed the child of the other, and traces of this close relationship are nearly always present in greater or less degree. To discern the marks of consanguinity is, however, a difficult task at times, not because of their actual obscurity, but because means of identification are defective. Imperfect as is the Occident's knowledge of Japanese pictorial art, it compares favourably with its knowledge of Chinese. Of the latter virtually nothing was known by Western connoisseurs until they were introduced to it through the medium of the former; for, strange as the fact may seem, fine Chinese pictures are very much more accessible in Japan than in China. Japan is perfectly frank in acknowledging the debt she owes to the neighbouring empire. She does not pretend for a moment that her own painters have ever surpassed their models, the great masters of the Tang, the Sung, the Yuan, and the Ming dynasties, and she treasures the latter's works with all the reverent love that an Occidental virtuoso feels for the gems of Rubens, of Angelo, of Titian, or of Holbein. It may, indeed, be fairly claimed for the Japanese that in some branches of painting their modifications deserve to be regarded as efforts of original genius, and that, speaking generally, their work is superior to that of the Chinese in tenderness, grace, and, above all, humour. But, for the rest, they sit at China's feet. Korea should also be included among their masters, for there is evidence that Korean influence preceded Chinese. But the earliest really great Japanese artist—Kose no Kanaoka—is an unalloyed product of Chinese inspiration, and stands at the crest of a flood of Chinese influence that