Page:Brinkley - The Art of Japan, vol. 1.djvu/19

Rh artist’s work. When a Japanese speaks of “power of pen” (hitsu-riyoku), there presents itself to his mind a combination of delicate grace, infallible accuracy, and unostentatious verve which every intelligent observer is expected to recognise. He himself, if he has any pretensions to be a connoisseur, is familiar with sixteen different styles of touch for painting scenery, thirty-six for painting foliage, and nineteen for painting drapery, which constitute the classics of the brush, each having its own distinctive name and clearly established characteristics. To Western intelligence these facts suggest mannerism and formalism. Such analytical elaboration seems incongruous with the spirit of true art. Yet tricks of brush manipulation are not allowed to impair the expression of the pictorial motive in Japan. These peculiar strokes, when traced by the hand of a master, do not obtrude themselves at the expense of congruity. They may, of course, be exaggerated

so as to become startlingly obtrusive. Hokusai’s work often shows that fault. His use of the “swift-wave,” otherwise called the “holly-leaf,” style in drawing drapery sometimes degenerates into an impertinent mannerism, whereas outlines of the same class appear