Page:Brinkley - The Art of Japan, vol. 1.djvu/37

Rh and atmosphere. We are speaking now of secular rather than of religious paintings. In the latter, figure subjects predominate, and are treated not only with grandeur of conception but sometimes also with gorgeous wealth of decorative detail.

The religious pictures of China and Japan are scarcely distinguishable. That is not surprising when we remember the identity of their motives and caligraphic methods, as well as the fact that in early days the Middle Kingdom stood towards the island empire in nearly the same relation as that occupied by Italy towards western Europe in mediæval and modern times. China was the bourne of the Japanese art student as well as of the Japanese litterateur, and to have sat at the feet of the Tang, Sung, or Yuan masters or philosophers was counted the highest possible education, whether æsthetic or scholastic. Representing the same subjects and inspired by the same devotional instincts, the Buddhist paintings of the two countries might well resemble each other to the point of identity. But it is strange to find among the secular works of Chinese artists exact prototypes of drawings that hang in the alcoves of thousands of Japanese houses, or form the decorative bases of innumerable Japanese objects of virtu. The perched hawks and roosting pigeons of Hwei Tsung; the swooping cranes and curling waves of Mih Yuen-chang; the beetling cliffs, dashing waterfalls, and rugged trees of Wu Tao-tsz; the ferocious dragons of Ch’en So-ung; the marvellously bold and vital sketches of Muh Ki, herons flying from the silk and boughs waving on the paper; the vivid, crisp figure-subjects and the exquisitely delicate suggestions of still life and landscape by Li Lung-yen; the bamboos of Yuh Kien, every leaf drinking the sunny air and every spray instinct with lustiness; the eager timid wild-fowl and wood-birds of Wan Chin and Wang