Page:Brinkley - The Art of Japan, vol. 1.djvu/64

36 in the nick, and its edge against the guiding line, so that the coloured portions take their right position in the picture. The padded disc is now passed over the proof, after which it is removed and fresh colour having been applied, another proof takes the place of the former. This process will be continued until the proofs of the first issue have all been printed in one colour. Then the process is similarly repeated with each of the colour blocks in turn, and the first issue of our nishiki-ye is now finished and ready for the market. It will probably be a small issue, to the end that the artist, should he not be contented with the result, may be able to make alterations before the outline block has lost its freshness. Such alterations may be effected in several ways, either by an entire redistribution of colour on the old colour blocks, by the substitution of new colour blocks for old, or by an increase in their number.

“It is not unusual to employ a block carved with a design of some sort which is not coloured, but serves to stamp a pattern in relief. In printing from such blocks extra pressure is resorted to. Some of the effects thus obtained are very attractive.

“To obtain good prints it is necessary, in the first place, that the nick and guiding lines should be exactly in their right place on each block, and, in the second, that the printer should exercise very great care in placing each sheet accurately in position on each successive block. Otherwise the colours will over-lap the outline or one another.

“Of course, in the greater number of cases the artist will leave many of the duties here assigned to him to his subordinates. In recent times, this must have been the case to a great extent, and both engraving and printing, to say nothing of the arrangement of the colour blocks, must have been left to the supervision of a pupil, or even in the hands of the engraver, or more likely still, in those of the publishing printer.”

What are the special charms which have won for the paintings, wood-cuts and chromo-xylographs of the ukiyo-ye masters such applause in Europe and America? How is it that a branch of pictorial art which Japanese connoisseurs have always regarded with a certain measure of contempt, evokes the unstinted admiration of Occidental critics? Some answer the question by reference to the motives of the pictures. Here, they say, we have accurate representations of the people’s occupations and pastimes; of domestic life with all its graces and conventions; of the fête and the festival; of love; of battle; of the chase; of elf-land; of the theatre; of the danseuse; of the demi-mode; of high-way scenes, and of street panoramas. Some, again, reply by pointing to the immense mine of decorative wealth that Western designers may find in the detail of the nishiki-ye. Such comments are doubtless true, but they appear to us very unsatisfying. It is not to obtain information about Japanese fashions and habits, nor yet to find a novel pattern for a book-cover or a wall-paper that the collectors of New York, of Boston, of Paris, and of London eagerly seek and jealously preserve these specimens of Japanese art. Other reasons present themselves. Chiefly to harmony of colour does the ukiyo-ye owe its