Page:Brinkley - The Art of Japan, vol. 1.djvu/73

Rh Apart from this commercial taint which, after all, is a mere accident, the influx of Western ideas shows itself in two directions: it has called into existence a school based solely and faithfully on the art of the Occident, and it has given new vitality to a school which, while using the old materials and following the old lines, recognises the value of Western principles as to perspective and chiaroscuro, and endeavours to engraft them upon the traditional art of the nation.



Concerning the purely Western school, a few words will suffice. Its students have virtually neither patrons, nor opportunities, nor instructors. There is no place in a Japanese house for their paintings. There are no studios which they can attend; no galleries which they can visit. Their means are altogether too scanty to permit travel in Europe or America, and at home they are without teachers to guide their hand or examples to educate their eye. Finally, public sentiment is opposed to their radicalism. Yet, for thirty years, they have struggled with such extraordinary courage and perseverance against these terribly adverse circumstances that it seems impossible to doubt their ultimate success,