Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/253

Rh of his famous fifty-three views of the Tokkaido (the road from Kyoto to Yedo), in which the stages of the journey are arranged to serve as models of Hachi Niwa. I have never seen this book, but am the happy possessor of one of the rare old copies of the original colour prints, and can easily understand that these could act as ground-plans for the miniature scenes, as they have for the decoration of dessert plates and after-dinner coffee cups and saucers.

Little as one might think it, the laws are adamant that go to the making of these pretty ornaments. Indeed, to understand thoroughly all the principles of Hachi Niwa would imply a fair education as a landscape artist. The inevitable and never-to-be-transgressed rule of just proportion is the foundation, and the very dish itself must correspond to the dimensions of the scene it contains; or perhaps one should say, the design must conform to the size of the shallow mottled-blue high-edged plate in which it is to be set. There are many shapes and sizes of these, some oval, some round, some square or square-cornered, and some oblong, but generally they are of the last shape, and usually from twelve to eighteen inches long by eight to twelve inches wide. But the designs are by no means bound to these dimensions; some are literally only big enough to go into a tea-plate, and are none the less beautifully made, in spite of it.