Page:Japanese Gardens (Taylor).djvu/39



HE history of Japanese landscape art, like that of its country, is one of the most interesting parts of an interesting subject, because so much myth, so much poetry is intermingled with its facts and its never dull prose. It is a very human art, and it is pleasant to think that priest and prince and pauper alike have all had a hand in the making of it. In the case of the pauper, this perhaps has been by the obedient following of the dictates of the masters, so hardening the rules; but, however this may be, all classes have, sooner or later, been concerned in it, and, if the next greatest man to him who utters a wise or beautiful thought is that one who repeats it, then these others have shown their greatness by