Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/122

 98

NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vi. AUG. 3, 1912.

In this he states that he went to Tasmania with his parents in 1818. He lived for many years at Brighton, a suburb of Mel- bourne, and this is his burial-place, though he died in Sydney. E. H. BBOMBY.

University of Melbourne.

REGENT'S PARK CENTENARY (11 S. v. 107, 414, 517). MR. ALECK ABRAHAMS, in his interesting remarks, would seem to have overlooked the fact that the name " Regent's Park " was employed at the head of the article quoted from The Times of 20 April, 1812. This points to conclusive evidence as to the adoption previous to 1814 of that title for the enclosure under construction.

CECIL CLARKE.

on Hooks.

On the Laws of Japanese Painting. By Henry P. Bowie. (San Francisco, Paul Elder & Co.)

MR. BOWIE writes of Japanese painting not from mere study of its productions, but from nine years' work in it under Japanese masters at Kyoto and Tokio. Mr. Hirai Kinza, in the Introduction he contributes, mentions that Mr. Bowie, ' ; at one of our public expositions, ex- hibited a painting of pigeons flying across a bamboo grove, which was greatly admired and praised by every one, but no one could believe that this was the work of a foreigner " ; and also that his work was so highly appreciated that by the imperial command he presented specimens of it to the Emperor and Empress of Japan. If Mr. Bowie can paint bamboo so as to command respect in Japan, it is clear that he is no mean proficient. What he has to say comes, therefore, with authority, and, interesting in itself, acquires thereby also importance. To the hasty reader it may seem that to master Japanese art is merely to acquire exquisite manual skill, and to adjust oneself accurately to a most elaborate convention. The principles of the convention, within its own limits, are admirable ; admirable also the adaptation of methods to ends, once the eye is trained to perceive it and recognize its significance, and any impression of slight ness is misleading. Mr. Bowie refutes the common statement that Japanese art is essentially calligraphic ; nevertheless, there is a profounder sense in which it remains true. So convinced are the Japanese that painting is the expression of direct personal vision, just as writing is primarily the direct expression of a person's thought, that they will not admit to the rank of real art even the most notable prints. Hokusai,aname well known and held in honour in the West, is by them relatively despised ; and with him all that school the Ukiyo e, or floating- world-picture school which deals not with landscape or with heroic legend, but for the most part with scenes from contemporary human life. These, when printed, are the work of several persons ; they have ceased in Japanese appre-

hension to be original, to be vital, and, moreover,, their subject-matter unfits them to be what, in their handling, landscape and legend are symbols and vehicles, felt to be the shrine or veil of the thing intended, not the bare very thiner itself.

The acquisition of the dexterity requisite for orthodox Japanese painting is a lengthy matter r and behind the dexterity there must be disciplined feeling to give the hand the right touch. Ima- gination is used, not merely broadly and for the- general effect, but minutely also. One is told here to imagine oneself carving a soft substance, there to feel the strength which shoots through the branches of a tree, or, as he puts in the eye of a tiger, to feel the cruel spirit which animates- it. The necessity of this "living movement" constitutes one of the canons of Japanese art, along- side of " invention " and " spiritual elevation."

Mr. Bowie has most instructive chapters o technique and on the subjects for Japanese painting the latter giving the themes considered" suitable for every month in the year for a Japanese artist will not, if he can help it, paint anything out of season.

The illustrations have, it is plain, been most: carefully selected and prepared, but few of them have come successfully through the process of reproduction ; and though they form a valuable- and interesting series from which much may be learnt, they also, less fortunately, serve to illustrate the Japanese contention that a printed picture is an inferior affair.

The Cathedrals of England and Wales. By- Francis Bond. (B. T. Batsford.) WE accord a hearty welcome to the fourth edition of this delightful book, which first appeared in 1899. The present edition contains many im- portant changes and additions, among these being the introduction of ground plans, reproduced to a uniform scale of 100 ft. to the inch. Another- change made is the departure from Bickman's nomenclature, in which the attempt was made to thrust the history of every cathedral into his Procrustean framework of Norman, Early English,. Decorated, and Perpendicular periods. The- result was disastrous. Such an arrangement is, Mr. Bond maintains, " a wholesale perversion of architectural history. No cathedral was ever- built in just four building periods these and no other. In some cathedrals, e.g., Salisbury, there are less than four building periods ; in most cases there are seven, eight, or even more."" Mr. Bond treats the actual building periods, separately, and makes no attempt " to cram them into arbitrary imaginary compartments."

Before the -work was first published all the- cathedrals were visited by the author. In recent years they have been revisited again and again,, and, as the result of continuous and comparative- study of English churches in general, conclusions which had originally been accepted by himself and others he has found to be, to a large extent, untenable so much so that it has been found necessary to rewrite the book. The result of all this labour is that a higher accuracy has been reached than in former editions ; but Mr.. Bond asserts " that complete accuracy is im- possible in dealing with a subject so vast. Ifc is impossible even to know a single cathedraL."