Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/160

* JAPANESE ART. 140 JAPANESE ART. (litioniil way of (liavving was to be observed, wliii'li {greatly aH'octi'd the (Iraiifjlitsniau's dealings with llu! liorse and (lie bear, allbough he seemed to l)c free when treating the song-bird and the rat. There came also from Ja])an great numbers of water-eolor drawings mounted in albums or ou rolls, either for lianging up (kakemono) or for liandling, like the Roman lulunicn. Colored wood-euts appeared, also print-s from wood blocks, of wliieh no two were e.aetly alike in the color, a fact which soon f<mnd its e.xplanalion in the l)rocess used by the |)rintcr. lie paints the wood Ijloek with the brush, and takes an impression immediately, before the color has time to dry; then paints again and takes another imjiression. A kindred jirocess was in use in Kurope in the eighteenth century for those colnred prints from stip])le engi'avings which formed the admiration and the puzzle of our own time. The .lapanose pi ints of this character have extraordinary refine- ment, and have l)een during the years since 1885 in constantly increasing demand in the West, and at rapidly growing prices. liiiiUOGKAPHY. The architecture of .Japan has received no full treatment in a volume. .losiah Conihir. in the Triinsdctionx of the Royiil Iiixfi- rough and apparently careless in design, but in mals were less perfectly rendered, as if a tra- reality showing great independence of spirit and boldness, and ease of manipulation on the part of the village potters. With these there came metal- work in small pieces, and this marked by two strongly distinguished traits. The hanunered ironwork and the larger and bolder bronzes were of extraordinary strength of <lesign ; the added ornament of extreme delicacy. An iron tray so irregular and arbitrary in form and in the twistings and curlings of its edges as to startle the Kuropean, would be decorated by a re- fined and minute design in gold damaskeening which might rival in dclicac}' and excel in free- dom that of the Moslem East. The other variety of metal- work, was distinguished by its extreme minuteness, and by the delicate play of dilTering colors: for the .lapanese had introduced into coniinon utility three or four alloys unknown to Kurojie, such as the bluish-black shakuilo, (lie silvery-gray shibuichi. and two or (liree deep red or pale red alloys of cojiper; and had also devised the plan of haniniering one pierced ]>late of metal into another in such a way that the re- sulting surface Mas waved and veined like a marble of very minute structure. These new metallic colors and surfaces were cimibined with silver, with gold in several dill'creiit hues, and with bronze colored artificially in an infinite number of shades, and were used in minute relief patterns, producing the most elfeetive chromatic designs on a very small scale that had ever been seen. A somewhat similar effect of color relief was found to exist in the work of the artists in lacquer. A small box or a panel three feet long might equally become the medium for such adornment. The varnished painting itself having an unmatc'ied Inv/rhness and permanence caused by the une(|ualed mate- rial used, the sa]) qf the sumac, Rhus vcr- nicifera, was found to be capable of such manipuhition by means of the brush that relief patterns of suliicient i)roj<'ction and of very great flexibility and variety of form were producible in it, and with these reliefs wore combined those of inserted pieces of ivory, of its natural color or stained, of pottery, of niother-of-|)earl, and of metal, so that a most elaborate design of flowers, fruits, birds, and small ani- mals would be given in twenty different hues, each carried through an untraceable number of delicate gradations, and the ■whole combined with a fitting and tasteful background of the smooth and polished lacquer. Paixtixg and Engraving. The knowl- edge of natural form shown in these deco- rative designs was also shown, and even more plainly, in the books of. palterns and again in the books of legendary or popular story. Little liooks filled with prints in outline, or nearly so. or again with their outlines filled up with flat coloring, dealt with the daily manners and customs of the people and with fairy tales, ghostly legends, the dramatic stage, and the doings of heroes and poet.s of antiquity. The natural history of the archipelago was also treated in great series of hand-books, and in these extraordinary skill was shown in rendering the life and movements of insects, birds, and the smaller animals, while. u'...%H*;^..>-» VROM THE KIVA-LHO GWA-DEU (FLOWERS A.N'D BIRDS ILLCSTRATED). title of British Architects (London, 188(5-87). deals with the subject, and so does McClatchie in the Reports and Transact ions of the Roi/al Asiatic Society, vol. vii., part iii. The arrangement and contruction of dwelling-houses have received the fullest treatment in Japanese Homes and Their for some reason not quite clear, the larger ani- Surroundings, by Edward S. Morse (Boston,