Page:The Spirit of Japanese Art, by Yone Noguchi; 1915.djvu/119

114 the word is used in connection with our old art; however, it is true we see a peculiar unity in it, which was cherished under the influence of India and China, and always helped to a classification and analysis of the means through which the artists worked. And the poverty of subjects was a strength for them; they valued workmanship, or the right use of material rather than the material itself; instead of style and design, the intellect and atmosphere. They thought the means to be the only path to Heaven. But it was before the Western art had invaded Japan; that art told them of the end of art, and laughed at the indecision of esthetic judgment and uncertainty of realism of Japanese art. It said: "It is true that you have some scent, but it is already faded; you have refinement, but it is not quite true to nature and too far away." Indeed, it is almost sad one sees the artists troubled by the Western influence which they accepted, in spite of themselves; I can see in the exhibitions that many of them have long ago lost their faith by spiritual calamity, and it is seldom to see them able to readjust their own minds under such a mingled tempest of Oriental and Occidental. Is it not, after all, merely a waste of energy? And how true it is with all the other phenomena of the present life, their Oriental retreat and Occidental rush.

The present Japanese art has sadly strayed from subjectivity, the only one citadel where the old Japanese art rose and fell; I wonder if it is not paying a too tremendous price only to gain a little objectivity of the West. Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury, England.