Page:The Spirit of Japanese Art, by Yone Noguchi; 1915.djvu/65

60 stepped into the place and arrested him on the ground of insulting the officials; we must be thankful for the "enlightenment" of to-day when nobody would possibly get, as Kyosai got in 1870, ninety days in the cell from such pictures. The real meaning of Kyosai's impromptu in art is rather vague; but it is in my mind a satirical love to understand them as a huge laughter over Japan's slavishness to the West. And I often wonder if they are not caricatures which could be used to-day. Where is another Kyosai who could raise such a striking brush of scorn and sneer as to startle authority?

Kyosai used to absorb his spare time, while a young student at Kano's atelier, in the study of the No drama—out of natural love, I believe, combined with zeal to find an artistic secret in its heterogeneity, unlike the other students who sought their outside amusement nightly in popular halls of music and song; and it was an elderly lady of the Kano family who encouraged him by furnishing funds for teacher and costumes, being impressed, as a No admirer herself, by the young man's noble intention. It seems that Kyosai had not been able to fulfil the old lady's desire to see him in one of her favourite pieces called Sambaso, whether from his imperfect mastering of it then or from some other reason, when she suddenly fell ill and died ; doubtless, Kyosai took the matter to his heart of hearts. It was on the