For historical reasons alone, if not for supremacy along artistic lines,
Japan and China should by right be dealt with at the very beginning. But
having had, since time immemorial, a very detached, highly original
note, they fit in anywhere, if not best in between the art of the
Romanic and Germanic races. Practically the entire world owes a great
debt to Japan, for a certain outlook in decorative art has been adopted
from Japan by the best artists of the world. Oriental art is so truly an
art of the people, devoting itself most closely to the artistic
development of the utilitarian things of life, that to see them at their
best one has to look at their furniture, including folding screens,
pottery, jewelry, rugs, and practically everything else that is needed
in the daily life of the people. The art of China and Japan is so old
that its real origin is almost a matter of guesswork, and has a certain
general obscurity to most outsiders, owing to language, religion, and
customs. This has led to a commercial exploitation of their art in
Europe, and in America particularly, based mostly on humbug and partly
on facts. If all the pottery, rugs and furniture said to have come from
distinguished artists and from even more distinguished circles of
ownership, mostly palaces of the Ming dynasty, were enumerated, there
would be nothing left to have come from the atmosphere of the ordinary
Oriental. The Japanese and Chinese are taking quick advantage of the
guilelessness of the western lover of art, and much that is to be seen
in either one of the two sections is rather a concession to western
demand than to native Oriental talent. Only the special student of
oriental art will consent to learn enough of the Japanese or Chinese
language to familiarize himself with any other than the commonly known
artists of these countries, and all that one can do within the frame of
an international exhibition is to single out those things which appeal
on the basis of certain artistic principles which are the same the world
over. To go into the many religious and other sentimental considerations
which are sometimes the basic justification for some very extraordinary
fantastic things, charmingly exploited by certain art dealers, is
impossible within the scope of this book.