The Japanese people, at the extreme southern end of the Palace of Fine
Arts, have a representative show of painted screens, of extraordinary
beauty. Anyone, without being in the least familiar with the fauna and
flora of Japan, must admire the tremendously acute power of observation
and surety of drawing which made these designs possible. The two sixfold
screens by Taisei Minakami on the east wall of the eastern gallery are
probably the most magnificently daring examples of modern Japanese art.
To the student of design they offer a most stimulating opportunity for
study. Acutely observed, their tropical subjects, very daring in colour,
are exhaustively beautiful. The spacing of the design, the relative
distribution of the few daring colours against a gold background of
wonderful texture, combine in a picture of great vitality. The art of no
people is so scientific as that of these people, whose every effort, no
matter how insignificant, is technically always sound. Our modern art
schools could very profitably imitate the Japanese principle of teaching
their young students how to do a thing well and of leaving the choice of
subjects to their own inclination.
Almost opposite, a vertical composition of a lumber camp on a
mountainside, by Bunto Hayashi, attracts by an unusual subject very
descriptively rendered. The picture belongs to the older school, not so
much for the lack of colour, which is often erroneously identified with
the older Japanese works, as for a certain quality of less decoration
and of more detailed treatment of the drawing. The drawing is, of
course, the important element in all Japanese art, since all of their
work has to yield a great deal of pleasure of the intellectual kind at
close distance, on account of the smallness of Japanese dwellings, which
keeps the owner of the picture in close proximity with his artistic
possessions. A picture of crows in a rainstorm, on the same wall, on the
right side of the southern door, and also a very characteristic study of
some kind of cedar, with birds on the left of it, give one an excellent
idea of the astonishing variety of material that the Japanese artist
successfully controls.
In two irregularly shaped triangular galleries adjoining, Shodo Hirata
maintains the standard of the first gallery, not to forget, either,
Toyen Oka with his oleander bush and the cat on the picturesque fence.
Tesshu Okajima's hollyhock screens are marvels of decorative simplicity,
while Kangai Takakura uses a washday as a motive for a double twofold
screen decoration. The last two artists can both be found in the second
irregular triangular gallery, opposite the first one mentioned. The
central octagonal gallery also is devoted to screen pictures, done by
means of embroidery. Some of them, largely those of native design, are
successful in really giving the quality of the subjects depicted, but
cannot grow enthusiastic over two unduly protected screen embroideries,
a German marine and an English pair of lions, done in silk. They are
both as hard as nails and devoid of any real suggestion of the spirit
which animates either water or lions in reality. If it is so great an
achievement as we are often asked to believe to do certain things in
badly chosen material, then why not try to reproduce Rafael's "Sistine
Madonna" with thumbtacks? Most such attempts to find an agreeable
substitute for the various painting media are merely silly.
Sharing the hospitality of the cases with the embroidery pictures are
the wood sculptures, some of which are intensely interesting, as, for
instance, the "Man with the Spade." The underlying idea of cubism is
very intelligently embodied in this small figure, without any
affectation. The many small woodblock prints to be seen here do credit
to the reputation which Japanese artists have long enjoyed in this
special field.
The remaining smaller galleries are given over to replicas of the
originals of older art, modern sculpture, and painting in the modern
style. Why the modern Japanese artists want to divorce themselves from
the traditions of their forefathers seems incomprehensible. There is not
a thing in the western style in this gallery of Japanese painting that
comes anywhere near giving one the artistic thrills won by their
typically Japanese work. I think the sooner these wayward sons are
brought back into the fold of their truly Oriental colleagues, the
better it will be for the national art of Japan, the most profound art
the world has ever seen.