One of these specimens is a hook in two volumes, written by the Prince
Hayashi, the chief member of the imperial commission appointed to negotiate
the treaty, and presented by him to Commodore Perry. The subject treated
of is 11 The Points of a Horse,” and the work is illustrated hy a large number
of pictures. These illustrations are from woodcuts of bold outline, and
apparently printed with a tint to distinguish each in the various groups of
the animal, by sober greys, reds, and blacks. The style might be classed as
that of the mediaeval, and the horses might pass for those sketched in the
time of Albert Purer, though with a more rigid adherence to nature. They
exhibit, what may be noticed in the Elgin marbles, a breed of small stature
and finely formed limbs, such as are found in southern countries. There is
great freedom of hand shown in the drawing.' The animals are represented
in various attitudes, curvetting, gambolling, and rolling upon the ground,
positions requiring and exhibiting an ability in foreshortening, which is
found, with no small surprise, in Asiatic art.
Another example of Japanese art before us is a species of frieze, if we
may so call it, cut in wood and printed on paper in colors. I t presents a
row or line of the huge wrestlers of whom we have spoken on a previous
page. The chief point of interest in this illustration, considered in an
artistic sense, is, that, apart from its being a successful specimen of printing
in colors—a process, by the way, quite modern among ourselves—there is a
breadth and vigor of outline compared with which much of our own drawing
appears feeble, and above all things, undecided. Whatever the Japanese
may lack as regards art, in a perception of its true principles, the style,
grace, and even a certain mannered dexterity which their drawings exhibit,
show that they are possessed of an unexpected readiness and precision of
touch, which are the prominent characteristics in this picture of the wrestlers.
There is no stiffness or angularity about it. There is also a picture
of an amphitheatre, in which the wrestlers appear, which serves to correct an
error found in former writers as to Japanese ignorance of perspective.
In illustration of the rapidity and dexterity with which the Japanese
artists work we have the testimony of the chaplain of the Mississippi, the
Rev. Mr. Jones, who employed an artist at Hakodadi to paint for him a set
of screens. Mr. Jones sat by the painter and watched him at his work.
He made no previous sketch, but drew at once the various portions of the
landscape, putting in his houses, ships, horses, trees and birds, with wonderful
readiness, the whole being a fancy piece; and when he came to paint the
foliage of some pines, he used two brushes in one hand at the same time, so
as to expedite his work. The result was, though not a production of high
art, yet a much better specimen of ornamental screen than could readily be
found in the most pretentious manufacturing establishments of our own
country. And here we may add, that a very remarkable specimen of
Japanese linear drawing in perspective fell under Mr. Jones’s observation.
On the first visit of the squadron to Japan, as we have stated, intense interest
was excited among the natives by the engines of the steamers. Their
curiosity seemed insatiable, and the Japanese artists were constantly employed,
when they had opportunity, in making drawings of parts of the
machinery, and seeking to understand its construction and the-principles of
its aotion. On the second visit of the squadron, Mr. Jones saw, in the
hands of a Japanese, a perfect drawing, in true proportion, of the whole
engine, with its several parts in place, which he says was as correct and good
as could have been made anywhere. The Japanese artist had made it, and
valued it very highly, being unwilling to part with it at any price ; Mr.
Jones would have gladly bought it, and offered to do so, that he might bring
it home as a specimen of Japanese skill.
In regard to anatomical markings, there is, in the specimens of Japanese
drawings we have before us, no lack of such a degree of correctness as may be
obtained by close outward observation of the parts. The muscular development
of the horses, both in action and at rest, is shown in lines sufficiently
true to nature to prove a very minute and accurate observation, on the part
of the artist, of the external features of his subjects. This is very striking
in the frieze of the wrestlers alluded to above. I t is characterized by
remarkable precision in this respect, and while preserving in the figures all
the peculiar features of the Asiatic stock, the outer angle of the eye running
upward, the small corneas, &c., there is distinctive expression, yet with similarity,
and a height, of art is reached in the drawings corresponding, as
regards naturalistic characters, with what has been found in some of the
Nineveh fragments.
The third example of Japanese art is afforded by an unpretending,
illustrated child’s book, purchased in Hakodadi for a few Chinese copper
“ cash.” This humble little primer suggests a thousand points of interest in
connexion with the Japanese, and acquaints us at once as we turn over the
very first page, with an important fact as regards their advance in art. We
here find evidence that, unlike the Chinese, the artists of Japan have, as we
have already hinted, a knowledge of perspective. There is a balcony presented
in angular perspective, with its rafters placed in strict accordance
with the.principle of terminating the perspective lines in a vanishing point
abruptly on the horizon. On another page there is what appears to be some
Tartar Hercules or Japanese St. Patrick clearing the land of reptiles and
vermin, and the donghty destroyer is brandishing his sword in the most
valiant style. This is drawn with a freedom and humorous sense of the
grotesque and ludicrous that are rarely found in similar books prepared for
the amusement of children with us. In one of the illustrations there is a
quaint old shopman peering through a pair of spectacles stuck upon his nose, '
and made precisely like the double-eyed glasses just now so fashionable,
without any side wires or braces to confine them to the head. A number of
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