Part 5 (1/2)

The serrated or sawtooth dot (KYO shi+ shi+N) _(Plate xxxV a)_, much used for distant pine-tree effects

The Chinese character for ”one” (ICHI JI TEN) _(Plate xxxV b)_ The effect produced by this character is very ree at a distance appears to be in layers

The Chinese character for ”heart” (shi+N), called shi+N JI TEN _(Plate xxxVI a)_ This is used rasses

The Chinese character for ”positively” (HITSU), called HITSU JI TEN _(Plate xxxVI b)_ This dot or stroke is successfully ee of thetree in spring

The rice dot, called BEI TEN _(Plate xxxVIII a)_

The dot called HAKU YO TEN _(Plate xxxVII b)_, being smaller than the pepper dot, with the clove dot (SHO JI TEN) surrounding it

It is a strictly observed rule that none of these dots should interfere with or hide the branches of the trees of which they form part

The term _chobo chobo_ is applied to the practice of always finishi+ng a landscape painting, rocks, trees or flowers, with certain dots judiciously added to enliven and heighten the general effect These dots, done with a springing wrist ive it freshness, just as a rain shower affects vegetation The Kano artists were most insistent upon _chobo chobo_

There are many quaint aids to artistic effects from time immemorial well known to and favored by the old Chinese painters and still successfully practiced in japan Probably the larger number of these are eons (p 66 _et seq)_ There are still others: as, for instance, the fish-scale pattern _(Plate XIX)_, used in painting the clustered needles of the pine tree or the bending branches of the ; the stork's leg for pine tree branches _(Plate XIX)_; the gourd for the head and elongated jaws of the dragon; the egg for the body of a bird (_Plate XXII_; the stag horn for all sorts of interlacing branches; the turtle back pattern or the dragon's scales for the pine tree bark In addition to these, the general shapes of certain of the Chinese written characters are invoked for reproducing winding streas of rocks, rasses and the like

Of course the exact shape of the various Chinese characters here referred to must not be actually painted into the composition but merely the sentiment of their respective forms recalled They are simply practical memory aids to desired effects

It is the spirit of the character rather than its exact shape which should control; the order of the painted strokes being that of the written character, its sentieneral shape is thus reproduced

In this connection I would allude to criticis in which particular stress is laid upon its calligraphic quality

If any japanese artist was seriously inforraphic, he would explode with mirth There are several ways to account for this rather wide-spread error Much that is written about japanese painting and its calligraphy is but the repetition by one author of what he has taken on trust fro misinformation It is quite true that the assiduous study of Chinese writing (SHO) is an essential part of thorough art education in japan, not, however, for the purpose of learning to paint as one writes, or of introducing written characters(if that be what is ive the artist freedo of the brush and to train his eye to forth of stroke and a knowledge of the sequence of strokes To write in Chinese after the reat art, estee; it requires thirty years of constant practice to become expert therein, and it has many laws and profound principles which, if reater in their painting, and many japanese artists have justly prided the expert writers of the Chinese characters Okyo practiced daily for three years the writing of two intricate characters standing for his name, until he was satisfied with their forraphic about any of Okyo's painting

Possibly what has n critics and even some japanese writers is that there exists a class of , and also to painting in a particular way

Theseis called BUN JIN FU They are not artists, but are known as Confucius'

scholars (JU SHA), and being professional or trained writers in the difficult art of Chinese calligraphy they have a eneris_ It is known as the NAN GWA or southern literary way of painting Their subjects are the bamboo, the pluons (shi+ KUN shi+) These and landscapes they paint with their writing brush and rass character (SO SHO)In fact, they often ai and they rarely use any color except light-brown (TAI SHA) They suppress line as distinguished from mass Thisof the NAN GWA school is, in a sense, calligraphic, but that is not the kind of painting which japanese artists are taught, practice and profess, nor is it even recognized as an art, but simply as an eccentric develop At one ti of the Meiji era, have affected this BUN JIN calligraphy style si fashi+on

One other possible explanation of the critics pronouncing all japanese paintings calligraphic is that various Chinese characters are, as we have seen, invoked and e certain effects; but were these characters introduced calligraphically, the result would be laughable It should be plain then that japanese painting is not calligraphic; as well apply the terraphy to one of Turner's water colors On the other hand, Chinese writing is built up on word pictures There are between five and six hundredthe shapes of objects; these, with their later combinations, constitute the Chinese written systeraphic about japanese painting, there is raphy

Other landscape laws applicable to things seen at a distance in a painting require that distant trees should show no branches nor leaves; people at a distance, no features; distant ain, clouds should indicate whence they co water the direction of its source; mountains, their chains; and roads, whither they lead

In regard to paintingwaters, whether of deep or shallow, in rivers or brooks, bays or oceans, Chinanpin declared it was impossible for the eye to seize their exact for and have no fixed, definite shape, therefore they can not be sketched satisfactorily; yet, as , it should be long and eneral character-whether leaping in the brook, flowing in the river, roaring in the cataract, surging in the ocean or lapping the shore-observed and reflected upon, and after the eye and memory are both sufficiently trained and the very soul of the artist is saturated, as it were, with this one subject and he feels his whole being calm and composed, he should retire to the privacy of his studio and with the early ladden his spirit there atte what he has seen, for the effect would be stiff and wooden, but by sy to certain lahat he feels and remembers

In work of this kind there are certain directions for the employment of the brush which can only be learned from oral instruction and demonstration by the master

In _Plate xxxVIII_ a, 1, the method by which waves are reproduced is shown, the circles indicating where the brush is turned upon itself before again curving On the same plate (b) waveless water, shalloater, and river water with current are indicated at the top, middle and botto waters of an inland sea; in b, the bounding waters of a brook; in _Plate XL_, the stormy waves of the ocean

We will now consider another unique departarar to what are known as the eighteen laws for the dress (EMON JU HACHI BYO) I will mention each of these laws in its order and refer to the plate illustrations of the sa silk thread line (KOU KO YU shi+ BYOU) (_Plate XLI_ upper)

This line was introduced by the Tosa school of artists eight hundred years ago and has been in favor ever since It is the purest or standard line and is reserved for the robes of elevated personages The brush is held firmly and the lines, made to resemble silk threads drawn from the cocoon, are executed with a free and uninterruptedline (KIN shi+ BYOU) (_Plate XLI_ lower) This is a line of nity and of unifor a little more of the tip of the brush than in the silk thread line and there must be no break or pause in it until conified subjects

Chasing clouds and running water lines (KOU UN RYU SUI BYOU) (_Plate XLII_ upper) These are produced with a wave-like, continuous enerally reserved for the gar men and women