The Penn's Grove record., 1886-09-18
A JAPANESE EXHIBITION.
Rare Works of Art From the Realm
of the Mikado.

| metal work. the varied ceramic ware OF
japanese collections have always had a
| supreme attraction from their intrinsic
beauty and their supreme technical
merits. But they have suffered much
in interest from the want of authentic
information as to dates, periods and
masters. Japanese art, unlike other
Oriental art, is essentially personal and
individual. The artists Of the feudal
daimios lived in the intimacy OF their
lord, and were themselves not uncom-
monty ennobled; with certain exceptions
they signed their pieces, whether great
or small land especially the smallerl,
and the reputation of a great artist was
maintained by the academy which he
founded and by the successors whom he
trained and adopted, and to whom he
sometimes transmitted his %signatOry
seal. But whore was the beginning and
where the end? Who should decipher
the signatures, who record the historic
succession of schools, and who unraVel
the tangle of fable and fact which
meshed the early stories of historic artE
Mr.. Franks and Mr.. Anderson are dong
much toward this end. But the collec-
tions of connoisseurs are still apt to be
rather magazines of bric-a-brac than
orderly series of authenticated and clas-
sifed objects. A further attempt to
remedy this defect was made recently
at the Society of Arts, where the
Gil have arranged for the public exhibit
ti0n of the very extensive private collec-
tions of Ernest Hart, which he has con-
sented to lend for the next fortnight, in
illustration of three lectures which he Is
giving on the historic arts of Japan.
These collections were made with the
assistance of Mr.. Wakai Of Toxic, the
expert of the Imperial house, and cata-
logued by Mr.. Hayashi. They range l
order of succession through many cen
tmies of art, and contain examples OF
the work of most of the founders OF
the leading schools of art WORK and their
most famous successors.
OF the Buddhist pictures OF the ninth
and twelfth centuries, the work respect
lively of Kanaeka and Takuma, we may
speak with reserve. So much of the
color is gone that ~ donot find in them
the rich harmonies and the mystic beau
ties which the critics of France and
Japan identify with these famous mas
tiers. In the paintings, however OF
Motonobu fifteenth century, (whose
Tekkai eXhaling his spiritual essence is
masterpiece of this school; in the dogs
and birds by Okio; in the stately DANES
of Chosun; the carp by Nagaki Shijo's
school mysteriously darting through
cleaning water; in the ghoStly apparl-
ton of a lOvelorn spirit maiden bending
over askull hidden beneath the grass by
Genki, date 1850; IN the eagle OF Masa-
nobu, date 1870; in the birds and flowers
of Hoyen, all will recognize charms of
color and feeling and magic of brush
which Justify the enthusiasm with
which Burty, Gonse, De Goncourt, ROs-
seau, Millet and De Nittis have hailed
the works of old japanese masters hith-
erto wholly unknown here. The o
KEYS of Soson eighteenth and nine
teenth centuries) are recognized master
pieces, in which the utmost skill in deli
cate brushwork is combined with an
obviously affectionate appreciation OF
the simian character. He loved them to
the extent of spending half his life in
their society and initiating their atti-
tudes.
The other great features Of these col
lections are the laos and sword-guards,
which range from the fifteenth century
to the first half of the present century,
and the metal-work. The history of lac
is henceforth established. There are
here the early and austere work OF
Koetsu and his predecessors, followed by
the boldly impressionist incrustatlons OF
Korin, the delicately and often high
gilded works of Shiounsho and the court
lacquerers of Kioto, in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries. Built up by
months of labor bestowed on polishing
and hardening layer after layer of a
translucent varnish (rhuS vUrnicigcrd),
oftentimeS the most delicate work, 1t IS
said, was done in a punt on the lake,
out of reach of aerial dust. Every petal
and stamen is d~elicately touched and
modelled with fidelity to nature. Centu-
ries have not dimmed their beauty,
while modern lac quickly spoils. The
great triumphs of the japanese artists,
however, are in metals. The iron armor
of Miochin, tenth century, is hammered
In high relief in thin plates of very hard
cold iron; the mysterious su%ppleness and
grace which this most untractable metal
assumes in the twelfth century water
lily plateau; the living ~articulated iron
lobster and crab of the same academy of
artists, are marvels; so, too, the but
tons, and the pierced and chased iron
sword guards, and the saber ornaments
which need to be examined with a mag
nifying glass. The chasing is mastery,
the incrustations ~uneqnaled in boldness
of design and delicacy of finish. In the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
guards the mysterious alloys (shtbuichi
and Shdkudo) supplement by their ex-
quisite colors the poverty of nature and
the GOODNESS of ordinary metallic surface.
The bronZes of ToOun and Seimin are
the highest achievements Of waX-cast-
ing. Cellini has more than n rival
here. We have no space to speak of
the series of carved ivory and wood net
sukis. They are of a class better known,
although a%b0minably~ travestied by the
trash which is u imported in masses. The
ivory statuettes, known as kimonos, and
manufactured for the European market,
are not represented here. They are,
without exception, a modern invention
to please the European eye, and have no
historic prototypes. a final word only
may direct attention to the old Satsuma
faience, of which so much poor imita-
ton abounds; to the Imari porcelain
figure of a court lady of the seventeenth
century by Kakiyema, the ne plus ultra
of sculpture in porcelain, and to the
famous figure in faience by KEENAN, of
mother and child at play, which we re-
produce (Kenzan was the greatest of
Japanese potters, and this chief d'aeucre
has been more than once illustrated); or
the Temple Guardians of Nara, Of the
sixth century, reproductions in minia-
ture by Ritsono, minusculous colossi not
unworthy of the Greeks. Altogether
the collection deserves its high reputa-
ton and repays study. 1t is historically
highly representative and filled with au-
thentic objects of singular beauty and
fascination. The catalogue by Tade-
masa Hayashi is a landmark in the his
tory of japanese art.