Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-29
JAPANESE INFLUENCE
ON DECORATION
By KATE eREENLEAF LOCKE.

There was a time not long ago when
to furnish a room in Japanese style"
was to garnish the walls with q frieze
of fans, to string lanterns about and,
worst Of all, to open a large Japanese
umbrella over a couch and call 1t a
'cozy corner. The ghost of the coy
corner has been laid for some years.
but there are mistakes that survive in
connection with Japanese ideas in dec
Grafton that are absolutely at variance
with the facts.
/ have seen so-called Japanese rooms
that were SO cluttered with senseless ar
ticles of bric-a-brac and foolish decora-
tons that they were almost too much
for an American taste, and certain
ly for a people who have the purest
and cleanest feeling for art Of any in
the world. The Japanese interior is bare
to the last extremity. but every shade
Of color Is considered carefully-that is,
used to make up the clean picture OF
few tones, which is the room itself.
| have had an intelligent and artistic
individual of this nationality try to ex-
plain to me why some OF the reception
rooms in the United States were as be-
wildering to him as a three-ringed cir
Gus. He protested that he simply could
not absorb in one sitting all OF the va
rious suggestions of artistic effects that
We're presented to him at once 1t is true
that their decorations actually appeal
TO the intellect and cannot be thoroughly
appreciated until they are understood
through these faculties. As a hong course
OF study is necessary to prepare the
young Of their own nation for this I'M
derstanding it is absurd to pretend, as
many do in this country, to have COM
plete appreciation of Japanese art. 1t is
as subtle and as mysterious as their own
cryptic natures and the outsider can never
follow its sinuOsities.
However. we have to thank Japan for
many beautiful things wherewith we
beautify our hOuses-things such as GER
tain articles Of furniture that give a pretty
foreign touch to an otherwise common
place room. They may never have used
these things in their own houses-in fact,
it is we'll known that they manufacture
chiefly in these latter days for the Amer
lean market the sort Of stuff that pleases
the American taste, and there are many
conservative Japanese who bewail the
fact that on this account Japanese art
has deteriorated past hope.
We need not buy. and We should not.
the monstrosities In chairs that have
been sold to the unsuspecting as brave
specimens of Japanese art. The dis
tOrted devils and contorted dragons that
are entwined in some OF this furniture
always suggest to me the bad dream
Of bad Japanese; but there are many
pieces in the way of teakwood stands,
pedestals and also large tables that are
pure in line, exquisitely carved and ar
tistically Of great value. Their lacquer.
their bronze. their bamboo work. their
pottery, could not be replaced il we
were to lose it. and our houses would
lose in actual beauty and charm more
than could even be made up to them by
any other nation. In the shaping and
making of vases they are past masters.
Whether Of porcelain or bronze OF cloi-
some. they are rarely anything but
beautiful. and often surprisingly so.
have seen a quiet room simply furnished
lifted out Of the commonplace by the in
PRODUCTION Of a beautiful fern or small
palm sunk in one Of their inimitab BILE bas-
kets Of brown bamboo and set on a teak
wood stand OF perfectly plain lines.