On the Laws of Japanese Painting: An Introduction to the Study of the Art of Japan |
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autumn Bairei bamboo beautiful bird blossom Bowie branches brush stroke Buddhist BYOU called calligraphic CHIKU China Chinanpin Chinese characters Chinese writing chobo chrysanthemum color effect employed esoragoto executed favorite feel fish scales flower fude Gaho grasses Hashimoto Gaho HITSU ICHI IWAYA IWAYA SAZANAMI Japa Japan Japanese art Japanese artist Japanese painting kakemono Kano artists Kano painters Kano school KIKU known Kubota Beisen Kyoto LAWS FOR PAINTING LAWS OF JAPANESE leaf leaves ledges light and shade Line lower Line upper manner master Matahei matsuri Meiji period method month mountain Moving Waters nese Okyo orchid paper paragon picture pine tree plant Plate LVII Plate LX plum tree principle prints produced pupil rabbit hair reproduce rice rocks School-Prints seal season SEKIJO sentiment shape SHOKU SHUN Plate signature silk style sumi suzuri tions tokonoma Tokyo Torei Tosa school Ukiyo YOBOKU
Popular passages
Page 36 - It is related of Chinanpin, the great Chinese painter, that an art student having applied to him for instruction, he painted an orchid plant and told the student to copy it. The student did so to his own satisfaction, but the master told him he was far away from what was most essential. Again and again, during several months, the orchid was reproduced, each time an improvement on the previous effort, but never meeting with the master's approval. Finally Chinanpin explained as follows: The long, blade-like...
Page 35 - When representing an object suggesting strength, such, for instance, as rocky cliff, the beak or talons of a bird, the tiger's claws, or the limbs and branches of a tree, the moment the brush is applied the sentiment of strength must be invoked and felt throughout the artist's system and imparted through his arm and hand to the brush, and so transmitted into the object painted.
Page 62 - ... 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 morning sun to gladden his spirit there attempt to reproduce the movement of the flow; not by copying what he has seen, for the...
Page 62 - ... be sketched satisfactorily; yet, as moving water must be represented in painting, it should be long and minutely contemplated by the artist, and its general 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...
Page 81 - The patron upon its receipt marvelled at the extraordinary skill with which the painting had been executed, and, repairing to the artist's residence, he said, 'Master, I have come to thank you for the picture; but, excuse me, you have painted the bamboo red.' 'Well,' cried the master, 'in what colour would you desire it?' 'In black of course,
Page 62 - Chinese teacher] declared it was impossible for the eye to seize their exact forms because they are ever changing and have no fixed definite shape, therefore they can not be sketched satisfactorily; yet, as moving water must be represented in painting, it should be long and minutely contemplated by the artist, and its general character — whether leaping in the brook, flowing in the river, roaring in the cataract, surging in the ocean or lapping the shore...
Page 79 - With a sumiye-painting, any brush stroke painted over a second time results in a smudge ; the life has left it. All corrections show when the ink dries. So is life. We can never retract what we have once committed to deeds, nay, what has once passed through consciousness can never be rubbed out. Zen therefore ought to be caught while the thing is going on, neither before nor after. It is an act of one instant. When Dharma was leaving China, as the...
Page 77 - ... be painted by the artist. Whatever the subject to be translated — whether river or tree, rock or mountain, bird or flower, | fish or animal — the artist at the moment of painting it must feel its very nature, which, by the magic of his art, he transfers into his work to remain forever, affecting all who see it with the same sensations he experienced when executing it.
Page 77 - Japanese painting — indeed, a fundamental and entirely distinctive characteristic — is that of living movement, sei do ... it being, so to say, the transfusion into the work of the felt nature of the thing to be painted by the artist. Whatever the subject to be translated — whether river or tree, rock or mountain, bird or flower, fish or animal — the artist at the moment of painting it must feel its very nature, which, by the magic of his art, he transfers into his work to remain forever,...
Page 78 - If he paint a storm he must at the moment realize passing over him the very tornado which tears up trees from their roots and houses from their foundations. Should he depict the seacoast with its cliffs and moving waters, at the moment of putting the wave-bound rocks into the picture he must feel that they are being placed there to resist the fiercest movement of the ocean, while to the waves in turn he must give an irresistible power to carry all before them. Thus, by this sentiment called living...