quiring not only physical training of the most rigorous character but a high degree of skill, is in turn intimately associated with the histrionic art. For an account of the early dances and their gradual merging into the classical drama or dance known as Nō (literally, "accomplishment "), the reader is referred to the third volume of Captain Brinkley's "Japan : Its History, Arts, and Literature." Few foreigners ever learn to appreciate Japanese dancing. Its primary purpose is mimetic. "The mechanics of the dance," says Brinkley, "are as nothing to the Japanese spectator compared with the music of its motion, and he interprets the staccato and legato of its passages with discrimination amounting almost to instinct. In exceptional cases the foreigner's perception may be similarly subtle," but as he must generally be unable to apprehend the esoterics of the dance, he is "like one watching a drama where an unknown plot is acted in an unintelligible language."

As to the Japanese drama proper, it differs from our own chiefly in the stage setting and accessories, and in the greater importance given to the mimetic side of the performance.

An art essentially Japanese is that of flower arrangement. In its origin it is closely related to the Cha-no-yu, or Tea Ceremonial, which developed into a cult during the Shogunate of Ashikaga Yoshimasa in the fifteenth century. This cult, which was founded on the four cardinal virtues of urbanity, courtesy, purity, and imperturbability, has been a

mighty force in holding the Japanese true to a high standard in matters of taste, by combining "æsthetic eclecticism of the most fastidious nature with the severest canons of simplicity and austerity." The end has been achieved not so much by the elaborate code as through what it stands for; the ceremony being in reality a gathering of connoisseurs to view works of art, each of which to win favor must meet the requirements of the most exacting taste. Out of the æsthetic necessity of making fitting disposition of the flowers introduced into the tea-room, grew the art of Ike-bana, or flower arrangement. This has gradually come to have an elaborate code of its own, and several distinct "schools" have arisen. In a general way it may be said that the art consists in arranging flowers with regard to harmonious composition of line, while keeping in mind certain poetic analogies which must not be violated, and the appearance of vitality and natural growth. Here, again, the principles of composition in painting find their application.

Still another application is found in landscape gardening, which in the hands of the Japanese is also a fine art. This too has its different "schools" and its special code of rules, formulated during the many centuries of development at the hands of successive generations of artists.

Japan is, in truth, a shining example of the essential unity of all the arts, and illustrates admirably the truth of the old saying, Natura artis magister

(Nature the mistress of art). Unfortunately, what has been said in this chapter applies more to Old Japan than to the Japan of to-day. Modern Japan, whether rightly or wrongly, is becoming tired of being praised for æsthetic excellence, and is more anxious to be appraised and appreciated for its material, social, commercial, and political "progress." To the cultivated Japanese, who regard art as the highest outcome and flowering of civilization, this tendency is not encouraging. And as to the future of Japanese art, its perpetuation must come from excluding rather than attempting to amalgamate Western ideas. In the impressive words of Okakura, the outcome will be "victory from within, or a mighty death without."

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Painting: "The Pictorial Arts of Japan" (Anderson); "Catalogue of Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum (Anderson); "The Painters of Japan (Morrison). Prints: "An Outline of the History of Ukiyo-ye" (Fenollosa); "Geschichte des Japanischen Farbenholzschnitts" (Seidlitz); Japanese Illustration" (Strange); "Japanese Wood Engravings" (Anderson); "Japanese Wood-cutting and Woodcut Printing" (Tokuno).

Pottery: Catalogue of the Morse Collection of Japanese Pottery, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston" (Morse); “Japan: Its History, Art, and Literature" (Brinkley); "Keramic Art of Japan" (Audsley and Bowes); "L'Art Japonais " (Gonse). Glyptic Art: "Histoire de l'Art du Japan," published by the Japanese Commission for the Paris Exposition of 1900. This work contains much information about all the arts, not available elsewhere.

Metal Work-Lacquer: "The Industries of Japan" (Rein); "Notes on Shippo " (Bowes); "Ornamental Arts of Japan

(Audsley); "L'Art Japonais" (Gonse); "Japan and its Art" (Huish).

Music: "The Music and Musical Instruments of Japan" (Piggott); "Miyako-Dori" (Bevan).

Poetry: "History of Japanese Literature" (Aston); "Classical Poetry of the Japanese" (Chamberlain); "Japanese Odes" (Dickins).

Drama: "Artistic Japan," vol. v. (edited by S. Bing).

Flower Arrangement: "The Flowers of Japan and the Art of Floral Arrangement" (Conder).

Landscape-Gardening:

(Conder).

"Landscape-Gardening in Japan"

General: "An Artist's Letters from Japan" (La Farge); "Jinrikisha Days in Japan" (Scidmore).

CHAPTER XVII1

DISESTABLISHMENT OF SHINTŌ

OUTLINE OF TOPICS: Religion in Japan; Shinto; a "natural religion"; simple services; religious patriotism; perfunctory worship; Shinto doomed "as a religion"; secularization of Ise shrines; element of embarrassment to Christians; "worship" (?) of Emperor's portrait; difficulties in translation of Christian terms; method of reforms in Japan; future of Shintō.- Bibliography.

T is a curious fact that Japan cannot boast of an indigenous religion, or of much original mental

I

or moral philosophy. "Shinto" (The Gods' Way), purely Japanese in its origin, is only a cult, a system of worship, not a religion, or even a philosophy. Buddhism and Confucianism came in from China, perhaps through Korea, and Christianity entered from Europe and America.

Shinto is a system in which the deification and worship of heroes, emperors, family ancestors, and forces of nature play an important part. It has no dogmas, no sacred books, no moral code, "no philosophy, no code of ethics, no metaphysics"; it sums up its theory of human duty in the following injunction: "Follow your natural impulses and obey the laws of

1 A large portion of this chapter is reprinted, by permission, from "The Standard," Chicago.