in the art object in question. Similarly, the various subjects themselves must be in keeping with each other—both in regard to the season, symbolically, and in regard to the other canons of art such as contrast.
Contrast (in-yo) is used in the broadest sense whether it refers to color, active and passive, or upper and lower. Thus it may be generally expressed, for example, by two birds, one with its beak closed and one with its beak open (symbolically representing the male and the female) or simply by two brush strokes in a leaf, one up and one down (Fig. 20).
Invention is simply artistic liberty used to heighten the effect, such as decreasing the number of branches of a tree or drawing the leaves relatively larger than the stems. Occasionally such relative disproportions have symbolic meanings as well, such as the relatively large head of a child indicating naivete.
Foreshortening is rendering a picture more effective by means of a minimum of design and strokes to achieve the desired effect. Thus a simple bent twig of a tree against a moonlight background may prove far more effective than a detailed realistic landscape topography. Simplicity and foreshortening were especially evident in Japanese art under the influence of Zen Buddhism. Such influence is best exemplified by the lacquer, metal, and pottery objects of the Zen tea ceremony and even permeated the associated simple aesthetic Zen-influenced flower arrangements, gardens, and architectural format. To the Japanese connoisseur this abbreviated and yet powerful form of art is considered the epitome of art whether it be graphic or sculptural such as in the netsuke. Specifically, in regard to the small surface areas provided in miniature lacquer, great artistic ingenuity is necessary in order to portray subject matter in relation to this principle of foreshortening. The small irregular area provided by an inro or a kobako necessitates abbreviation of complete scenes and landscapes which would appear too crowded and cumbersome if shown in their entirety. A part of a tree, a few sprays of flowers with a distant glimpse of a mountain are more appropriate (Fig. 21). Such suggestibility of the whole by portraying the part forms the core of the aesthetic subtlety of the Japanese artist's mind. Foreshortening goes even beyond this point. It is the ability to select and portray part of a subject both effectively and artistically, with a minimal amount of detail, stripped of minute photographic realism, from which arise strength, simplicity, delicacy, and subtlety. This concept of art prevalent in 18th-century lacquer works gave way by the mid-19th century to elaborate, gaudy, overornate, naturalistic, commonplace subject matter portrayed with an excess of minute decorative detail. This trend was due to the popularization of the arts under the more ostentatious taste of the merchants and the banal demands of the masses. These radical changes in aesthetic ideals were reflected in all forms of Japanese art. Thus simple black-and-white ink painting gave way to the naturalistic Okyo school and realistic woodblock prints. Concomitantly, in sculptural art, the simply carved, strongly expressive early netsuke gave way to detail and technical perfection. Similar changes occurred in lacquer art as seen in the 19th-century Somada and Shibayama schools as well as in makie work.
In general, when the canons of Japanese art are properly used and applied not just to stereotyped religious and military subjects, but artistically modified and softened, using nature and other less stereotyped subject matter and combined with typical Japanese decorative effects, we reach the height of Japanese aestheticism.
So far the aesthetic principles of Far Eastern art do not differ essentially from those of Western art. However, definite differences exist concerning perspective and handling of subject matter, both pictorial and ornamental. Chinese and Japanese perspective is basically two-dimensional. Shading is considered inartistic. There ate no graphic sculptural effects. Features of people are in two dimensions. Pictorially, Oriental artists used many subtle means of obtaining perspective which accomplished their purpose and at the same time aesthetically avoided the distortion of Western perspective. Depth is expressed by aerial perspective rather than linear. A landscape scene is depicted with all of the parts, both near and far, with the eye parallel to all parts of the scene rather than fixed at one angle. This contrasts with Western art, where distant lines tend to converge, giving an accurate linear scientific aspect to perspective, which, however, is not always too aesthetically pleasing. Perspective in Oriental art is, however, still artistically suggested by various other means. Thus distant objects are often partially overlapped by nearer objects or are drawn smaller or partially obscured by haze or clouds. A mountain at a distance has no ledge marks and a man no eyes. Objects in the foreground ate accentuated by having darker tones, or by using raised encrustations or raised lacquer (takamakie) techniques. More distant objects are often depicted at higher levels in the design and in softer tones and occasionally using a flat lacquer technique, such as togidashi. Occasionally perspective is interestingly shown where the observer appears to be peering down at a landscape, and at other times the eye follows the landscape upward, each successive "level," however, being parallel with the eye at its own level (Fig. 22). Occasionally the eye is at one level, halfway up a mountain or where only the middle of a tree can be seen (Fig. 23). In regard to lacquer art, perspective is stressed in many ways. Shading is delicately seen in sumie lacquer imitations of brush-stroke painting, as often done on inro made by Toyo (Figs. 22,209). Here the shading of various black and gray tones is obtained by the density of black dustings used, as well as by the depth of the black within the translucent lacquer plus the exact amount of polishing used. However, much more often perspective and depth are obtained by the three principal lacquer techniques of flat lacquer, slightly raised lacquer, and highly raised lacquer, the last almost approaching sculptural qualities. Furthermore, raised metallic, ivory, and stone inlays were often used both for decorative pictorial effect and for obtaining a sense of depth. Finally perspective was realized (as in sumie lacquer) in a much more subtle way, within the depths of flat lacquer itself, by means of soft shadings of slightly different-colored metallic dusts. By dusting these powders within different layers of the built-up lacquer, the effects of distance, clouds, mists, rain, etc., could all be obtained with perfect blending, softness, and beautiful delicacy unobtainable in any other Japanese art form (Figs. 149, 151). The same metallic dust has softly modulated different tones at different depths of the layers of lacquer (Fig. 24). The different sparkling brown, orange, and gold tones of nashiji lacquer are an example of such a technique, where the flecks of gold dust vary in color depending upon their depth within the semi-transparent lacquer.
The last major Chinese influence on Japanese art relates to subject matter. There are strict specific laws adopted from the Chinese painters for portraying various subjects down to the minutest details, including the actual sequence of each stroke. These techniques were adopted by the Japanese painters along with some secondary influences upon the lacquer artists. For example, there are 18 different ways (laws) of depicting the lines and folds of a garment. Thus the robes of "elevated personages" are portrayed by the fine "floating silk thread line" (ko-ko yu-shi byo), the stiffly starched garments of the court nobles, samurai, and Noh dancers by the stiff "stretched iron wire line" (tetsu-sen byo), and beggars' clothes by the coarse irregular "rusty nail and old post line" (ketsu-to-tei byo). Similarly, specific techniques are adhered to in portraying landscapes, water, clouds, trees, birds, and flowers. Besides the adherence to these details and laws, specific overall aesthetic and spiritual effects (such as spiritual elevation and living movement) are of paramount importance. Thus pure copying of nature or of human subjects stripped of these aesthetic principles is considered unworthy. Besides, even from a practical point of view, scenic portrayals could not be directly copied from nature because of the media of the Oriental artist. In painting, corrections of ink strokes were virtually impossible, and the rapidity of working with such ink necessitated a mental image of the entire final product before the painting could even be started. Similarly, this applied to netsuke and lacquer art. While the netsuke artist might spend hours studying his subject, such as a wild animal, the final product was his personal artistic conception, using his own unique style, of the wild animal after months of inspired carving. Similarly, with the lacquer artist, who even though he might work from sketches, or from a famous painting, the final product would be his own personal conception evolving out of months of slow, tedious, technical work necessitated by his difficult medium. True imitation is not to be seen in any great Japanese artist's work.
Landscapes should reveal the powers and influences of nature, warriors
