itics ascribe it
to an imitation of the Chinese system. Imitation it doubtless was; but
its significant feature was its imposition by the few rulers on the
people; hence its wide prevalence and general acceptance.

Similarly, in our own times, the Occidentalized order now dominant in
Japan was adopted, not by the people, but by the rulers, and imposed
by them on the people; these had no idea of resisting the new order,
but accepted it loyally as the decision of their Emperor, and this
spirit of unquestioning obedience to the powers that be is, I am
persuaded, one of the causes of the prevalent opinion respecting
Japanese imitativeness as well as of the fact itself.

The reputation for imitativeness, together with the quality itself,
is due in no small degree, therefore, to the long-continued dominance
of the feudal order of society. In a land where the dependence of the
inferior on the superior is absolute, the wife on the husband, the
children on the parents, the followers on their lord, the will of the
superior being ever supreme, individual initiative must be rare, and
the quality of imitation must be powerfully stimulated.

XVII

ORIGINALITY--INVENTIVENESS

Originality is the obverse side of imitation. In combating the notion
that Japan is a nation of unreflective imitators, I have given
numerous examples of originality. Further extensive illustration of
this characteristic is, accordingly, unnecessary. One other may be
cited, however.

The excellence of Japanese art is admitted by all. Japanese temples
and palaces are adorned with mural paintings and pieces of sculpture
that command the admiration of Occidental experts. The only question
is as to their authors. Are these, properly speaking, Japanese works
of art--or Korean or Chinese? That Japan received her artistic
stimulus, and much of her artistic ideas and technique, from China is
beyond dispute. But did she develop nothing new and independent? This
is a question of fact. Japanese art, though Oriental, has a
distinctive quality. A magnificent work entitled "Solicited Relics of
Japanese Art" is issuing from the press, in which there is a large
number of chromo-xylographic and collotype reproductions of the best
specimens of ancient Japanese art. Reviewing this work, the _Japan
Mail_ remarks:

"But why should the only great sculptors that China or Korea ever
produced have come to Japan and bequeathed to this country the
unique re