play of light
and shade they do not understand; there is no distinction of distances.
Their figures are good, delicately executed, and their choice of colors
admirable. In profile work or bas-relief they get on very well, where
there is no perspective required, but in grouping they pile houses on
the sea and mountains on the housetops. At caricature they greatly
excel, indeed they scarcely attempt to represent the human face and
figure in any other light. In place of entertaining any idea of what is
lovely in our species, they look only at the human face and form from
the ludicrous side, and this they render by giving it ideal ugliness, or
by exaggerating the grosser characteristics. The Japanese artist knowing
nothing of anatomy as a science, in its connection with art, nor even
attempting the simplest principle of foreshortening, we can only fairly
judge as to his success in what he practices. It will be curious to
watch the progress of the Japanese, and see their first attempts in
perspective drawing. So intelligent and imitative a race will not fail
to acquire this simple principle of art and nature; the only mystery
seems to be how it has so long escaped them.

Architecture can hardly be said to exist in Japan, though we have used
the term. The houses of the prince and the cobbler are the same,
consisting of a one-story building composed of a few upright posts,
perhaps of bamboo, and a heavy thatched roof. The outer walls are mere
sliding doors or shutters, while the interior is divided by screens or
sliding partitions. The man of means uses finer material and polished
wood, with better painted screens: that is all. Prince and peasant use
rice-paper in place of glass, and a portable brasier to warm the hands
and feet and to cook with; there are no fireplaces in the country,
except in European houses. The pagodas and temples at Nikko and
elsewhere are of the typical Chinese stamp, and as far as architectural
design is concerned are all alike, and all built of wood. When speaking
of the fine and durable masonry, reference was had to the lofty
inclosing walls, causeways, and steps which lead up to the broad ground
and tombs at Nikko.

We took passage from Yokohama for Kobe in the English mail steamship
Sumatra, of the P. and O. line, which, after two days' pleasant voyage,
landed us at the northern entrance to the Inland Sea of Japan. Kobe is
of some commercial importance, quite Europeanized, but of very little
int