he same remark might, however, be made in
reference to the art products of any country. Be that as it may, the
Japanese people are now largely dependent on the foreigner for art
patronage. It may be that this has resulted in art-artisans abandoning
their old standard and devoting themselves to the manufacture of
whatever pays best, prostituting the spirit of art to the promptings
of gain, and compelling the native to cater for foreign taste rather
than to adhere to Japanese canons of art. I am afraid that the
commercial spirit is fatal to art of any kind. The true artist, like
the poet, in an ideal state of existence would only work under
inspiration, but, unfortunately, the artist, like the poet, is daily
faced by that necessity which knows no law and demands the subsistence
of the body as an essential for work of any kind.

Perhaps some of my readers might desire a definition of art. There
are, I know, people in this world who can never approach the
consideration of or deal with any subject unless the subject itself
and every term in connection therewith is precisely defined. In
reference to Japanese art I am inclined to employ the words of Mr.
Walter Crane in opening, many years ago, the annual exhibition of the
Arts and Crafts Society. He remarked: "The true root and basis of all
art lies in the handicrafts. If there is no room or chance of
recognition for really artistic power and feeling in design and
craftsmanship--if art is not recognised in the humblest object and
material, and felt to be as valuable, in its own way, as the more
highly rewarded pictorial skill--the art cannot be in a sound
condition. And if artists cease to be found among the crafts, there is
great danger that they will vanish from the arts also, and become
manufacturers and salesmen instead."

Japanese art is unquestionably of that kind which requires a certain
educational process. It does not, for instance, at once appeal to that
vague entity the "man in the street." There is a grotesqueness about
some of it, a lack of perspective in much of it, which is caviare to a
large number of persons. This much, however, can be said about
Japanese art--that it is original. It is almost altogether the outcome
of the artistic instincts of the people. Undoubtedly it has been to a
large extent influenced by Buddhism, and, as we have seen, Buddhism is
a foreign religion; but at the same time I think it may fairly be
asserted that, though the Buddhist reli