s
introduced by Francis Xavier and the traders in the Dutch factory at
Nagasaki were in the habit of exporting a few articles to Europe,
chiefly porcelain ware made to order. I fear both missionaries and
merchants regarded Japanese art, as we now know it, as barbaric, and
never in the slightest degree realised either its beauties or its
originality. Neither they nor the many millions of art-lovers in
Europe dreamt that Japan was a country where art was universal, not
esoteric--an art with schools, traditions, masters, and masterpieces.
Probably the Paris Exhibition of 1867, to which the Prince of Satsuma
sent a collection of Japanese artistic treasures, was the occasion
when the true inwardness of Japanese art burst upon the Western world
as a whole. It was a veritable revelation. It at once aroused
enthusiasm and curiosity, and I fear cupidity, among European artists
and art collectors. Europe was awakened to the possibilities of Japan
as an art nation, and Japan, failing to realise or properly appreciate
the artistic accumulated wealth it possessed, commenced to part with
it in a truly reckless manner. The depletion of the art treasures of
the country commenced about this time, and though that depletion has
been largely arrested, it is nevertheless still, to some extent, going
on.

Japanese art, as it has come under the cognisance of a foreigner, may
be considered in connection with four or five purposes to which it has
been employed or adapted. First amongst these I place lacquer, next
pottery and porcelain, then carving in wood and iron, metal-work and
painting. The lacquer industry has been in existence in Japan so long
as we have any authoritative history of the country. If any credence
is to be given to tradition, long before the Christian era there was
an official whose sole duty it was to superintend the production of
lacquer for the Imperial Court, and specimens over a thousand years
old, though rare, still exist. The process of lacquering is a somewhat
intricate one, and varies, of course, in accordance with the time and
labour spent on the article to be lacquered, and the cost of the same.
After the article has been carefully made from specially selected
wood--in the case of the choicest specimens of lacquer work this is
usually a pine-wood of fine grain--it is first coated with a
preparation composed of clay and varnish, which, after being permitted
to dry, is smoothed down with a whetstone. When this oper