reviously
or has since been attained. The bronze work of Japan is not, in my
opinion, as generally appreciated as it deserves to be. There is, I
think, nothing of the same kind in the world to be compared with it
when it was at its best. Like much of the other art of Japan modern
conditions are, as I have said, not conducive either to its progress
or development. Still, there is no lack of skill in this particular
branch of art in Japan at the present time, and I have seen some very
admirable, not to say magnificent, specimens of modern bronze work.

[Illustration: BRONZE INCENSE-BURNER AND SMALL FLOWER-VASE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY]

Armour is now nearly as effete in Japan as in this country, and yet in
the decoration of armour the Japanese artist in metal was in the past
not only skilful but beautiful. Fine specimens of armour are now
extremely rare. That particular kind of work has, of course, gone
never to return. Next in importance to armour came the sword. Some of
us can remember when the two-sworded men of Japan were still
actualities, not, as they have now become, historical entities, the
terror of the foreign community there. The sword was an important and,
indeed, an essential weapon in the conditions of society that obtained
in old Japan, not only for self-defence but for offensive purposes,
either in respect of family feuds or individual quarrels, which were
almost invariably settled by the arbitrament of the sword. That weapon
was also used for those suicides known as hara-kiri, the outcome of
wounded honour or self-respect, which were such prominent features in
the Japanese life of the past. Some Western writers have attempted to
poke a mild kind of fun at this proneness of the Japanese for the
"happy despatch" on what seemed to the writers very flimsy or trivial
grounds. To me, on the contrary, the practice of hara-kiri,
indefensible as it may be in some respects, indicates the existence of
a high code of honour, the slightest infringement of which rendered
life intolerable. The sword then had innumerable functions, and, like
almost every article of utility in Japan, it became the subject of
elaborate ornamentation. The blade itself was brought to a high state
of perfection, and as regards the tempering of the steel has been the
admiration of cutlers in every part of the globe. Indeed the
sword-makers of Japan are famous from the tenth century downwards.
Many of the sword-blades had mottoes inscribed