long as the work of these
artists of various kinds endures the world will assuredly never cease
to admire it.

Painting has, in Japan, long been greatly cultivated, and in some
respects highly developed. There are various recognised schools of
painting, but I shall not weary my readers with any attempt,
necessarily imperfect as it would be, to describe them in detail.
China and the Buddhist religion have profoundly influenced painting as
the other arts of Japan. Indeed, the early painters of Japan devoted
themselves almost entirely to religious subjects. Most of their work
was executed on the walls, ceilings, and sliding screens of the
Buddhist temples, but some of it still exists in kakemonos, or wall
pictures, and makimonos, or scroll pictures. In the ninth century
painting, as well as the arts of architecture and carving, flourished
exceedingly. Kyoto appears to have been the great artistic centre. The
construction of temples throughout the country proceeded apace, and it
is related that no less than 13,000 images were carved and painted
during the reign of one emperor. Kyoto was, in fact, the centre of
religious art. We are told that the entire city was in a constant
artistic ferment, that whole streets were converted into studios and
workshops, and that the population of idols and images was as numerous
as the human habitation. Nearly all the temples then constructed and
adorned have vanished, but that at Shiba still remains to convey to us
some idea of the artistic glories of this period of intense religious
belief, which gave expression to its fervour and its faith in
architecture, carving, and painting. About the thirteenth century
flower and still-life painting came into vogue. Almost simultaneously
religious fervour, as expressed in art, began to grow cold. The artist
became the hanger-on of the Daimio, who was too often employed in
burning temples and destroying their artistic treasures. The painter
then painted as his fancy led him, and if he treated of religious
subjects did not invariably do so in a reverential spirit. From time
to time new schools of painting arose, culminating, in the eighteenth
century, in the Shijo school, which made a feature of painting
animals, birds, fishes, flowers, &c., from nature, instead of adhering
to the conventional style which had previously prevailed. The
colouring of some of the work of this school is superb and is greatly
in request among art collectors.

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