volution of 1868,
with its consequent cataclysms, caused the treasures of many of the
great families to come on the market, with the result that they were
bought up at prices often greatly below their intrinsic value and
shipped from the country. They are of course gone for ever, and the
only thing that now remains to Japan is to prevent as far as possible
any of the treasures which she possesses meeting with a similar fate.
I know perfectly well that art, like music, knows nothing of
nationality, and that there is no reason why the resident of London or
New York should not enjoy the beauties of Japanese art, and feast his
eyes on the work of some great Japanese artist of three or four
hundred years back just as much as the citizen of Tokio. This is in
one sense true, but at the same time one cannot help sympathising with
the patriotic desire of a people to retain in their midst specimens of
the artistic conceptions and the artistic work of those famous men who
are now ashes, but whose work remains as a symbol and an incentive to
their countrymen to maintain a high standard, and to practise art
simply and solely for the love of it.

CHAPTER XIII

JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE

There are, perhaps, some superior persons who may consider that
Japanese architecture has no claim to be regarded as art. These
persons have no conception of art in architecture unless it be Doric,
Gothic, Byzantine, Early English, or something of the kind, and unless
it be expressed in bricks and mortar. Now Japanese architecture is
only wood, but though only wood, as regards its majestic beauty,
seemliness, and adaptability to the purposes for which it is intended,
it stands unique. Moreover, it is the only timber architecture in the
world that has attained in any degree artistic importance. Almost
every building in Japan is, or, to speak more accurately, was,
constructed of wood--a fact possibly due to the interminable
earthquakes to which the country was long, and is still occasionally,
subjected. In Japanese architecture no brick or stone is used unless
it be for foundations; nevertheless, this restriction to wood material
has not prevented the Japanese architects of the past raising
stupendous structures which in beauty of adornment and durability have
long been the admiration of the Western world. The Temple of Nara, for
example, was constructed three hundred years before the foundations of
Westminster Abbey were laid. As Dr. Dresser ha