PLACING

In Japan there is no such thing as accident. A scene which in its beauty
and perfect placing appears to the visitor to be the result of Nature in
an unusually generous mood, has in reality been the object of infinite
care and thought and anxious deliberation to these little Japanese
artists, the landscape gardeners. That temple which seems to place
itself so remarkably well in relation to the big lines of Nature, its
background, has been carefully built and thought out from that
standpoint alone. The great trees by the side of the temple, with their
graceful jutting boughs that form the principal feature of the picture,
have not grown like that, for all their apparent naturalness; they have
been nursed and grafted and forced into shape with the utmost care
imaginable.

The sense of perfect placing, which is the sense of balance, is the true
secret of the Japanese art, by which they attain perfection. All
Orientals are more or less possessed of this intuitive sense of balance,
and the Japanese carry it into the most minute details of daily life.
If you enter a Japanese room you will always find that the bough of
blossom is placed in relation to the kakemono and other furniture to
form a picture. And the special note of Japanese house decoration is
this bough of blossom, with which I was immensely struck. Now, this is
an altogether artistic thing. At one party at which I was present I saw
a piece of blossom-bough put right out at a curious angle from a
beautiful blue jar. Turning to my neighbour, a young Japanese friend who
could talk English perfectly well, I said, "How beautiful that
is!--although, of course, its quaint curious form is merely accident."
"No--no accident at all," he replied. "Do you know, it has been a matter
of great care, this placing of the plant in the room in relation to
other objects?"--I was afterwards informed that in many a household in
Japan the children are trained in the method of placing a branch or a
piece of blossom, and they have books with diagrams illustrating the
proper way of disposing flowers in a pot.

[Illustration: THE RED CURTAIN]

The outsides as well as the insides of their houses are decorated in the
harmonious principle, even to the painting of signs in the street. They
are most particular about placing their richly coloured sign duly in
relation to its surroundings. In the same way--whether the subject may
be done in a string of lanterns or what not--whateve