The most frequently offered interior design aesthetic used by
rootless career-hopping young people.
-- Douglas Coupland, "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated
Culture"
Armanism: After Giorgio Armani; an obsession with mimicking the seamless and (more importantly) *controlled* ethos of Italian couture. Like
control.
-- Douglas Coupland, "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated
Culture"
The native artist who crested the first great wave of Japanese painting was a court noble named Kosé no Kanaoka, living under the patronage of the emperor Seiwa (850-859) and his successors down to about the end of the 9th century, in the midst of a period of peace and culture. Of his own work few, if any, examples have reached us; and those attributed with more or less probability to his hand are all representations of Buddhist divinities, showing a somewhat formal and conventional design, with a masterly calligraphic touch and perfect harmony of colouring. Tradition credits him with an especial genius for the delineation of animals and landscape, and commemorates his skill by a curious anecdote of a painted horse which left its frame to ravage the fields, and was reduced to pictorial stability only by the sacrifice of its eyes. He left a line of descendants extending far into the 15th century, all famous for Buddhist pictures, and some engaged in establishing a native style, the _Wa-gwa-ryu_. Entry: FIG
Sesshu (1421-1507) was a priest who visited China and studied painting there for several years, at length returning in 1469, disappointed with the living Chinese artists, and resolved to strike out a style of his own, based upon that of the old masters. He was the boldest and most original of Japanese landscape artists, leaving powerful and poetic records of the scenery of his own land as well as that of China, and trusting more to the sure and sweeping stroke of the brush than to colour. Shubun was an artist of little less power, but he followed more closely his exemplars, the Chinese masters of the 12th and 13th centuries; while Kano Masanobu (1424-1520), trained in the love of Chinese art, departed little from the canons he had learned from Josetsu or Oguri Sotan. It was left to his more famous son, Motonobu, to establish the school which bears the family name. Kano Motonobu (1477-1559) was one of the greatest Japanese painters, an eclectic of genius, who excelled in every style and every branch of his art. His variety was inexhaustible, and he remains to this day a model whom the most distinguished artists are proud to imitate. The names of the celebrated members of this long line are too many to quote here, but the most accomplished of his descendants was Tanyu, who died in 1674, at the age of seventy-three. The close of this long period brought a new style of art, that of the Korin school. Ogata Korin (1653-1716) is claimed by both the Tosa and Kano schools, but his work bears more resemblance to that of an erratic offshoot of the Kano line named Sotatsu than to the typical work of the academies. He was an artist of eccentric originality, who achieved wonders in bold decorative effects in spite of a studied contempt for detail. As a lacquer painter he left a strong mark upon the work of his contemporaries and successors. His brother and pupil, Kenzan, adopted his style, and left a reputation as a decorator of pottery hardly less brilliant than Korin's in that of lacquer; and a later follower, Hoitsu (1762-1828), greatly excelled the master in delicacy and refinement, although inferior to him in vigour and invention. Down to the end of this era painting was entirely in the hands of a patrician caste--courtiers, priests, feudal nobles and their military retainers, all men of high education and gentle birth, living in a polished circle. It was practised more as a phase of aesthetic culture than with any utilitarian views. It was a labour of loving service, untouched by the spirit of material gain, conferring upon the work of the older masters a dignity and poetic feeling which we vainly seek in much of the later work. Unhappily, but almost inevitably, over-culture led to a gradual falling-off from the old virility. The strength of Meicho, Sesshu, Motonobu and Tanyu gave place to a more or less slavish imitation of the old Japanese painters and their Chinese exemplars, till the heirs to the splendid traditions of the great masters preserved little more than their conventions and shortcomings. It was time for a new departure, but there seemed to be no sufficient strength left within the charmed circle of the orthodox schools, and the new movement was fated to come from the masses, whose voice had hitherto been silent in the art world. Entry: FIG
JU-JUTSU or JIU-JITSU (a Chino-Japanese term, meaning muscle-science), the Japanese method of offence and defence without weapons in personal encounter, upon which is founded the system of physical culture universal in Japan. Some historians assert that it was founded by a Japanese physician who learned its rudiments while studying in China, but most writers maintain that ju-jutsu was in common use in Japan centuries earlier, and that it was known in the 7th century B.C. Originally it was an art practised solely by the nobility, and particularly by the samurai who, possessing the right, denied to commoners, of carrying swords, were thus enabled to show their superiority over common people even when without weapons. It was a secret art, jealously guarded from those not privileged to use it, until the feudal system was abandoned in Japan, and now ju-jutsu is taught in the schools, as well as in public and private gymnasia. In the army, navy and police it receives particular attention. About the beginning of the 20th century, masters of the art began to attract attention in Europe and America, and schools were established in Great Britain and the United States, as well as on the continent of Europe. Entry: JU
When once the existence of abundant remains of prehistoric man had been admitted, and their study had received recognition as a branch of science, the evidence supplied by the relics themselves and by their relation to extinct or existing animals would have sufficed to give a considerable insight into the conditions of primitive life. But, fortunately, corroborative evidence of the most useful kind was at hand, and has been of the greatest service in solving what might otherwise have been insoluble problems. Though the progress of civilization, and more especially the ever increasing rapidity of communication are rapidly changing the habits of life among the primitive peoples in various parts of the world, yet till past the middle of the 19th century, a certain number of tribes, if not races, were still in the Stone Age. Even at the present day stone-using tribes still exist, although by chance metal may be known to them. The importance of the study of their conditions of life and their technical processes, and of the collecting of their implements for the express purpose of illustrating prehistoric man, was recognized by Henry Christy (1810-1865), who had made extensive investigations and collected relics in conjunction with Edouard Lartet in the now famous caverns of the Dordogne, at a time when such explorations were somewhat of a novelty; and concurrently he formed a large collection of the productions of existing savage peoples, both collections after his death passing to the British Museum, his intention being that the one should elucidate the ether. (It is only fair to his memory, however, to state here that, by his express wish, the most important of the relics that he had obtained from the Dordogne caves were returned to France where they now are. Such instances of international courtesy are rare enough to deserve mention.) The value and interest of such a series can scarcely be over-rated. Almost till the 20th century, the Indians of North America, the Australian and Tasmanian natives, as well as those of New Zealand and the many archipelagoes of the Pacific, were, if not ignorant of the use of metals, at least habitually using stone where civilized man would use metal. The Maori made his war club of jade and the pounders for preparing his food of stone. The Australian had his stone axe-blade; and low as he stands in the culture scale, his spear-heads are chipped with an exquisite precision. The Papuan of inland New Guinea is still making his weapons of stone and wood; while until quite recently the North American Indian was making his delicate stone arrow points, and the Solomon islander his beautiful polished stone axe-blades. The knowledge gained by the study of a large series of such objects enables us to fill up very many gaps in the story of early man as told by his own remains. In fact, in this respect, the value of the comparison is much greater than could reasonably be expected; for, whatever may be the reason, nothing is more marked than the extraordinary similarity of stone implements at all times and over the whole world. An arrow-point made by a Patagonian Indian, one from a Japanese shell mound, and a third of the Stone Age from Ireland, are found to be practically identical. Whether it is that the same material and the same necessity naturally produce a like result, or whether there has existed throughout a continuity of type, is a question that will never be satisfactorily answered. The results, however, are of eminently practical value. The arrow-heads of neolithic man, which are found by hundreds all over Europe, may be seen fixed in their shafts in the hands of an American Indian; rude pieces of quartz, which unmounted would escape notice as implements, are seen to make excellent tools when mounted in a handle by the Australian black, while flakes of slate find a use when mounted as skinning knives by the Eskimo. Entry: A
No milk is free from bacteria, because the external orifices of the milk-ducts always contain them, but the forms present in the normal fluid are principally those which induce such changes as the souring or "turning" so frequently observed in standing milk (these were examined by Lord Lister as long ago as 1873-1877, though several other species are now known), and those which bring about the various changes and fermentations in butter and cheese made from it. The presence of foreign germs, which may gain the upper hand and totally destroy the flavours of butter and cheese, has led to the search for those particular forms to which the approved properties are due. A definite bacillus to which the peculiarly fine flavour of certain butters is due, is said to be largely employed in pure cultures in American dairies, and in Denmark certain butters are said to keep fresh much longer owing to the use of pure cultures and the treatment employed to suppress the forms which cause rancidity. Quite distinct is the search for the germs which cause undesirable changes, or "diseases"; and great strides have been made in discovering the bacteria concerned in rendering milk "ropy," butter "oily" and "rancid," &c. Cheese in its numerous forms contains myriads of bacteria, and some of these are now known to be concerned in the various processes of ripening and other changes affecting the product, and although little is known as to the exact part played by any species, practical applications of the discoveries of the decade 1890-1900 have been made, _e.g._ Edam cheese. The Japanese have cheeses resulting from the bacterial fermentation of boiled Soja beans. Entry: A
Moronobu was a consummate artist, with all the delicacy and calligraphic force of the best of the Tosa masters, whom he undoubtedly strove to emulate in style; and his pictures are not only the most beautiful but also the most trustworthy records of the life of his time. It was not to his paintings, however, that he owed his greatest influence, but to the powerful impulse he gave to the illustration of books and broadsides by wood-engravings. It is true that illustrated books were known as early as 1608, if not before, but they were few and unattractive, and did little to inaugurate the great stream of _ehon_, or picture books, that were to take so large a share in the education of his own class. It is to Moronobu that Japan owes the popularization of artistic wood-engravings, for nothing before his series of xylographic albums approached his best work in strength and beauty, and nothing since has surpassed it. Later there came abundant aid to the cause of popular art, partly from pupils of the Kano and Tosa schools, but mainly from the artisan class. Most of these artists were designers for books and broadsides by calling, painters only on occasion, but a few of them did nothing for the engravers. Throughout the whole of this period, embracing about a hundred years, there still continued to work, altogether apart from the men who were making the success of popular art, a large number of able painters of the Kano, Tosa and Chinese schools, who multiplied pictures that had every merit except that of originality. These men, living in the past, paid little attention to the great popular movement, which seemed to be quite outside their social and artistic sphere and scarcely worthy of cultured criticism. It was in the middle of the 18th century that the decorative, but relatively feeble, Chinese art of the later Ming period found favour in Japan and a clever exponent in a painter named Ryurikyo. It must be regarded as a sad decadence from the old Chinese ideals, which was further hastened, from about 1765, by the popularity of the southern Chinese style. This was a weak affectation that found its chief votaries amongst literary men ambitious of an easily earned artistic reputation. The principal Japanese supporter of this school was Taigado (1722-1775), but the volume of copies of his sketches, _Taigado sansui juseki_, published about 1870, is one of the least attractive albums ever printed in Japan. Entry: A
_Agriculture._--The tenure by which lands were held before 1838 was strictly feudal, resembling that of Germany in the 11th century, and lands were sometimes enfeoffed to the seventh degree. But in the "Great Division" which took place in 1848 and forms the foundation of present land titles, about 984,000 acres, nearly one-fourth of the inhabited area, were set apart for the crown, about 1,495,000 acres for the government, and about 1,619,000 acres for the several chiefs; and the common people received fee-simple titles[6] for their house lots and the pieces of land which they cultivated for themselves, about 28,600 acres, almost entirely in isolated patches of irregular shape hemmed in by the holdings of the crown, the government or the great chiefs. Generally the chiefs ran into debt; many died without heirs; and their lands passed largely into the hands of foreigners. At the abolition of the monarchy in 1893, the crown domains were declared to be public lands, and, with the other government lands, were by the terms of annexation turned over to the United States in 1898. They had been offered for sale or lease in accordance with land acts (of 1884 and 1895--the latter corresponding generally to the land laws of New Zealand) designed to promote division into small farms and their immediate improvement. In 1909 the area of the public land was about 1,700,000 acres. In 1900 there were in the Territory 2273 farms, of which 1209 contained less than 10 acres, 785 contained between 10 and 100 acres, and 116 contained 1000 acres or more. The natives seldom cultivate more than half an acre apiece, and the Portuguese settlers usually only 25 or 30 acres at most. Of the total area of the Territory only 86,854 acres, or 2.77%, were under cultivation in 1900, and of this 65,687 acres, or 75.6%, were divided into 170 farms and planted to sugar-cane. In 1909 it was estimated that 213,000 acres (about half of which was irrigated) were planted to sugar, one half being cropped each year. The average yield per acre of cane-sugar is the greatest in the world, 30 to 40 tons of cane being an average per acre, and as much as 10¼ tons of sugar having been produced from a single acre under irrigation. The cultivation of the cane was greatly encouraged by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, which established practically free trade between the islands and the United States, and since 1879 it has been widely extended by means of irrigation, the water being obtained both by pumping from numerous artesian wells and by conducting surface water through canals and ditches. The sugar farms are mostly on the islands of Hawaii, Oahu, Maui and Kauai, at the bases of mountains; those on the leeward side have the better soil, but require much more irrigating. The product increased from 26,072,429 lb. in 1876 to 259,789,462 lb. in 1890, 542,098,500 lb. in 1899 and about 1,060,000,000 lb. (valued at more than $40,000,000) in 1909. Nearly all of it is exported to the United States. Rice was the second product in importance until competition with Japan, Louisiana and Texas made the crop a poor investment; improved culture and machinery may restore rice culture to its former importance. It is grown almost wholly by Japanese and Chinese on small low farms along the coasts, mostly on the islands of Kauai and Oahu. In 1899 the product amounted to 33,442,400 lb.; in 1907 about 12,000 acres were planted, and the crop was estimated to be worth $2,500,000. Coffee of good quality is grown at elevations ranging between 1000 to 3000 ft. above the sea; the Hawaiian product is called Kona coffee--from Kona, a district of the S. side of Hawaii island, where much of it is grown. In 1909 about 4500 acres were in coffee, the value of the crop was $350,000; and 1,763,119 lb. of coffee, valued at $211,535, were exported from Hawaii to the mainland of the United States. A few bananas and (especially from Oahu) pineapples of fine quality are exported; since 1901 the canning of pineapples has been successfully carried on, and in the year ending May 31, 1907, 186,700 cases were exported, being packed in nine canneries. Oranges, lemons, limes, figs, mangoes, grapes and peaches, besides a considerable variety of vegetables, are raised in small quantities for local consumption. In 1909 the exports of fruits and nuts to the continental United States were valued at $1,457,644. An excellent quality of sisal is grown. Rubber trees have been planted with some success, particularly on the eastern part of the island of Maui; they were not tapped for commercial use until 1909. In 1907 there were vanilla plantations in the islands of Oahu and Hawaii. Tobacco of a high grade, especially for wrappers, has been grown at the Agricultural Experiment Station's farm at Hamakua, on the island of Hawaii, where the tobacco is practically "shade grown" under the afternoon fogs from Mauna Kea. Cotton and silk culture have been experimented with on the islands; and the work of the Hawaiian Agricultural Experiment Station is of great value, in introducing new crops, in improving old, in studying soils and fertilizers and in entomological research. Honey is a crop of some importance; in 1908 the yield was about 950 tons of honey and 15 tons of wax. The small islands of Lanai, Niihau and Kahoolawe are devoted chiefly to the raising of sheep and cattle--Niihau is one large privately owned sheep-ranch. There are large cattle-ranches on the islands supplying nearly all the meat for domestic consumption, and cattle-raising is second in importance to the sugar industry. It was estimated in 1908 that there were about 130,500 cattle and about 99,500 sheep on the islands. The "native" cattle, descended from those left on the islands by early navigators, are being improved by breeding with imported Hereford, Shorthorn, Angus and Holstein bulls, the Herefords being the best for the purpose. In the fiscal year 1908, 359,413 lb. of wool (valued at $58,133) and 928,599 lb. of raw hides (valued at $87,599) were shipped from the Territory to the United States. Entry: HAWAII
Although the incursions made into Chinese philosophy and the revival of Japanese traditions during the Tokugawa Epoch contributed materially to the overthrow of feudalism and the restoration of the Throne's administrative power, the immediate tendency of the last two events was to divert the nation's attention wholly from the study of either Confucianism or the _Record of Ancient Matters_. A universal thirst set in for Occidental science and literature, so that students occupied themselves everywhere with readers and grammars modelled on European lines rather than with the Analects or the _Kojiki_. English at once became the language of learning. Thus the three colleges which formed the nucleus of the Imperial University of Tokyo were presided over by a graduate of Michigan College (Professor Toyama), a member of the English bar (Professor Hozumi) and a graduate of Cambridge (Baron Kikuchi). If Japan was eminently fortunate in the men who directed her political career at that time, she was equally favoured in those that presided over her literary culture. Fukuzawa Yukichi, founder of the Keio Gijuku, now one of Japan's four universities, did more than any of his contemporaries by writing and speaking to spread a knowledge of the West, its ways and its thoughts, and Nakamura Keiu laboured in the same cause by translating Smiles's _Self-help_ and Mill's _Representative Government_. A universal geography (by Uchida Masao); a history of nations (by Mitsukuri Rinsho); a translation of _Chambers's Encyclopaedia_ by the department of education; Japanese renderings of Herbert Spencer and of Guizot and Buckle--all these made their appearance during the first fourteen years of the epoch. The influence of politics may be strongly traced in the literature of that time, for the first romances produced by the new school were all of a political character: _Keikoku Bidan_ (_Model for Statesmen_, with Epaminondas for hero) by Yano Fumio; _Setchubai (Plum-blossoms in snow)_ and _Kwakwan-o (Nightingale Among Flowers)_ by Suyehiro. This idea of subserving literature to political ends is said to have been suggested by Nakae Tokusuke's translation of Rousseau's _Contrat social_. The year 1882 saw _Julius Caesar_ in a Japanese dress. The translator was Tsubouchi Shoyo, one of the greatest writers of the Meiji era. His _Shosetsu Shinsui (Essentials of a Novel)_ was an eloquent plea for realism as contrasted with the artificiality of the characters depicted by Bakin, and his own works illustrative of this theory took the public by storm. He also brought out the first literary periodical published in Japan, namely, the _Waseda Bungaku_, so called because Tsubouchi was professor of literature in the Waseda University, an institution founded by Count Okuma, whose name cannot be omitted from any history of Meiji literature, not as an author but as a patron. As illustrating the rapid development of familiarity with foreign authors, a Japanese retrospect of the Meiji era notes that whereas Macaulay's _Essays_ were in the curriculum of the Imperial University in 1881-1882, they were studied, five or six years later, in secondary schools, and pupils of the latter were able to read with understanding the works of Goldsmith, Tennyson and Thackeray. Up to Tsubouchi's time the Meiji literature was all in the literary language, but there was then formed a society calling itself _Kenyusha_, some of whose associates--as Bimyosai--used the colloquial language in their works, while others--as Koyo, Rohan, &c.--went back to the classical diction of the Genroku era (1655-1703). Rohan is one of the most renowned of Japan's modern authors, and some of his historical romances have had wide vogue. Meanwhile the business of translating went on apace. Great numbers of European and American authors were rendered into Japanese--Calderon, Lytton, Disraeli, Byron, Shakespeare, Milton, Turgueniev, Carlyle, Daudet, Emerson, Hugo, Heine, De Quincey, Dickens, Körner, Goethe--their name is legion and their influence upon Japanese literature is conspicuous. In 1888 a special course of German literature was inaugurated at the Imperial University, and with it is associated the name of Mori Ogai, Japan's most faithful interpreter of German thought and speech. Virtually every literary magnate of the Occident has found one or more interpreters in modern Japan. Accurate reviewers of the era have divided it into periods of two or three years each, according to the various groups of foreign authors that were in vogue, and every year sees a large addition to the number of Japanese who study the masterpieces of Western literature in the original. Entry: JAPANESE</b>