Japanese Paintings

to boot, and may be regarded as a worthy repre-
sentative of modern Czech painting.

H. ScHANZFR.

The old and new schools

OF JAPANESE PAINTING.

A few months ago Hermann Sudermann’s
“ Die Heimat,” after a run of a week in Tokyo,
under the auspices of the Bungei Kyokai, a literary
and theatrical association, was suppressed by the
Japanese Home Office mainly upon the ground
that it was in a way a protest against filial piety,
which constitutes so essential a part of our national
ethics. The free, aggressive, and independent
spirit of youth as expressed in Magda is indeed
incompatible with the old spirit as evinced by the
dogmatic and obstinate nature of her father, and
must lead to constant friction between the two.
But such differences as these are inevitable in the

life of a nation in a state of transition, and are
apparent everywhere in Japan. Note, for example,
the marked incompatibility, the constant and
wearing friction between the two schools of artists
known respectively as the “ Old ” and the “ New ”
or “Progressive” school of Japanese painting.

There has been constant contention and
dissension between these two schools, especially
in reference to the Mombusho Bijutsu Tenrankai,
that is, the Annual Art Exhibition held under the
auspices of the Department of Education. The
Mombusho, in trying to do away with this friction
between the two factions, has recently reorganised
its jury system for Japanese painting, and the new
rules come into effect at the Autumn Exhibition
this year. While the interdict against the pro-
duction of “Die Heimat” has been removed, as the
result of some changes made in the text, the value
of the recent change by the Mombusho in the jury
system is yet to be seen.

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