AN ANCIENT PICTURE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2707, 16 November 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

AN ANCIENT PICTURE.

A story comes from Japan of the recovery ofa picture painted over 1000 years age (in 859 a. l).) by Kainoka, father of Japanese pictorial art. It represents a figure about two feet high, every detail being finished with the elaborate care lavished by the old Japanese masters on their choicest woiks. According to a description in the Japan Mail, " the only parts of the body exposed were the face, arms, and feet, but the linos and coloring, though centuries had passed since tho time of its application, remained mellow if not fresh. But it was in the treatment of the drapery that the artist had put forth his greatest strength. The folds hung with indescribable softness and fidelity to nature, and the splendid brocades of the priestly vestments were depicted so inimitably that one felt inclined to caress the soft stuff." The picture in the course of ages passed into the hands of the famous artist Kano Motonobu, and on his death in ]5u9 it was amongst the treasures ha left bohiud with a certificate from him that it wiir the work of the great Kanaoka. What happened to it after Motonobu's death is not known, but quite recently it was found in a pawnshop in Tokio. It was purchased by a dealer, and was offered for sale abroad ; but efforts which wore made to prevent this remarkable work from going out of the country were successful, and it was purchased by a wealthy Japanese merchant, who intends presenting it to the National Museum. It has been said by experts that tho genuine works of Kanaoka now extant may be counted on the fingers of one hand, and that the whereabouts of each is well known. Dr Anderson, in bis recent work on Japaucse pictorial art, says of Kanaoka that " as a student of the works of the great Chinese masters of the Tang dynasty he most prohably adopted their teaching, with unimportant modifications suggested by Corean example, and must hence be regarded as the apostle of nn ancient and foreign art rather than tho originator of a native school."