of
their rank. The effort to preserve their actual appearance is
relatively rare. Manhood and womanhood, apart from social rank, have
hardly been recognized, much less extolled by art. This feature, then,
corresponds to the nature of the Japanese social order. The art of a
land necessarily reveals the ruling ideals of its civilization. As
Japan failed to discover the inherent nature and value of manhood and
womanhood, estimating them only on a utilitarian basis, so has her art
reflected this failure.

Apparently it has never attempted to depict the nude human form. This
is partly explained, perhaps, by the fact that the development of a
perfect physical form through exercise and training has not been a
part of Oriental thought. Labor of every sort has been regarded as
degrading. Training for military skill and prowess has indeed been
common among the military classes; but the skill and strength
themselves have been the objects of thought, rather than the beauty of
the muscular development which they produce. When we recall the
prominent place which the games of Greece took in her civilization
previous to her development of art, and the stress then laid on
perfect bodily form, we shall better understand why there should be
such difference in the development of the art of these two lands. I
have never seen a Japanese man or youth bare his arm to show with
pride the development of his biceps; and so far as I have observed,
the pride which students in the United States feel over well-developed
calves has no counterpart in Japan--this, despite the fact that the
average Japanese has calves which would turn the American youth green
with envy.

From the absence of the nude in Japanese art it has been urged that
Japan herself is far more morally pure than the West. Did the moral
life of the people correspond to their art in this respect, the
argument would have force. Unfortunately, such does not seem to be the
case. It is further suggested as a reason that the bodily form of
Oriental peoples is essentially unaesthetic; that the men are either
too fat or too lean, and the women too plump when in the bloom of
youth and too wrinkled and flabby when the first bloom is over. The
absurdity of this suggestion raises a smile, and a query as to the
experience which its author must have had. For any person who has
lived in Japan must have seen individuals of both sexes, whom the most
fastidious painter or sculptor would rejoice to sec