ure as models.

It might be thought that a truly artistic people, who are also
somewhat immoral, would have developed much skill in the portrayal of
the nude female form. But such an attempt does not seem to have been
made until recent times, and in imitation of Western art. At least
such attempts have not been recognized as art nor have they been
preserved as such. I have never seen either statue or picture of a
nude Japanese woman. Even the pictures of famous prostitutes are
always faultlessly attired. The number and size of the conventional
hairpins, and the gaudy coloring of the clothing, alone indicate the
immoral character of the woman represented.

It is not to be inferred, however, that immoral pictures have been
unknown in Japan, for the reverse is true. Until forcibly suppressed
by the government under the incentive of Western criticism, there was
perfect freedom to produce and sell licentious and lascivious
pictures. The older foreign residents in Japan testify to the
frequency with which immoral scenes were depicted and exposed for
sale. Here I merely say that these were not considered works of art;
they were reproduced not in the interests of the aesthetic sense, but
wholly to stimulate the taste for immoral things.

The absence of the nude from Japanese art is due to the same causes
that led to the relative absence of all distinctively human nature
from art. Manhood and womanhood, as such, were not the themes they
strove to depict.

A curious feature of the artistic taste of the people is the marked
fondness for caricature. It revels in absurd accentuations of special
features. Children with protruding foreheads; enormously fat little
men; grotesque dwarf figures in laughable positions; these are a few
common examples. Nearly all of the small drawings and sculpturings of
human figures are intentionally grotesque. But the Japanese love of
the grotesque is not confined to its manifestation in art. It also
reveals itself in other surprising ways. It is difficult to realize
that a people who revel in the beauties of nature can also delight in
deformed nature; yet such is the case. Stunted and dwarfed trees,
trees whose branches have been distorted into shapes and proportions
that nature would scorn--these are sights that the Japanese seem to
enjoy, as well as "natural" nature. Throughout the land, in the
gardens of the middle and higher classes, may be found specimens of
dwarfed and stunted trees which ha