block-printing had been practised in Japan since the close of the
eighth century. A composition which had its origin at this epoch was
the yokyoku, a special kind of libretto for mimetic dances. Books on
art also were inspired by the Higashiyama craze for choice specimens
of painting, porcelain, and lacquer. Commentaries, too, made their
appearance, as did some histories, romances, and anthologies.

PICTORIAL ART

As Japan during the Ashikaga period sat at the feet of the Sung
masters in philosophy and literature, so it was in the realm of art.
There is, indeed, a much closer relation between literature and
pictorial art in China than in any Occidental country, for the two
pursuits have a common starting-point--calligraphy. The ideograph is
a picture, and to trace it in such a manner as to satisfy the highest
canons is a veritably artistic achievement. It has been shown above
that in the Muromachi era the priests of Buddha were the channels
through which the literature and the philosophy of Sung reached
Japan, and it will presently be seen that the particular priests who
imported and interpreted this culture were those of the Zen sect.
There is natural sequence, therefore, in the facts that these same
priests excelled in calligraphy and introduced Japan to the pictorial
art of the immortal Sung painters.

There were in China, at the time of the Ashikaga, two schools of
painters: a Northern and a Southern. The term is misleading, for the
distinction was really not one of geography but one of method. What
distinguished the Southern school was delicacy of conception,
directness of execution, and lightness of tone. To produce a maximum
of effect with a minimum of effort; to suggest as much as to depict,
and to avoid all recourse to heavy colours--these were the cardinal
tenets of the Southern school. They were revealed to Japan by a
priest named Kao, who, during the reign of Go-Daigo (1318-1339),
passed ten years in China, and returning to Kyoto, opened a studio in
the temple Kennin-ji, where he taught the methods of Li Lungmin of
the Sung dynasty and Yen Hui of the Yuan. He revolutionized Japanese
art. After him Mincho is eminent. Under the name of Cho Densu--the
Abbot Cho--he acquired perpetual fame by his paintings of Buddhist
saints.

But Mincho's religious pictures did not help to introduce the Sung
academy to Japan. That task was reserved for Josetsu--a priest of
Chinese or Japanese origin--who, during the seco