History of art . stival, and the feathers sweptfrom wings. If he climbed a mountain and came outabove its low-lying mists, it was to get a sudden sightof some peak isolated in crystal space, and, as he camedown again, to discover through rifts in the fog thethatched roofs, and the rice fields, and swarms of menunder their round straw hats, and junks scatteredover an opaque distance. When he had seen the palemoon rise in the black sky over a world empty of forms,he waited impatiently for the red sun to discolor theair so that he might seize the appearance of the world, JAPAN 163 in the islands
History of art . stival, and the feathers sweptfrom wings. If he climbed a mountain and came outabove its low-lying mists, it was to get a sudden sightof some peak isolated in crystal space, and, as he camedown again, to discover through rifts in the fog thethatched roofs, and the rice fields, and swarms of menunder their round straw hats, and junks scatteredover an opaque distance. When he had seen the palemoon rise in the black sky over a world empty of forms,he waited impatiently for the red sun to discolor theair so that he might seize the appearance of the world, JAPAN 163 in the islands of gold spattered with dark touchesthat sow the inner seas, and the blue or red houses thatappear amid the pines, and the wandering sails, and theconical volcano, now crowned with blood, now withsilver or opal, now with the violet, the rose, or the lilacthat one sees only in half-opened flowers. The oilyoscillation of the sea, the glaciers thrusting up abovethe clouds, the motionless or restless tops of the woods. HoKUSAi (1760-1849). The Wave, print in colors. {Louvre.) —the whole universe stamped itself on his mind indeep harmonies; he seems to crush blue, green, andblood-red jewels in an air that is filled with wateryvapor and that transmits light to things. . He com-mands form like a hero, and at will he is lyrical orphilosophical—by turns or simultaneously—and anepic poet and a satirical poet, living in the most fright-ful nightmares after leaving the most peaceful realities,or while still among them, and passing at ease fromthe most unhealthful invention to the noblest vision. .. 164 MEDIiEVAL ART And yet, through his swift art, analytical, feverish,and hurried—too anecdotal oftentimes—he is anexpression of decadence. One is tempted to say thathe foresees the end of Old Japan, that he wants toprepare a living encyclopsedia of it, hastening to telleverything about it in direct, immediate notes thatstrike like lightning, as if to leave its image—complex,multifor
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