In these compositions, as in the pictorial works of painters of the old school, there is an absence of that perfect realism which we are accustomed to look for in a naturalistic art. The same subjection to conventional cannons noticeable in the works of the Japanese landscape painter, is paramount in the compositions of the landscape gardener. A representation of nature is, in neither case, intended to be a completely realistic reproduction. The limits imposed by art in Japan require that all imitation should be subject to careful selection and modification. It is this habit of selection which tends, though perhaps unconsciously, to an exaggerated accentuation of leading characteristics. Lovers of Western art, with its more comprehensive and self-effacing methods, will doubtless find in the results of such restricted mannerisms something of the sensual and grotesque. On the other hand, the more subtle and emotional representations of European artists appear to the Japanese, in a similar degree, weak and insipid.
