Trends in Art and Fashion in Japan

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 3, 5 January 1937, Page 4

Trends in Art and Fashion in Japan

The wife of the expert adviser attached to the Japanese Embassy in Shanghai, Mrs IC Inui, has strong views about the wholesale adoption of Western culture by the Japanese. “I think it is very deplorable,” she told a Sydney Morning Herald representative, “for there is no discrimination used in choosing between the good and the bad, with the result that we are absorbing a great deal that is bizarre and gaudy. I think it is a great pity to see how faithfully the Japanese art student is copying the Parisian trend. Nudes and oil paintings have never been a part of Japanese art, and the work of the young artists does not reflect the spirit of Japan as the old prints did. Our artists have always excelled in the superb handling of water colours, and I think it is a great pity that our young artists are not developing through this medium. “On the other hand, there are some really outstanding Japanese composers, who have evolved good modern music from the jjlaintive Oriental music and foreign rhythm, and with the introduction of foreign instruments.” Mrs Inui is now engaged in writing a novel of international interest, with Japanese characters. She thought it very interesting in relation to the progress of women in Japan that ' there were more magazines published in Japan than in any other country in the world. There were also many delightful magazines published for children in Japan.