001	●	The Two-way Street in the History of Americanand Japanese Art Education : Akira Shirahama and Arthur Wesley Dow

	Chinese Roots of Dow's Composition Chinese ?Art,? says Maritain (1954/1974), ?is a contemplative effort to discover in Things and bring out from Things their own enlarged soul and inner principle of dynamic harmony? (p.13). He also regards the spirit of Things as ?a kind of ghost.? It comes down from ?the spirit of the universe? and gives Things ?their typical form of life and movement? (p.13). In this effort of Chinese art, Nature and Things are perceived not as hostile to people but as a pantheistic continuum that people might become an integral part of, through artistic and poetic intuition. Okakura (1903/1970), a Japanese scholar of art, also finds ?The Life-movement of Spirit through the Rhythm of Things? in Eastern art. He says that Oriental art can be conceived of as ?the great Mood of the Universe, moving hither and thither amidst those harmonic laws of matter which are Rhythm? (p.52). Both describe the first of six canons or principles of old Chinese painting theory, ?ch?i-yun sheng-tung,? which was first set forth by Hsieh Ho at the end of the fifth century in China in his book entitled Ku-hua p'in-lu (Koga Hinroku in Japanese) (Old Records of Classification of Paintings). Young (1969) sums up Hsieh Ho?s six canons as follows: 1) animate through spirit consonance; 2) follow the ?bone method? in the use of the brush; 3) be truthful in depicting forms; 4) conform to kind in setting forth colors; 5) divide and plan in positioning and arranging; and 6) convey the past by copying and transcribing. Sullivan (1965) summarizes Hsieh Ho?s canon as follows: 1) spirit consonance and life-motion; 2) the bone method in the use of brush; 3) conformity to the object to give likeness; 4) correct color; 5) care in composition; and 6) transmission of the tradition by making copies. Although Hsieh Ho?s first canon can be translated into English by various ways, it is conceived in any case as a qualitative measure which is concerned with spiritual essence and rhythmic vitality. Of the four words of ?ch?i-yun sheng-tung,? ?ch?i? is the key concept more than the others. The word ?ch?i? expresses the essential quality, mysterious energy, or spirit. It has also been a significant concept in both China and Japan. For Chinese painters to express ?the ch?i of a tree,? for instance, they ?must express the tree-nature, its structure, its peacefulness, and above all, the rhythmic vital force which gives it spirit and form? (Chan, 1946/1965, p.183). The fact that one could find the rhythmic vitality of ?ch?i? in such various things as nature, movement, force, creative power, and so on, is the same as with the Japanese traditional-style painter whose canons, as well as methods of painting, have been borrowed mostly from Chinese painting. Instead of the representative and symbolic function of art, Dow took the spiritual approach to art in education even if he could not have used such terms as ?spirit consonance? and ?spiritual resonance? in his time. Dow?s term composition refers not so much to Hsieh Ho?s fifth canon, ?divide and plan in positioning and arranging,? as to his first one, ?ch?i-yun sheng-tung,? particularly ?ch?i? as ?inner principles of dynamic harmony? or ?mysterious energy.? Dow (1913) proposes that the principle of composition is a ?Way of creating harmony.? Dow also suggests, ?first cultivate the mind? of students and next ?utilize the power? they have, such as the ?power to appreciate? and the ?power to do something worth while? (p.120). This indicates that he learned the spiritual way of art from Chinese painting through his research on Japanese art. Chang made a book about Chinese painters, Li-tai Ming-hua Chi (Record of Famous Painters of all Dynasties) in 847. In discussing the six canons of Hsieh Ho, Chang (847/1977) sees the task of Chinese painting as achieving ?something more than representation? as indicated by Hsieh Ho?s third and fourth canons. He says, moreover, that if a painter focused on ?ch?i-yun as an essential element? in working at his/her art then the representation prescribed in the third and fourth canons will be naturally inherent in his/her work. Dow's contribution lay not in altering the teaching method, but in broadening the concept of art by substituting ?composition? for mechanical imitation (Macdonald, 1970). At the time of Dow's working, Logan (1955) writes: ?The academic mind did not recognize any value in individual use of design or color; these qualities were only incidental to a work of art. Opposed to this view, Fenollosa believed that beauty, not realism, was the true aim of art, and Dow's philosophy started with composition as the essence of beauty? (p.110). We should not emphasize both modern design element and the formality of beauty in Dow?s idea of composition. The underlying intention in his book, Composition, is to reveal the "source of power" and to show ?the student how to look within for the greatest help.? It also is to teach him ?not to be dependent on externals, not to learn too much on anything or anybody? (Dow, 1913, p.128). We should reinterpret Dow's intention in revealing the source of power as the Chinese term ?ch?i.? Its power discloses the qualitative wholeness in art through which the ?inner world of feeling is given substance and form? (Meeson, 1982, p.21). Dow's philosophical transition from representation to spiritualism was rooted in Hsieh Ho?s first canon of ?ch?i?, whether he knew the old root of Chinese painting or not. Dow?s idea of harmonious composition has its basic roots in the Chinese theory of painting. Especially, Hsieh Ho?s first canon might have been especially responsible for Dow?s philosophical transition from a representative approach to teaching art in terms of Western art tradition to a spiritual one in the context of the Oriental art tradition. In an effort to re-interpret Dow?s transformation from Oriental art to American, the Chinese character ?ch?i? is a key word to Chinese traditional art as well as Japanese.
previous	001-07	next