PEACE AND ART. But once the Imperial succession was settled
the arts of peace, stunted but never actually cut off, were eagerly
resumed. The Ming dynasty had been on the Chinese throne for
a quarter of a century and trade with them (to the Chinese it was
always "tribute") started briskly up. Copper cash were brought
in bulk to the islands along with the coveted brocades and medi-
cines and pig-iron. In return went the flawless sword-blades which
the Japanese had long been forging to the despair of the conti-
nent, sulphur from the volcanoes, lacquer table-ware superior to
that of south China and the folding fans that seem to have been
a Japanese invention.

CHINESE IMPORTS. Owing partly to the fact that the great
religious houses of Japan invested in this trade, to the extent of
even fitting out cargo-boats bearing the names of the monas-
teries, we find in those centres an immediate influx of Chinese
ideas and works of art. But it must be carefully noted, as further
proof of Japanese discrimination, that it was the art of a former,
not the contemporary, Chinese dynasty that seized their imagina-
tion. If sculpture was too bulky or not good enough to be im-
ported in quantity, the paintings and writings of past generations
were secured for Japan by the hundred. In particular the works
of the Sung dynasty ink-painters expressed the taste of the Japa-
nese Zenists to a nicety. Chinese art under the Mings was, for the

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