only many thousands of miles away but also in ill-health, must have been very trying and often very
awkward. How I wished that I were in London, so that I could talk over problems directly with Mr
Swann. Anyway, under such unusually difficult circumstances we have done our best, and thanks to
Mr Swann's sincere collaboration and help, it is possible to publish this study.

In this book I have used the method of treatment by subjects as in the Introduction to the small
Catalogue of the ' Japanische Malerei der Gegenwar', published in Berlin in 1930, when I brought to
Germany an Exhibition of Contemporary Japanese Painting. In this Introduction I tried to make
clear the special features of Japanese Painting inherited by the present. After this successful experiment,
I have decided to adopt the same method here again, because the main purpose of this book is to make the
essential features and special beauties of Japanese art understood as easily as possible, with actual examples
of similar subjects arranged in historical order.

Japanese and Chinese names have always presented problems of transliteration. In Japan the same
persons and things are often called by different names. Here I have used the simplest and most familiar.
In the names of the artists, I have generally used only the first names, which are often their pseudonyms
as artists, but as we approach modern times I have given the family-names in addition, in order to prevent
confusion. When I refer to Chinese artists, I have generally given their names in the Japanese manner,
because they are always quoted as such in the histories of Japanese art, although I have given their original
Chinese form as well.

YUKIO YASHIRO
TOKYO, SPRING 1958

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