The sixth period began about 1875, when an Italian artist was engaged by the government as a professor of painting in the Engineering College at Tokyo. Since that time some distinguished European artists have visited Japan, and several Japanese students have made a pilgrimage to Europe to see for themselves what lessons may be gained from Western art. These students, confronted by a strong reaction in favour of pure Japanese art, have fought manfully to win public sympathy, and though their success is not yet crowned, it is not impossible that an Occidental school may ultimately be established. Thus far the great obstacle has been that pictures painted in accordance with Western canons are not suited to Japanese interiors and do not appeal to the taste of the most renowned Japanese connoisseurs. Somewhat more successful has been an attempt--inaugurated by Hashimoto Gaho and Kawabata Gyokusho--to combine the art of the West with that of Japan by adding to the latter the chiaroscuro and the linear perspective of the former. If the disciples of this school could shake off the Sesshu tradition of strong outlines and adopt the Kano Motonobu revelation of modelling by mass only, their work would stand on a high place. But they, too, receive little encouragement. The tendency of the time is conservative in art matters. A series of magnificent publications has popularized art and its best products in a manner such as could never have been anticipated. The _Kokka_, a monthly magazine richly and beautifully illustrated and edited by Japanese students, has reached its 223rd number; the _Shimbi Daikan_, a colossal album containing chromoxylographic facsimiles of celebrated examples in every branch of art, has been completed in 20 volumes; the masterpieces of Korin and Motonobu have been reproduced in similar albums; the masterpieces of the _Ukiyo-e_ are in process of publication, and it seems certain that the Japanese nation will ultimately be educated to such a knowledge of its own art as will make for permanent appreciation. Meanwhile the intrepid group of painters in oil plod along unflinchingly, having formed themselves into an association (the _hakuba-kai_) which gives periodical exhibitions, and there are, in Tokyo and Kioto, well-organized and flourishing art schools which receive a substantial measure of state aid, as well as a private academy founded by Okakura with a band of seceders from the hybrid fashions of the Gaho system. Altogether the nation seems to be growing more and more convinced that its art future should not wander far from the lines of the past. (W. An.; F. By.) Engraving.