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Art.
That nature, not man, is their beau ideal, the source of inspiration to them, is evident again on looking at their art.

The same spirit that makes of them such wonderful landscape gardeners and such wonder-full landscape gazers shows itself unmistakably in their paintings.
The current impression that Japanese pictorial ambition, and consequent skill, is confined to the representation of birds and flowers, though entirely erroneous as it stands, has a grain of truth behind it.

This idea is due to the attitude of the foreign observers, and was in fact a tribute to Japanese technique rather than an appreciation of Far Eastern artistic feeling.

The truth is, the foreigners brought to the subject their own Western criteria of merit, and judged everything by these standards.