“The Road to the Temple" by Mortimer Menpes, R. I., from “Japan, A Record in Colour” by Dorothy Menpes

The Road to the Temple

Mortimer Menpes

1901

Watercolor

Source: Japan, A Record in Colour, facing p. 10

Menpes visited various temples in Japan, and was impressed by the careful though unobtrusive planning that had gone into them, and the feeling that resulted, of complete harmony with their surroundings. See the excerpt from the text given below. — Jacqueline Banerjee

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"That temple which seems to place itself so remarkably well in relation to the big lines of Nature, its background, has been carefully built and thought out from that standpoint alone. The great trees by the side of the temple, with their graceful jutting boughs that form the principal feature of the picture, have not grown like that, for all their apparent naturalness; they have been nursed and grafted and forced into shape with the utmost care imaginable" (Menpes 77).

Bibliography

Menpes, Dorothy. Japan: A Record in Colour. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1901. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California Libraries. Web. 20 June 2019.

Created 19 June 2019