Japanese artists are not bound down to the literal presentation of things seen. They have a canon, called _esoragoto,_ which means literally an invented picture, or a picture into which certain invention fictions are painted.
Every painting to be effective must be _esoragoto;_ that is, there must enter therein certain artistic liberties. It should aim not so much to reproduce the exact thing as its sentiment, called _kokoro mochi,_ which is the moving spirit of the scene. It must not be a facsimile.
When we look at a painting which pleases us what is the cause or source of our satisfaction? Why does such painting give us oftentimes more satisfaction than the scene itself which it recalls? It is largely because of _esoragoto_ or the admixture of invention (the artistic unreality) with the unartistic reality; the poetic handling or treatment of what in the original may in some respects be commonplace.
A correctly executed Japanese painting in _sumi_ called _sumi e,_ is essentially a false picture so far as color goes, where anything in it not black is represented. Hence, _sumi_ paintings of landscapes, flowers and trees, are untrue as to color, and the art lies in making things thus represented seem the opposite of what they appear and cause the sentiment of color to be felt through a medium which contains no color. This is _esoragoto._
It is related that Okubo Shibutsu, famous for painting bamboo, was requested to execute a _kakemono_ representing a bamboo forest. Consenting, he painted with all his known skill a picture in which the entire bamboo grove was in red. The patron upon its receipt marveled at the extraordinary skill with which the painting had been executed, and, repairing to the artist’s residence, he said: “Master, I have come to thank you for the picture; but, excuse me, you have painted the bamboo red.” “Well,” cried the master, “in what color would you desire it?” “In black, of course,” replied the patron. “And who,” answered the artist, “ever saw a black-leaved bamboo?” This story well illustrates _esoragoto._ The Japanese are so accustomed to associate true color with what the _sumi_ stands for that not only is fiction in this respect permissible but actually missed when not employed. In a landscape painting effects are frequently introduced which are not to be found in the scene sketched. The false or fictitious is added to heighten the effect. This is _esoragoto—_ the privileged departure, the false made to seem true. In a landscape a tree is often found to occupy an unfortunate place or there is no tree where its presence would heighten the effect. Here the artist will either suppress or add it, according to the necessities of treatment. Not every landscape is improved by trees or plantations; nor, indeed, is every view containing trees a type scene for landscape treatment. Hence, certain liberties are conceded the artist provided only the effect is pleasing and satisfactory and that no probabilities seem violated. This is _esoragoto._ Horace understood this and lays it down as a fundamental principle in art: “_Quid libet audendi_”. The artist will oftentimes see from a point of view impossible in nature, but if the result is pleasing the liberty is accorded. Sesshu, one of the greatest landscape painters of Japan, on returning to his own country after having studied some years in China, made a painting of his native village with its temple and temple groves, winding river and pagoda or five-roofed tower. His attention being subsequently called to the fact that in this village there was no tower or pagoda, he exclaimed that there ought to be one to make the landscape perfect, and thereupon he had the tower constructed at his own expense. He had painted in the pagoda unconsciously. This was _esoragoto._