motives of decoration before the study of Japanese decoration. Repetition
and counterchange, of course, have their place in Japanese ornament, as
in the diaper patterns for which these people have so singular an
invention, but here, too, uniqueness and position are the principal
inspiration. And it is quite worth while, and much to the present
purpose, to call attention to the chief peculiarity of the Japanese
diaper patterns, which is _interruption_. Repetition there must
necessarily be in these, but symmetry is avoided by an interruption which
is, to the Western eye, at least, perpetually and freshly unexpected. The
place of the interruptions of lines, the variation of the place, and the
avoidance of correspondence, are precisely what makes Japanese design of
this class inimitable. Thus, even in a repeating pattern, you have a
curiously successful effect of impulse. It is as though a separate
intention had been formed by the designer at every angle. Such renewed
consciousness does not make for greatness. Greatness in design has more
peace than is found in the gentle abruptness of Japanese lines, in their
curious brevity. It is scarcely necessary to say that a line, in all
other schools of art, is long or short according to its place and
purpose; but only the Japanese designer so contrives his patterns that
the line is always short; and many repeating designs are entirely
composed of this various and variously-occurring brevity, this prankish
avoidance of the goal. Moreover, the Japanese evade symmetry, in the
unit of their repeating patterns, by another simple device--that of
numbers. They make a small difference in the number of curves and of
lines. A great difference would not make the same effect of variety; it
would look too much like a contrast. For example, three rods on one side
and six on another would be something else than a mere variation, and
variety would be lost by the use of them. The Japanese decorator will
vary three in this place by two in that, and a sense of the defeat of
symmetry is immediately produced. With more violent means the idea of