We can take our attitude in Medieval Japan as a peculiar case of the way in which alien culture is adopted: we preferred, for instance, subsidiary Mu-ch'i and Ying Yu-chien or symbolistic pictures of Ma Yuan to the orthodox and formative works by the North Sung school. This is partly because Zen Buddhists brought them into our country in order to show the state of their satori. And, more significantly, this is truly because we have organically shunned anything horizontal and formative in art. This trend can be pointed out in the field of our traditional porcelain as well.

守屋謙二先生古稀記念論文集