This book is designed for the amateur artist who is eager to find a new outlet for his talents as well as for the one who has already discovered the enchanting
world of Japanese ink-painting. It is, quite frankly, a copybook, and it does not pretend to be anything else. As editor Reiko Chiba says of the paintings in the book, "These basic inspirations are to be individually altered and improved." The paintings are the work of Shutei Ota, an artist who has had a long career of introducing Japanese ink-painting to Westerners. As a teacher, she has found the language barrier to be no handicap. She teaches by showing) by example, and by holding the hands of her students-beginning immediately with strokes and foregoing preliminary sketches. "Paint now" is her philosophy. She likes to think of her paintings as written compositions. Each stroke is a sentence, and each sentence builds up to a complete message or picture. In this book, examples graded from easy to difficult are given. Westerners will no doubt make practical use of the art to create place cards, greeting cards, Christmas cards, and the like for personal use. Beyond this, of course, the study of Japanese ink painting will lead to better understanding of the discipline of Oriental arts in general.