Let’s
take a final look at the Bell Cricket scene to appreciate the overall effect
of this remarkable composition, one of the most striking in Japanese art.
The key thing to notice is the handling of space. In the system of fixed-point
perspective, with which we are most familiar, parallel lines appear to
converge in the distance, as though we were actually standing and observing
the scene. But here parallel lines actually diverge, although very slightly,
as the recede. What’s more, the diagonal of these slightly diverging lines
is very sharp, as though we were observing from an abnormally high angle.
The effect is to create a flat two-dimensional scene, in which the figures
seem almost pinned to the surface rather than moving about in three-dimensional
space. Perhaps the symbolic message is that of karma, the Buddhist
sense that all human actions are governed by the accumulated destiny of
countless previous existences.