The Arts of Japan: An Illustrated History

The Arts of Japan: An Illustrated History

Language: English

Pages: 0

ISBN: B000L9N93U

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


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The Gun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

while the other hand is held with the palm up, the so-called vara mudra, or gesture of charity. He is seated upon a lotus, which in ancient Indian cosmology was a symbol of the earth, the center of which represents the Himalayas, while the petals stand for the four great countries of Asia, namely India, China, Central Asia, and Iran. Thus the lotus throne symbolizes the fact that the Buddha is regarded as the ruler of the entire world. The halo behind him and the flaming mandorla are ancient

from similar Indian figures, portrayed as strange, exotic creatures. The favorite medium during the Nara period was dry lacquer, a technique which originated in China and which became so popular that it almost completely replaced plain wood. One kind of dry-lacquer statue had a solid core, either of wood or of clay, but there was another kind, called hollow dry-lacquer, in which the core was removed and replaced by a wooden skeleton, the result being a much lighter work which could easily be

found in the Shoso-in, where objects such as musical instruments, lacquer boxes, dishes, and screens are decorated with landscapes and figures and animals, indicating that secular painting was practiced alongside of religious painting, although the latter was no doubt the more important. The most outstanding of these works were the magnificent wall paintings at Horyu-ji which represented the four great Buddhas worshipped by the Hosso sect. Amida was portrayed on the west wall, Yakushi on the

necessary a change in the position of the chancel as well as the screening off of the dojo, the innermost sanctum. During special ceremonies this area had to be screened off on all four sides because at these times the priest, making the proper gestures, using the sacred utensils, and chanting the magic formulas, confronts the supreme deity. Of all the structures built during this period, only two are left today, the kondo and the pagoda at Muro-ji in Nara Prefecture (Plate 35). Already the

period, the Kamakura period as a whole showed a marked decline in almost all fields of culture. Learning languished under the impact of the warrior tradition, and literature, which had flowered during the preceding age, was mostly outstanding for its great warrior romances such as Heike Monogatari, which tells of the wars between the Taira and Minamoto families. The most important cultural development was the rise of the popular salvation sects of Buddhism, which have often been compared to

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