A History of Japanese Art

by Noritake Tsuda

  This same priest Eshin, a pious philosopher, not only taught men with words and pageant-like manifestations, but also depicted the glories of Amida in association with the landscape of Hiei and Lake Biwa, and represented him coming over the green hill to welcome the souls of the faithful. In this respect he made a new departure in Buddhist painting, liberating it from the rigid conventions of Shingon iconography and inspiring it with fresh vitality emanating from his own piety.

  Priests were treated with the utmost care and respect, because they were considered to be the only persons that could keep off all evils. For this reason, many Buddhist temples and stupas were built, and Buddhist images and pictures were made in abundance by the Fujiwara family and the Imperial court. Thus Buddhism controlled the minds of Court nobles, and naturally one can easily see its influence on painting, architecture, sculpture, and all other arts.

  Although the social life in Kyoto was splendid and flowery the country could not go on in harmony without careful direction. Worse than this, disturbances broke out everywhere. But the Fujiwara, themselves despising all military arts, laid the task of quieting these uprisings on the shoulders of the military families, and left the incantations for warding off evils to be performed by the priests.

  Such serious neglect on the part of the Fujiwara family began to cause its decline in the second half of the eleventh century. Therefore, local barons and the provincial governors, being able to make their positions and holdings hereditary, came to be the new centers of power in various provinces.

  When finally the test of arms came, it was found that the leaders of the military class were masters of the situation, the peace being kept only by the services of the two eminent families of Genji and Heike. While these two families were gradually rising in power, strife between them for supremacy became unavoidable, and after a long conflict, the Heike gained supremacy. When the Heike took the controlling power from the hands of the Fujiwara, they wanted to follow all the ways of life established by the Fujiwara and tried to imitate the rather heavy beauty of their arts; but notwithstanding this, one can discern some freshness in all the designs of this period. In paintings and decoration and other works representing the manners and customs of the people of the time, there was much more of interest and dramatic quality.

  Fig. 61. Detail of Ami da and Twenty-five Bodhisattvas

  Reihō-kwan Museum, Mt. Koya

  But the Heike had not the gift for ruling, and before long were displaced by the Genji who consolidated the feudal elements and created a Shogunate at Kamakura which gives its name to the succeeding period.

  2. PAINTING

  Painting was never before so prosperous as it became in this period. A remarkable new development was made in Buddhist painting under the influence of the Pure Land Doctrine propagated by the Priest Eshin Sōzu. He was one of the greatest of Priest-painters; and a great number of paintings that represent the Buddha Amida and his Bodhisattvas coming down from heaven to welcome the faithful when they die are usually attributed to him, even those which were surely painted much later than his time.

  The earliest example of the welcoming Amida, illustrative of the Pure Land Doctrine, is to be seen in a triptych, depicting Amida triad with an attendant, owned by the Hokke-ji. The Painting is preserved in the Nara Imperial Household Museum. But a more complete expression of the same doctrine is visualized by the painting representing Amida and Twenty-five Bodhisattvas, which is preserved in the Reihō-kwan Museum on Mount Kōya and is also attributed to the priest Eshin. The outlines of all the sacred figures are built up entirely with fine delicate lines drawn with wonderfully even power and colored red. The main figure is gorgeously decorated with designs in fine cut gold work. But in all the figures of Bodhisattvas we find much human expression in the faces and bodies, as well as in the designs and colors of the costumes, which were influenced by the court life of the day. The variety of colors and graceful forms of the sacred figures mark the full glory of the feminine beauty characteristic of the Fujiwara Period; and symbolizes the happiness, the spiritualized joy, and the florescence of feminine "libido," all consecrated by the absolute mercy of Amida. (Fig. 61) Such was the expected vision of the next world which appealed to the hearts of the court nobles of the day; and such Buddhist painting represents the attitude of the people towards a future life. (Color plt. 2)

  In Fig. 62 we have reproduced the image of Kwannon painted on the wall of the Phoenix Hall of Kyoto. He is coming down, riding on the clouds, in front of Amida. His pose and expression are purely feminine. More than this, he is modeled after the ideal beauty of the age, and looks more humanistic than the angel in the Annunciation painted in the High Renaissance period of Europe.

  A similar type of painting was generally found in other Buddhist figures. The resurrection scene of Shaka-muni Buddha from a gold coffin owned by the Chōhō-ji monastery, now on view in the Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art (Color plt. 1); the figure of Fugen of the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum; and the picture representing Nirvana in the Reihō-kwan Museum on Mount Kōya, are all representative examples of the Buddhist painting produced in the Fuijiwara Period.

  Fig. 62. Kwannon, a Detail of the Wall Painting of Phoenix Hall

  In the painting of purely lay subjects,there also was a remarkable development. It was for the first time in this period that romantic stories were beautifully illustrated with pictures representing some important scenes of the stories. But there are hardly any examples extant.

  Fig. 63. Part of the Genji Monogatari Picture Scroll

  Marquis Tokugawa's Collection, Nagoya

  The picture scroll illustrating a famous novel called Genji Monogatari written by Murasaki Shikibu, the celebrated lady writer of the age, is a unique example of the kind. We do not know how many scrolls were originally painted to make a complete set of illustrations for the novel, but now only four scrolls remain, three of which are owned by Marquis Tokugawa in Owari, and one by Baron Masuda in Tokyo. The pictures are attributed to Fujiwara Takayoshi, but the authenticity of this claim has not been established.

  Anyhow the work is evidently by a master hand of the Kasuga School in the age. They are important pictures depicting the life of the nobility circle of the Fujiwara Period, and are representative of pictures developed entirely after the taste of Japanese nobles. Their significant characteristic is the beautiful contrast of rather heavy and gay coloring with the fine delicate lines of the human figures; the general effect is quiet and full of refined feminine beauty. The peculiar style of the court painters of this period may be studied in the delineation of faces of the Fujiwara nobility. An example is shown in Fig. 63. The eyes are drawn with two lines, and the nose with two broken lines. This peculiarity of style is called "hikime-kagihana," or drawn eyes and keynose. This mode of delineation induces a feeling of quietness and unaffected elegance; and, not only in the faces, but in the posture and in the natural background, there is something concordant with this feeling, which spreads itself all over the canvas.

  It is no other than the general emotional atmosphere of the late Fujiwara Period, and as these pictures depicted the life as it was actually lived, the feeling was thus reflected in them.

  Other important examples, in which a similar style of painting can be seen, are found in illuminated manuscript copies of Buddhist scriptures dedicated to the Itsukushima Shrine by Tairano Kiyomori, which are preserved in the Kyoto Onshi Museum of Art, and also in the sutras written on fan-shaped paper, owned by the Shitenno-ji monastery of Osaka, and the similar sutras owned by the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum. (Fig. 64)

  Fig. 64. Sutra Written on Fan-shaped Paper with Painting

  Tokyo Imperial Household Museum

  In this period there appeared some artists who made painting their specialty. Among them, Kose Hirotaka and Takuma Tamenari were most eminent.

  Kose Hirotaka was the most prominent painter of the Kose School which sprang up in the previous period. He was so deeply interested in Buddhism that he became a priest,
but regretting that such genius should be lost in retirement, the Emperor called him back and appointed him the chief painter to the court.

  Takuma Tamenari is said to have founded the Takuma School, and was appointed to the presidency of the Art Department in the Court. The Takuma School was noted for religious painting and to its founder is attributed the wall painting of Hō-ō-dō at Uji.

  In the later years of the Fujiwara Period, there appeared other schools, Kasuga and Tosa—both native styles.

  The Kasuga School was famous for its beauty of coloring and grace in the use of brush. This school saw its glory in the next period, but most of the names of the painters are unknown.

  The Tosa School was founded by Fujiwara Motomitsu. Its masters showed the native style very gloriously, with a light and free movement of the brush and clever placing of color, quite different from the style of Chinese schools. This school drew most of its subjects from the lives of people and animals. Fujiwara Mitsunaga, the great painter of this period, belonged also to the Tosa School, but his life is little known.

  3. SCULPTURE

  The development of sculpture was not so prosperous as that of painting, but, as in other arts of the age, the Jōdo ideal had taken a fast hold of sculpture and the new spirit was expressed eminently in the statues of Amida and of his Bodhisattvas and angels.

  The statues produced in the high time of the Fujiwara Period had stout bodies, round faces, narrow and long eyes and eyebrows, and dresses lying in smooth folds; and they showed delicacy and elegant taste in every way.

  The medium of sculpture in this period was of wood only, and metals were used mostly for decorative art.

  Until this period, wooden statues were usually carved out of one block of wood, but in this period the method of joinery structure was established. The head was modeled separately and inserted in part of the neck; the body was composed of three parts, the hands and arms also were carved separately and then fastened to the body.

  In the ornamentation of figures, gold and various other colors were used profusely as in painting. But only the figure of Amida was lavished with gold on the face and body, and the most elaborate variety of colors was applied to the figures attending him. Gold was generally applied to the lacquered foundation while other colors were usually put on a gesso ground that had been applied to the plain surface of wood.

  It is noticeable that professional sculptors for the first time appeared in this period, because the demand for Buddhist statues increased and priest-sculptors had almost disappeared.

  Among professional sculptors, the foremost was Jōchō. When Fujiwara Michinaga built the Hōjō-ji temple, Jōchō set about the work with many of his assistants. He carved the main Buddhist figure, which was about thirty-two feet high, and a hundred other Buddhist images. For this merit he was conferred with the honorable title Hokkyō. This was the first case in which the title was given to a professional artist. Then he established a carving studio in Kyoto and taught his pupils. His son Kakujō opened his carving studio at Shichijō and his pupil Chōsei at Sanjō, both in Kyoto, and continued the traditions of the school founded by Jōchō.

  The large image of Amida enshrined at the Hō-ō-dō or Phoenix Hall of the Byōdō-in at Uji, near Kyoto, is said to be a representative work carved by Jōchō.

  In the Sanzen-in temple in the northern suburb of Kyoto is a unique exmple of the Amida triad (Fig. 65) which developed in the later years of the Fujiwara Period. In this triad, attention is specially invited to the postures of the two attendant Bodhisattvas, Kwannon and Seishi. Their kneeling postures are entirely in Japanese style and express a very soft feeling.

  Fig. 65. Amida Triad

  Sanzen-in, Kyoto

  In the Jōruri-ji temple between Kyoto and Nara is the most picturesque statue of Kichijō-ten, a deity of fortune represented as an incarnation of beauty. (Color plt. 3) She has a gem on the palm of her hand, which gives fortune to her adorants as she wishes to give. The chiseling is very fine and the costume is beautifully decorated in colors with typical designs of the Fujiwara Period. In its gay decorativeness are preserved the traditions of the Nara art as will be proved by comparing it with the painted figure of the same goddess (Fig. 28) in the Yakushi-ji. The fact makes it seem probable that the work was influenced by Nara sculpture of the eighth century. An excellent example of portrait sculpture in the Fujiwara Period will be found in the image representing the prince Shōtoku Taishi expounding the sutras with marvellous wisdom at the age of seven, which is owned by the Hōryū-ji monastery. (Fig. 66) He sits and holds a Chinese fan in the left hand. His hair is dressed in the manner of the children of the Fujiwara Period. The figure is full of life and dignity. According to the inscription written on the interior of the statue, it was carved by Enkwai in the fifth year of Chiryaku (1069) and ornamented in colors by a painter called Hatano Chishin.

  Fig. 66. Statue of Prince Shōtoku (N.T.)

  Hōryū-ji, Yamato

  4. INDUSTRIAL ARTS

  In this Period the Chinese ideas were finally assimilated; the mind attained independence; and industrial arts made remarkable progress, reaching the high watermark of originality and perfection in purely native designs, with an unprecedented flawlessness in artistic taste. Yet it must not be overlooked that it was the fruit of the preceding centuries of imitation. This can be clearly proved when we compare what was created in the Fujiwara Period with what was borrowed from abroad in the period preceding it.

  Among other arts, metal, lacquer, and inlaid work made remarkable progress. The progress of metal work can be seen in bronze mirrors and metal fittings applied to boxes and to architecture; the progress of lacquer work may be examined in various utensils and in the decoration of architecture; and examples of inlaid work can be seen in various lacquered boxes and in the lacquered wood of architecture, as in the interior decoration of Hō-ō-dō at Uji and of the Konjiki-dō of Chūsonji, which are described elsewhere.

  Most of the bronze mirrors of this period were discovered in the scripture mounds built in the Fujiwara Period. When we compare them with Han and T'ang mirrors we find that they are much smaller and very handy. The designs on their backs are usually composed of birds and butterflies associated with grass and flowers. Although they are much simpler than those of the T'ang mirrors, they show that artistic spirit and native ability had reached a very high degree, as will be seen in our illustration in Fig. 67. Many examples of bronze mirrors of this period are collected in the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum. (See pp. 300-302)

  Fig. 67. Bronze Mirror (N.T.)

  Kongōsho-ji, Ise

  Lacquer work in the Fujiwara Period was applied most widely to various articles that were used by the nobility. For example, tables, trays, toilet-boxes, clothes-horses, mirror-stands, mirror-boxes, ink-stone boxes and other kinds of utensils were beautifully decorated with designs made of gold lacquer, mother-of-pearl, or giltmetals, on lacquered ground of plain black speckled with gold dust (chiri-ji) or entire gold lacquer ground (ikake-ji). The Karabitsu, or a kind of chest, of the Kongōbu-ji monastery is an excellent specimen of the gold lacquer work in the Fujiwara Period. The chest is placed on view in the Reihō-kwan Museum at Mount Kōya. The design is composed of sweet flags and birds. The birds and the flowers are inlaid with mother-of-pearl, the white luster of which beautifully harmonizes with the gold and black lacquer, showing a picturesque color scheme. The inside case is decorated with fine metal openwork and mother-of-pearl inlay on a lacquered ground. (Fig. 68)

  Fig. 68. Karabitsu (N.T.)

  Reihō-kwan Museum, ML Kōya

  5. ARCHITECTURE

  The creative genius of Japanese architects, for the first time in this period, was expressed fully in the buildings of monasteries and residences of the nobility.

  The most magnificent examples of monastery architecture of the Fujiwara Period, were the Hōjō-ji, founded by Fujiwara Michinaga in the first quarter of the eleventh century and the Hosshō-ji, founded by the Emperor Shirakawa in 1071. Both
, however, were lost not many years after their completion.

  Although not so great as these two lost pieces of architecture there still remain some important buildings from which we can form our ideas about the Fujiwara architecture. The exterior of Fujiwara architecture is elegant but quite simple and plain, being at most covered with red lead paint, while the interior is lavished with delicate decorations.

  In the sanctuary of a temple we generally find an altar surrounded by railings which are beautifully inlaid with mother-of-pearl. On this altar, under a canopy, stand Buddhist images which are richly decorated. Sometimes, the altar is inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The sanctuary has a coffered ceiling, while the aisle has a decorated open-timbered roof. The rafters and ribs are ornamented with floral designs of hōsōge flowers, and the interspaces of the rafters and ribs are decorated similarly. The wainscoting has upon it paintings or mural pictures. The columns mostly bear Buddhist images and arabesques, and the nageshi (horizontal boards over the lintels), nuki (horizontal braces of the pillars) and compound brackets are also beautifully painted.

  Of the architecture remaining from this period the Hō-ō-dō, or the Phoenix Hall, is most important and representative. Its history, construction, decoration, and garden all inform us of the ideal beauty of Fujiwara architecture in a tangible way. (See pp. 377-382)

  The following Buddhist buildings are also important examples of Fujiwara architecture still remaining: The five-storied Stupa of the Daigo-ji monastery near Kyoto; the main temple of the Hōkai-ji monastery, near Kyoto; the main temple of the San-zen-in monastery, near Kyoto; the main temple and the three-storied stupa of Jōruri-ji monastery, Kyoto prefecture; the main temple of the Fuki-ji monastery, Ōita prefecture; and the Konji-ki-dō of the Chūson-ji monastery at Chusōn-ji, Iwate prefecture.