Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/107

 pect any great historical lacuna in this other case of architectural decoration.

It would be proper at this place to supplement previous references to the development of temple architecture, but there has in truth been very little architectural development in these edifices, and it will not be improper to discuss them in general terms. The Japanese themselves are wont to speak of four stages of sacred architecture; that of the Suiko era, that of the Fujiwara era, that of the Momoyama era, and that of the Tokugawa era,—terms which will become more intelligible to a foreign reader if they are replaced by "ancient Buddhist epoch," "Nara epoch," "Kyōtō epoch," and "Tōkyō epoch." The buildings chosen as illustrative of these stages are, respectively, the Hōryu-ji, the Byōdō-in, the Hongwan-ji, and the mausolea of Shiba and Nikkō. But it must be confessed that a close examination of these structures fully bears out the dictum of Mr. J. Conder, the greatest living authority on Japanese architecture, that "from a time somewhat ulterior to the introduction of the Buddhist style until now, no important development or modification in the constructive art of temple building has taken place, the chief change being decorative, caused by the growth of the decorative arts." It is true that in the oldest of all these temples—the Hōryu-ji built in 607 —the wooden columns show very marked swelling, and this entasis has been regarded