Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/107

RV 85 dried and reduced to powder, decayed earth from the bed of a pond, and potter's clay. The head and torso thus constructed were then fixed on a wooden frame wrapped in cloth, and finally the arms and legs, having been modelled independently, were fastened in position with lacquer. The second method was much simpler. In this the sculptor commenced by chiselling a statue in wood, to which he applied a coat of tolerably coarse lacquer, and then a layer of cotton material, on which, finally, a coat of fine lacquer was superposed. Delicate work was not possible by this second process.

At the head of all the sculptures of the eighth century it is usual to place a huge bronze image of Lochāna Buddha, known as the "Nara Dai-Butsu." It certainly deserves that distinction in some respects, for it is fifty- three feet high, and the difficulty of making such a casting must have been immense. But however beautifully proportioned the colossal idol may have been originally, clumsy restorations in the sequel of conflagrations and other accidents have so marred it that it can no longer be compared with many smaller examples of contemporary sculpture. The intellectual energy and technical resources of the artist that conceived and executed such a work command admiration, but the measure of artistic success he attained is now a matter of conjecture only. Other specimens of the time convey fuller information. A series of clay statuettes preserved in the temple Hōryu-ji show, in a very marked degree, evidence of the humour for which Japanese sculpture became famous many hundred years subsequently; humour which is conspicuously absent in the works of China and Korea alike. On a much higher plane of art,