Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/141

 N. B. Many of the above artists had titles bestowed on them in recognition of their skill. Such titles were Hōgen (eye of the law), HoinHōin [sic] (sign of the law), and Hōkyo (bridge of the law).

The vast majority of the glyptic works executed in early and medival times were intended for temples. The same remark applies, as already seen, to pictorial art, but in the case of sculpture it may be illustrated by reference to historical records. Thus, in the reign of the Emperor Shirakawa—eleventh century—three thousand sacred images were ordered by his Majesty for enshrining in temples; in the thirteenth century the Emperor Kameyama placed thirty-three thousand images in the Sanjusangendo in Kyōtō, namely, a thousand figures of the Goddess of Mercy (Kwannon), each five feet high, with thirty-two thousand smaller effigies mounted on the foreheads, hands, and halos of the larger figures; and in the seventeenth century, the Shōgun Hidetada issued an edict requiring that every household throughout the land must possess a Buddhist image. Several times, too, in the annals of early eras, references occur as to scarcity of the precious metals—among which copper was included—owing to extravagant piety on the part of sovereigns and nobles, who did not hesitate to throw vast quantities of coin into the melting-pot when the service of heaven called for such sacrifices. From the twelfth century, however, wood became the material commonly used for statues. They were usually covered with gold foil, and it is easy to conceive the magnificently imposing effect produced by such a concourse of gilded images as those of the Sanjusangen-do; a forest of glittering fig-