Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/145

RV 121 merely perfected types of human beauty, and the logic of his canon is easily appreciated. The Japanese sculptor, however, conceived for his deities countenances which, though in no sense repellent or unnatural, do not conform with the ordinary attributes of comeliness. The chief point of divergence is an enforcement of the line of the eyebrow. It is in the countenance that nature shows special beauties of profile, and one of the most graceful is the curve of the eyebrow, which is often so finely treated in Greek statues. This the Japanese sculptor emphasised, so that while its grace of form was much enhanced, the face received an etherealised expression, removing it from the normal human type. His treatment of the ear constituted another distinction. Appreciating the potentialities of its elaborate conjunction of curves, he exaggerated them, as in the case of the eyebrow, and thus produced a feature which helped materially to differentiate the face. In short, his interpretation of the aspect of divinity was to give salience to those elements of the countenance which, in his opinion, distinguished it specially from the animal type. Another point in which his method differed from that of the Greeks was that whereas the latter avoided any expression of emotion, since it interfered with the repose and dignity of their ideal, the Japanese sculptor frankly represented, and even emphasised, the emotions by which his semi-divinities were supposed to be animated. His figures of the Deva Kings are conspicuous examples. Not merely the expression of their faces, but also every limb and every muscle is instinct with fierce energy and implacable purpose. Such works, though splendidly vigorous and imposing, are not "beautiful"