Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/149

RV 125 was that in Japan the divine nature was never allied with the human form, and thus the attributes of the former found no expression in the beauties of the latter. Japanese deities were always draped wholly or partially. The Deva Kings and demoniacal beings in general had much of the body exposed, because a display of muscular force entered into the artistic conception of such statues. But a nude Buddha or a nude Kwannon would have been an intolerable solecism in Japanese eyes. The peculiar conditions that directed artistic attention in Greece to the graces of the human form did not exist in Japan, where exposure of the person was permitted to the lower orders only, and then for purposes of toilsome labour or ablutions. That the nude should be tabooed in art under such circumstances was inevitable.

Before continuing the story of the development of sculpture, it will be well to speak briefly of the physical character of Japanese bronze, and of the methods adopted in modelling and casting.

"Bronze" is known in Japan as kara-kane (Chinese metal), a term clearly indicating the source whence a knowledge of the alloy was derived. It is a copper-tin-lead compound, the proportions of its constituents varying from seventy-two to eighty-eight per cent of copper, from two to eight per cent of tin, and from four to twenty per cent of lead. It also contains small quantities of arsenic and antimony, as well as zinc, varying from a trace to as much as six per cent. There is a tradition that some ancient bronzes had a considerable admixture of gold, but no analysis has showed more than an occasional trace of the precious metal, and not more than two per cent of silver has ever been found. Lead was ex-