Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/175

 Jingoro (left-handed Jingoro), who flourished from about 1590 to 1634, and who is counted the prince of Japanese decorative sculptors (miya-shi or miyabori-shi, as distinguished from busshi, the sculptor of images), stood, in the natural order of evolution, at the head of a line of artists whose work, though for lack of opportunity it made no memorable display, helped to educate a taste for architectural decoration and to prepare the way for enterprises which gave full scope to the genius of Jingoro and his successors. There is, however, no certainty about these matters. Broad limits only can be fixed. Thus, while it is known that the celebrated Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-ji), built by Yoshimasa in 1479, and the even more renowned Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji) of Yoshimitsu (constructed in 1397) were entirely without sculptured decoration, it is also known that the temple Nishi-Hongwan-ji, erected in 1592, and the mausoleum of Iyeyasu at Nikkō (commenced in 1616) have an unrivalled richness of such ornamentation. It should be explained clearly, again, that reference is not made here to architectural applications of pictorial art. From very early times the services of the painter had been placed at the disposal of the architect. Indeed, the reader will have learned from what has already been written of Japanese pictorial art, that the painter, whether his picture was to hang in an alcove or to find its place on the walls, sliding doors, or screens of an interior, always regarded his work as the decoration of a panel, and was careful to observe the limitations as to chiaroscuro and linear perspective that separate applied art from realistic. The oldest surviving example of pictorial art employed for decorative purposes which dates from the eighth century may