Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/187

 vermilion red. But any criticism of that nature is silenced at once when these edifices are considered with reference to their environment,—a profusion of green foliage, which effectually balances the primary colour of the pagoda. It is found, also, on careful examination of the mausolea at Shiba, Uyeno, and Nikkō, that the primary colours appear on the upper parts of objects, the secondary and tertiary on the lower; that proportion is successfully preserved between the volumes of full and low tones; that the art of separating coloured ornaments from fields of contrasting colour is thoroughly understood; that the solecism of mutually impinging colours is strictly avoided; that the tone of ground colours is in excellent harmony with the quantity of ornament, and that the ensemble presents that neutralised bloom which indicates perfect blending of tones and tints.

As already stated, there are few records of great sculptors connected with architectural or religious carvings in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, although such remarkable work was accomplished. Hidari Jingoro died in 1635. Among his successors the best remembered are Hidari Eishin (1632–1700), Shōun (1660–1705), Tancho (1630–1695), and Hidari Katsumasa (1670–1727). Other names are included in an appended list, but the recorded number of artists is quite insignificant when compared with the quantity of fine work executed from the beginning of the seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century. The subordination of the individual to achievement is specially marked in the field of decorative carvings for temples and mausolea.