Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/39

RV 19 permeated with Indo-Grecian influences. The materials for study now cease to be few and apocryphal. A very considerable number of authenticated sculptures, several paintings, and a remarkably full assemblage of examples of applied art, illustrate the culture of the epoch.

To this time belongs the celebrated collection preserved in an imperial storehouse called the Shoso-in at Nara. Nara was the capital of Japan and the residence of the Imperial Court from 709 to 784 During that interval the priests of Horiuji, to which temple the Shoso-in is attached, received from the Palace various memorial relics, so that the Shoso-in collection ultimately comprised specimens of the ornaments, utensils, robes, musical instruments, etc., used by three Emperors and three Empresses. This collection, supplemented by temple treasures, brings the student into intimate touch with the civilisation of the era. He can speak of it confidently. As to sculpture, the point of excellence to which it had been carried is attested by several statues which form part of the Nara temple relics. No critic can deny to these works a high place in any scale of artistic conception and technical skill. Tradition assigns some of the best of them to anonymous Chinese or Korean sculptors. But no such sculptures have hitherto been found in either Korea or China. Here is presented one of the difficulties besetting every effort to decipher the alphabet of Japanese art. Working in the service of religion, the Japanese artist buried his individuality in his purpose; and, on the other hand, since Korea originally transmitted Buddhism to Japan, and China, during several centuries, remained the sole source of its exegesis, the priests