Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/592

 4 88 JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE. BOOK IX. centuries to develop, but of which the sources are gone in con- sequence of the annihilation of all the early architecture of China. The earliest remains in the latter country are those of the t'ai or pagoda, which are almost universally octagonal on plan, and are built in stone or brick, whereas the example at Horiuji is square on plan, and constructed entirely in timber. This would lead us at once to doubt the origin so far as China is concerned, especially as in the early records of the Chinese Empire the t'ais are described as being usually square, some- times of great height and always built in stone to serve as watch towers, treasuries, or store-rooms. If, on account of their differences in plan and the material of their construction, there is any doubt as to the origin of the Japanese pagoda, there can be none as regards that of the temple at Horiuji, which represents the simpler type of the T'ing design with Primoya side gables identical with those of the temples, palaces, and great halls already described in China. It is, however, not only in the main design but in their construc- tive and decorative details that the general resemblance is shown ; the groups of brackets which support the eaves of the Horiuji temple and pagoda are found in all the Chinese temples and halls, and in the later examples the employment of the bracket-groups as the decoration in their friezes is found both in Japan and China, so that it would be impossible, except for other reasons, to distinguish between those of the temple at Nikkd and the temples and halls in the Forbidden City of Pekin. In Japan, as in China, where the stereotyped form of roof and its supports seems to have been fixed for all time, the only variety the architect would seem to have been allowed to intro- duce into his design was its over- elaboration with painting and carving, and this during the last two centuries has in a measure destroyed the simplicity of their earlier work. The framing of the Japanese roofs, however, is, as a rule, superior to that of the Chinese, and in the designs for those of the smaller structures, such as the Shtiro or belfry and the Kord or drum tower in their temple enclosures, and the entrance doorways, fences, and screens of their domestic architecture, they display a fertility of invention and a remarkable execution in the framing which places them in the first rank as carpenters ; like the Chinese, however, they have never understood how to truss their timbers, so that in their roofs there is the same ponderous con- struction with immense beams one above the other similar to those found in China. As already stated, the Chinese temples and halls have no clerestory windows, the light being admitted only through the