Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/593

 CHAP. IV. INTRODUCTORY. 489 doorways and the windows in the rear of the verandah, but in the more ancient temples at Hdriuji and Nara in Japan, the designs of which were introduced from China through Korea, there are large openings above the verandah roof and between the columns and beams which carry the main roof; these openings were probably closed with paper or some other transparent material, and to give facilities to keep this in proper repair, narrow balconies are carried round as shown in Plate LX. Already also at a very early period the column verandah was dispensed with in the majority of the temples, its place being taken by a balcony carried on corbels or brackets tenoned into the columns of the main hall, this balcony being always carried round on three sides and sometimes in the rear. Sufficient protection from the weather was given to this balcony by the wide projection of the eaves of the main roof, and consequently the double eaves of the Chinese temple were not required. Next to the main temple the most important structure is the entrance gateway ; in China the chief entrance was through a p'ai-lu, which was sometimes isolated and at a long distance from the temple. In Japan it forms the entrance to each enclosure, and is generally in two storeys ; one of the earliest examples is that shown in Plate LX. between the temple and the pagoda at Horiuji : if this is compared with the Y6-mei-mon Gate at Nikko built under the Toku-gawa Shoguns, Plate LXI., great decadence which has taken place in the style will be easily recognised in the over-elaboration of the more modern structure, where dragons and unicorns are carved in every possible position, and in which the simple curves of the I'rimoya roof have been changed for those of a more complex nature.