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* JAPAN. 138 JAPANESE ART. lin, 1902) ; and the Reports of the Japan Bu- reau of Commerce and Industry. Government; Poutics: I-e Gendre, Progres- sive ./a/ian: A Study of the Political and i^ocial yccds of the Empire (San Francisco, 1878) ; Kussaka, Dus jupanische (Iclducsen (IJerlin, 1890) : Kathfien. Ja/xins 'olksuirtschafl und StaiilsUttushall (I^ipzifr, 1891); lycnaga, "Con- stitutional Devolopnicnt of Japan," in Johns Hopkins University Studies (Baltiniorp, 1891); Lavrlc, La rcstauration impcriale uu Japan (Paris. 1893) ; Curzon, Prohlents of the Far East (London. 1894) : Diosy. The .Vpif I'nr Ensl ( Xow York, 1899) ; Vladiniir, The China-Japan War (Xew York, 1895): Kansonio. Japan in Transi- tion (London. 1899) ; Tanaka Yudourou, La con- stitution dc I'empire dc Japan (Paris. 1900); Norman, The People and Polities of the Far East (2d ed., London. 1900). Reugiox. Iluuiio Xanjo, Short History of the Tirelvr Japanese Buddhist Sects (Tokio, 1887) ; Fujisiiinia. Le bouddhisme japanais (Paris, 1889); Cobbold. Reliyion in Japan: Buddhism, Shintoism, Christianity (London. 1894) : Lloyd, Developments of Japanese Buddhism (London, 1894) : Gridis. Reliyions of Japan (New York, 189.5); Lowell. The Soul of the East (Boston, 1888) : id.. Occult Japan (Boston, 189:5) ; id., "Esoteric Shinto," in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xxi. (Tokio, 184,3) ; Florenz, Japanische ilytholoqic (Tokio. 1901); and in general. Adams, History of Japan (Lon- don. 1874) : Tliorjx'. Hislorii of Japan (London. 188.5): Appert. Aneien Japan (Tokio. 1888): Knapp. Feudal and Modern Japan (London, 1897) t Mazelifre. Ejssai sur Vhistoire dc Japan (Paris. 1899) : and the general works referred to in this bibliofrraphy under General ; Descrip- 1 ire. Other works on various subjects relatinji to Japan are: Xaumann, XJehcr den Bau und die Entstehunn der japanischen Inseln (Berlin, 1885) : Dana, Characteristics of Volcanoes (Xew York. 1890) : ITnll, Volcanoes Past and Present (Xew York. 1892) : the Reports of the Imperial Geoloyical Survey of Japan, and the Transactions of the Seismolor/ical Society of Japan : Seebohm, Birds of the Japanese Empire (London, 1890) ; Fcsca. Beitraye ^ur Kenntnis der japanischen Landu-irtschaft (Berlin. 1890-93): PisRott, The Garden of Japan (London. 1802) : Sarfrent. Xotes on the Forest Flora of Japnn (Boston. 1894) : Conder. Landscape Gardeniny in Japan (London, 1894) : id.. Floral Art of Japan (London, 1900). For the Ainos. see AiNO. JAPANESE AKT. The accepted date of the begiunin<r of fine art in .Lapan is at the close of the seventh century of the Christian Era. The physical civilization of the country was then preally advanced by intercourse with China and with Korea. The .Japanese scholars have not shown any reluctance to admit the supreme in- fluence of these continental nations upon their own insular arts. The earliest sculptures in stone or wood, and the earliest paintings, some of which arc presented in temples and others in the Imperial Museum, show a knowledfre of form and of the true value of desijrn ar<ruin;r an al- ready advanced civilization : while there is no pretense that such a civilization had had time to develop itself in the islands of .Japan. The earliest buildinfrs known, such as the Paproda of Yakushiji, near Nara, universally accepted as of the .seventh century, are of a matured type, the beautiful curves of the roofs and Ibe com- bination of the series of six of these, with the intenuediate vertical walls and balconies, into a .single design bespeaking an original type al- ready very far advanced toward perfection. In sculpture, the bronz<> statuettes of these early years are as strongly Indian in character as the architecture is Chinese; but this is in great measure the result of Buddhist influence, and is nearly as visible in what Utile has been identilied as Chinese art of the same eptxh. The work in silver and bronze and in woven stuffs shows a sense of the true essence of decorative art such as the later and more splendid times coilil surpass only in variety and adluenrc. Thus the group of tiircc Buddhist bronze figures in tiie Kakushiji temple, of which the tower or 'pagoda' is mentioned above, are undoubtedly of the seventh century, and their workmanship, and more espe- cially the modeling of the nude parts, goes far to prove the introduction through India of that in- lluenee of classical (jreek art which is so often loosely assigned to the advance of any very early Asiatic school of sculi>ture. In whatever form it was that the invasion of Alexander the Great, or other active political or mercantile inlluence, brought to India some specimens of the matured art of tirceee, it can hardly be supposed that this inlluence was absent from the early Japanese sculpttire — so fraidily based upon nature, and yet so traditionally noble is the statuary of the time in drapery as well as in the larger modeling of the undr;iped torso and limbs. The paintings of the time are of course more or less injured: but the}' bear all the marks of a strong and well-under- stood tradition, with the study of nature for its origin, and with unmistakable binding laws of de- sign. In the eighth. century statuary had become more realistic, and the 'temple guardians,' or heroic statues of demigods ap|>arently of Brah- nianistic Indian mythology, have a ferocious vigor and a large freedom of design which raise these works to the greatest height of artistic merit known to us among the free and representative sculptures of the l'':ir East. It is evident that only at a later date was the strong tendency of Chinn-.Iaiianese art toward decorative uses well e.stablislud. Down to the ninth or even to the tenth century it must have been still uncertain whether these arts would tend, as those of Eu- rope had tended, toward a representative and ex- pressional character, or whether they should reac.i forward, as they liave done, to a decorative excclleni-e accepted as the purpose of the art, and far excelling in variety and completeness that known to Euroi>e. There are in .Japanese history and tradition certain well-marked y)criods of development and of change. The thirteenth century of the Chris- tian Era marks one of these, during which ]«'riod the manners jof the wealthier and influential classes were, according to all accounts, more se- vere and deliberately removed from luxury than they had been, and much more than they were to be. Some of the most interesting and impres- sive pieces of Japanese sculpture belong to this epoch, and it is pleasant to trace a fancied con- nection between the comparative asceticism of the time and the severe design of these bronzes. Even the more realistic pieces — statuettes in which portraiture seems to be affected — are so severe in the casting of the draperies and so