a great impression upon the still backward civilization of sixth-century Japan and they were followed in succeeding years by other images, as well as monks and scholars and craftsmen. Although the origin both of the works of art and the teachings was no doubt Chinese and ultimately Indian, during this early period they all came to Japan from Korea. Records tell of monks and a nun, a temple architect and a maker of images arriving from Korea in 577, and still others followed in the course of the next decade. Among them were not only architects but also experts in casting spires, tile-makers, and all sorts of other craftsmen, who were able to give the Japanese professional training. At first the artists working in Japan were largely foreigners, whose work necessarily reflected a foreign style, but soon the Japanese began to adapt the importations to their own artistic traditions. For a time the fate of Buddhism was uncertain, but by the turn of the century the new religion was so firmly established that in 604 it was incorporated into the state code, which expressly said that the people should revere the Three Precious Things, namely, the Buddha, the Law, and the Priesthood.
This new code was the work of Prince Umayado or, to use the posthumous title by which he is better known, Shōtoku Taishi, or Sage Virtue, who lived from 572 to 621 and served as Prince Regent under the Empress Suiko. It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this man, who was not only one of the most remarkable figures in Japanese history but also, along with the Indian ruler Asoka, one of the greatest patrons of Buddhism. His name, which is still revered in Japan today, stands beside that of Hideyoshi and the Emperor Meiji as one of the best known in Japanese history. Although his contributions were manifold, it is the temples he founded, many of which still exist today, that are of concern to us in a work of this nature.
The most ancient of these is the great temple of Shitennō-ji, or the Temple of the Four Heavenly Kings, which was started in 593 in what is today Osaka. Almost as old is the Hoko-ji, or Asuka-dera, built in 595 near Nara, but unfortunately none of the original buildings have been preserved in either of these temples. (Significantly enough, the abbot of Hoko-ji was a Korean priest, which is one of the many indications of the prominent part Korean Buddhist missionaries played in spreading the Buddhist gospel in Japan.) Of all the temples which Shōtoku Taishi founded, the most important and perhaps the most famous is Hōryū-ji, which was established in Nara in 607 in obedience to the command of the Empress Suiko. This temple, which today is a kind of museum of early Buddhist art, is preserved at least in part as it was originally built in the seventh century.
In 624, three years after the death of Shōtoku Taishi, there were no less than forty-six temples, 816 monks, and 565 nuns in Japan. In less than a hundred years Japan had become a Buddhist country and this in turn meant a complete transformation of the artistic culture, since the introduction of the Buddhist faith had from the very start gone hand in hand with the introduction of Buddhist images. When in 607 direct contact with China was established, this tendency towards a foreign cultural orientation became even more pronounced. It was a development very similar to that which took place under the Emperor Meiji in the nineteenth century, and what is most astonishing in both is that the Japanese in such a comparatively short time were able to accept and absorb these new ideas without losing their own identity.
BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE OF THE ASUKA PERIOD
Any discussion of the artistic monuments which have survived from this early period must start with Hōryū-ji, which is not only the most ancient but in some ways also the most beautiful temple in Japan. Its exact date is a matter of conjecture, but even if the buildings are not the original ones, they are certainly based upon designs of the Asuka period. It seems most likely that the original temple (which was completed in 607 as the result of a vow made by the Emperor Yōmei and carried out by the Empress Suiko and Shōtoku Taishi) was destroyed by fire in 670, and that the present buildings were actually erected late in the seventh century. This whole problem is far from being settled, but, whatever the date of these buildings, it seems certain that they reflect the style of the Asuka period. In any case these buildings, which are over twelve hundred years old, are the most ancient wooden buildings in the world today.
The general plan of the temple may be seen in the aerial photograph (Plate 11). It consists of a square precinct which is separated from the outside by a covered colonnade called hōrō or kairō, which resembles a medieval cloister. At the south side of this cloister there is a large gate, the chūmon, or middle gate, and on the north side is the lecture hall, or kōdō. To the right and to the left of the main axis which leads from the chūmon to the kōdō are, respectively, the Golden Hall, or Kondō, and the pagoda. Finally there are two smaller buildings to the west and east of the kōdō, namely, the kyorō, or sutra library, and the shōrō, or belfry, but these last two buildings as well as the kōdō itself were built during the Heian period. An alternate plan, which may still be seen at Shitennō-ji in Osaka, is an arrangement in which the pagoda is in front of the kondō on a north-south axis leading from the gate to the lecture hall, but the Hōryū-ji plan is the more common.
Comparing the temple complex as a whole to equivalent European designs, one sees that there are three main differences, all of them characteristic of Japanese architecture. The first is the close relationship between the buildings and their natural setting. Far from denying nature or standing apart from it as Western architecture often does, Hōryū-ji, like most other Japanese buildings, is conceived as a part of nature, the buildings blending beautifully with the physical surroundings, especially with the pine trees which grow on the temple grounds. This love of and closeness to nature, which was already reflected in the Shinto shrines, is one of the outstanding characteristics of the Japanese people. Man is seen not as lord of nature but as a part of it and, in keeping with this idea, the structures of man are related to their physical settings. The second thing which strikes one is the modest scale of this temple compared to similar structures in Europe, such as St. Peter's or Chartres. This is by no means due to the fact that Hōryū-ji was not considered important—on the contrary, it served not only as a center of worship but also, as its ancient name Hōryū-ji-Gakumon-ji, or Hōryū-ji of Learning, suggests, as a center of Buddhist study. In addition it was a kind of hospital where the Buddhist ideal of mercy and charity was practiced towards the sick and the poor. The small size of the individual buildings as well as of the complex as a whole reflects the love of the Japanese for relatively small dimensions, a love which can be seen in all phases of Japanese life and which may have something to do with the small size of the Japanese islands and with the small and graceful build of the people. The third difference is in the building material itself. Western architects usually employ stone for all major constructions, but the Japanese used wood almost exclusively, a material which their islands have in abundance and which is better suited to a country in which earthquakes are so common. The result is a lighter and simpler type of construction in which the beauty of the material is a major part of the design.
From a religious point of view the most important of these buildings is the Kondō, or Golden Hall, for it was here that the image of the deity was housed, Shaka Buddha, as is the case at Hōryū-ji, or one of the many Buddhas and bodhisattvas who were worshipped at the time (Plate 12). This seventh-century structure stood until 1949, when it was destroyed by a fire caused by the carelessness of a painter who was making a copy of the wall paintings, but the present building, completed in 1954, is an exact replica of the original. Its basic design is extremely simple, consisting of a rectangular stone platform to which four staircases lead, one corresponding to each door and to each direction. On the platform there are twenty-eight pillars which support the upper part of the structure and form five bays on one side and four on the other. The roof, particularly beautiful with its elegantly curved eaves, is a mixture of a gabled and a hipped roof, a development peculiar to the Far East and called irimoya in Japan. Beneath the main roof there are two smaller roofs. The upper one sets of! the second story, which, however, does not correspond to any functional division inside, since the second floor, which is surrounded by a balcony, serves no practical purpose. The lower roof is a later one added to protect the walls and paintings from the rain. The interior consists of a rectangular chamber with walls of wood and stucco and a coffered ceiling. In the center, surrounded by a series of pillars, there is a raised platform or dais symbolizing Mt. Meru, the world mountain, on which images are placed.
