Arts of Japan. Hugo Münsterberg
which are of interest to the student of the period (Plate 7). Various utensils were represented, as well as boats and houses and all sorts of animals, so a good picture of the material culture can be gained through a study of the haniwa. Some of the clothes and the armor of the figures is similar to that of the Chinese of the time, suggesting that already at this early date there was a close connection between China and Japan.
The influence of Han China is most clearly seen in the bronze mirrors which were often found in the tombs (Plate 8). Many are actually of Chinese origin, while others closely follow Chinese prototypes. Generally speaking the workmanship is inferior to that of the Chinese and the design is usually nothing more than a crude approximation of the Chinese models. However, there are some later mirrors which show a complete technical mastery as well as an originality of design. Some of these are very abstract, with linear patterns of great delicacy and beauty, while others depict scenes from the life of the period, such as the famous mirror with battling and dancing figures, which has an animation not found in contemporary Chinese mirrors. Another shows the four heavenly mansions, probably a symbol of the four directions, an idea clearly derived from China but here represented in a Japanese manner and of particular interest in showing the design used for the houses of the period.
Besides the mirrors, ornaments and ceremonial objects were also found in the tombs, among which the most typically Japanese are the magatama, or curved jewels, which together with the mirror and the sword are regarded as the three sacred treasures of Shintoism. Originally they were no doubt derived from the claws of the tiger or the tusk of the boar, both of which were believed to have magic power by the early Chinese. Although these particular curved jewels are regarded as characteristically Japanese, similar ones have been found in southern Korea, and even in quite recent times the claws of tigers were thought to have protective power in Korea and Siberia, so the underlying idea at least is a common one to the people of eastern Asia.
Of all the objects surviving from this period, the strangest are the bronze bells, or dotaku, the origin and purpose of which are unknown (Plate 9). The earliest are believed to date back to the first century before Christ, but it is not clear for how long they were used. Here again Japanese archaeologists have tended to emphasize the unique character of these dotaku, but excavations at Lo-lang in northern Korea, which at the time was a flourishing military outpost of the Han empire, have unearthed, similar objects and their design is quite like that found on bronzes excavated in Indo-China. It may well be that the dotaku did not have any utilitarian function but were considered treasures, as was the case with many of the ancient Chinese bronze vessels. Indeed it seems likely that objects made of bronze or iron were regarded as signs of wealth during the period when they were first introduced to Japan from the continent. So far no such objects from the late Chou dynasty have been found, but there can be no doubt that the contact between Japan and Han China was very close.
The dotaku vary in length from a few inches to over four feet and in make from crude casting to the most elegant and refined forms. However, what interests us most today are their simple linear designs, something like children's drawings, which represent animals such as tortoises, lizards, insects, and birds, scenes from the lives of the hunters and fishermen, and house designs. These latter are of particular interest, for they show how the type of structure which is still seen in Ise Shrine goes back to the beginning of the Christian era. The designs, which may give us some idea of the painting of the period, are probably symbolic, although the symbolism is no longer understood.
Paintings from this period are very rare and those which do exist are primitive in the extreme. The most famous are the wall paintings in sixth-century tombs located in Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. Executed in bright colors against a red or grey background, they consist primarily of abstract shapes such as volutes, circles, dots, wheels, spirals, triangles, and squares, which were undoubtedly symbolic in meaning. Other pictures show horses, still others portray hunting scenes and people crossing water in a boat, subjects quite common in the art of primitive people and usually connected with hunting magic and the afterlife. These pictures, artistically very crude, show that even at this comparatively late period the art of painting had not yet been developed. Besides these paintings, there are also line drawings of a childlike character, which portray human figures and animals, but these too show little artistic maturity, although they have a kind of naive charm recalling some of the work of Klee.
A new kind of pottery, one used for ceremonial purposes and called Iwaibe or Sue ware, began to be made at this period. Compared to the earlier wares it shows a marked technical advance, for it was fired at far higher temperatures and thus is much harder. The color is a dark, subdued grey and the shape is often very lovely, with a bulbous body resting upon a hollow stem into which triangular or rectangular openings are cut. The mouth is usually large and there are often additional spouts at the shoulders, or little human or animal figures, or a combination of both. The Iwaibe vessel, derived from a type first developed in China and introduced to Japan via Korea, proved very popular and was in fact used for centuries.
ISE SHRINE AND EARLY JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE
The numerous models of ancient Japanese houses found among the haniwa, the designs on the dōtaku, and the descriptions in the Kojikj and Nihonshoki give us a fairly good idea of the type of architecture which flourished in Japan prior to the introduction of Buddhism. This ancient type of building, which originally was probably a chieftain's palace as well as a sacred shrine, is preserved for us almost unchanged in Ise Shrine at Ujiyamada. Due to the fact that these buildings have been torn down and rebuilt every twenty years in their original form, the ancient design has come down to us intact. The original shrine of which the present one is a faithful replica was erected in the seventh century A.D., but the design itself, which is far more ancient, can be traced back to a much earlier period, probably to the arrival of the Yayoi people in Japan. The type of construction used shows certain affinities to the houses of Malaya and the South Sea Islands, suggesting that originally it may have been derived from some common source in the south of China, since the settlement of the South Sea Islands by the Polynesians is of more recent date than the origin of this type of structure in Japan.
The architectural style employed at Ise Shrine is known as the shimmei zukuri, meaning the style associated with the Sun Goddess, for it is to her that the most ancient and venerable of Shinto sanctuaries is dedicated. As the modern German architect Bruno Taut remarked, the design used here is characteristic of the very best in the Japanese artistic tradition, for it shows clarity of construction, simplicity of material, and beauty of proportion. As in so much of the best of later Japanese architecture, the unpainted and undecorated architectural members are allowed to speak for themselves. The material of the wood and the thatch is not hidden and the whole is fitted into its natural setting with great sensitivity. This is, of course, a typical expression of the Japanese love for nature in general and the Shinto worship of the forces of nature in particular.
There are actually two shrines at Ise, the inner shrine, the Naigū or Naikū, dedicated to the Heaven-Great-Shining Kami, Ama-terasu-ō-mi-Kami, and the outer shrine, the Gegū or Gekū, dedicated to the Plentiful-Food-August-Goddess, Toyo-uke-hime, which are located at some distance from each other but are very similar in style. They are surrounded by a series of fences which separate the sacred precinct from the outer world. The sanctuary itself is in this way completely cut off from the general public, who can approach but not enter it, a privilege reserved for the priests and special guests like the emperor. In this way the sanctuary is much like the Greek temple which was also looked upon as a dwelling place of the god. Behind the main building are two smaller structures, which serve as treasure houses in which the sacred relics and offerings are kept. The three inner fences have gates while the outermost enclosure is approached through a torii, a kind of Shinto sacred gateway, which is still one of the main distinguishing marks of a Shinto shrine. It consists of two pillars topped by two horizontal bars. The lower one extends between the pillars like the crossbar of an H, while the upper one, which rests on the top of the pillars, projects beyond them with slanting ends. Here again the simplest of forms is combined with great beauty of proportion. Japanese tradition has it that these torii were built for birds to perch on, but obviously this is a later rationalistic explanation for something which is far more ancient, probably a ceremonial gateway of the type found in India at Sanchi and Barhut and which is common to many early civilizations.
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