Editing Japanese art (section)

===Asuka and Nara art===

[[File:Dragon head Pitcher former Horyuji.JPG|thumb|A dragon-head pitcher with [[Pegasus]] pattern incised, [[Gilding|gilded]] bronze　with silver, Asuka period, 7th century, former [[Horyu-ji]] Temple treasures]]

During the [[Asuka period|Asuka]] and [[Nara period]]s, so named because the seat of Japanese government was located in the Asuka Valley from 542 to 645<ref name="History of Japanese Art"/> and in the city of [[Nara, Nara|Nara]] until 784, the first significant influx of continental Asian culture took place in Japan.

The transmission of Buddhism provided the initial impetus for contacts between China and Japan. The Japanese recognized the facets of [[Culture of China|Chinese culture]] that could profitably be incorporated into their own: a system for converting ideas and sounds into writing; [[historiography]]; complex theories of government, such as an effective [[bureaucracy]]; and, most important for the arts, new technologies, new building techniques, more advanced methods of casting in [[bronze]], and new techniques and media for painting.

Throughout the 7th and 8th centuries, however, the major focus in contacts between Japan and the Asian continent was the development of Buddhism. Not all scholars agree on the significant dates and the appropriate names to apply to various time periods between 552, the official date of the introduction of Buddhism into Japan, and 784, when the Japanese capital was transferred from Nara. The most common designations are the Suiko period, 552–645; the [[Hakuhō period]], 645–710, and the Tenpyō period, 710–784.

<gallery>
File:Horyu-ji, November 2016.jpg|Pagoda and Kondō at [[Hōryū-ji]], 8th century
File:NaraTodaiji0252.jpg|Hokkedō at [[Tōdai-ji]], 8th century
</gallery>

The earliest Japanese sculptures of the Buddha are dated to the 6th and 7th century.<ref>Korea, 500–1000 A.D. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History The Metropolitan Museum of Art [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/06/eak/ht06eak.htm metmuseum.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061214145610/http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/06/eak/ht06eak.htm |date=2006-12-14 }}</ref> They ultimately derive from the 1st- to 3rd-century AD [[Greco-Buddhist art]] of [[Gandhara]], characterized by flowing dress patterns and realistic rendering,<ref>"Needless to say, the influence of Greek art on Japanese Buddhist art, via the Buddhist art of Gandhara and India, was already partly known in, for example, the comparison of the wavy drapery of the Buddha images, in what was, originally, a typical Greek style" (Katsumi Tanabe, "Alexander the Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan", p19)</ref> on which Chinese artistic traits were superimposed. After the [[Northern Wei|Chinese Northern Wei]] buddhist art had infiltrated a Korean peninsula, Buddhist icons were brought to Japan by Various immigrant groups.<ref>Korean Influence on Early Japanese Buddhist Sculpture [http://eng.buddhapia.com/_Service/_ContentView/ETC_CONTENT_2.ASP?pk=0000593748&sub_pk=&clss_cd=0002169717&top_menu_cd=0000000592&menu_cd=0000008845&menu_code=&image_folder=color_11&bg_color=2B5137&line_color=3A6A4A&menu_type= buddhapia.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110111194158/http://eng.buddhapia.com/_Service/_ContentView/ETC_CONTENT_2.ASP?pk=0000593748&sub_pk=&clss_cd=0002169717&top_menu_cd=0000000592&menu_cd=0000008845&menu_code=&image_folder=color_11&bg_color=2B5137&line_color=3A6A4A&menu_type= |date=2011-01-11 }} "One must stress the obvious point that since Korean Buddhist art is directly based on developments in China, ultimately a study of Korean influence on Japan must be rooted in an understanding of the Chinese impact on Korea.""Since the territory of the Northern Wei was adjacent to that of Koguryo, it is natural that the Buddhist ideas and art current at the Northern Wei court would flow directly to Koguryo. ""It should also be pointed out that there was considerable influence from Koguryo on the southern kingdoms of Paekche and Silla even though Paekche also received direct influence from south China, as was mentioned above." "I have argued that various groups, including official envoys, monks, and students, as well as Korean settlers, were responsible for bringing Korean icons to Japan."</ref> Particularly, the semi-seated Maitreya form was adapted into a highly developed Ancient Greek art style which was transmitted to Japan as evidenced by the [[Kōryū-ji]] [[Maitreya|Miroku]] Bosatsu and the [[Chūgū-ji]] [[Gautama Buddha|Siddhartha]] statues.<ref name="EB">
  "Archaic smile", [[Britannica Online Encyclopedia]],
  2009, webpage:
  [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/32637/<!--
  -->Archaic-smile  EB-Smile].
</ref> Many historians portray Korea as a mere transmitter of Buddhism.<ref>Korea, 500–1000 A.D. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History The Metropolitan Museum of Art [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/06/eak/ht06eak.htm metmuseum.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061214145610/http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/06/eak/ht06eak.htm |date=2006-12-14 }}　"Throughout this period, Korea continues to play some important role in the transmission of technology and ideas to Japan."</ref>  The Three Kingdoms, and particularly Baekje, were instrumental as active agents in the introduction and formation of a Buddhist tradition in Japan in 538 or 552.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=e1BzL2lwPqEC&pg=PA33 Korea: a religious history By James Huntley Grayson]</ref>
They illustrate the terminal point of the [[Silk Road transmission of art]] during the first few centuries of our era. Other examples can be found in the development of the iconography of the Japanese [[Fūjin]] Wind God,<ref>"The Japanese wind god images do not belong to a separate tradition apart from that of their Western counterparts but share the same origins.&nbsp;... One of the characteristics of these Far Eastern wind god images is the windbag held by this god with both hands, the origin of which can be traced back to the shawl or mantle is worn by [[Boreas (god)|Boreas]]/ Oado." (Katsumi Tanabe, "Alexander the Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan", p. 21)</ref> the [[Niō]] guardians,<ref>"The origin of the image of [[Vajrapani]] should be explained. This deity is the protector and guide of the Buddha Sakyamuni. His image was modeled after that of Hercules.&nbsp;... The Gandharan Vajrapani was transformed in Central Asia and China and afterward transmitted to Japan, where it exerted stylistic influences on the wrestler-like statues of the Guardina Deities (Niō)." (Katsumi Tanabe, "Alexander the Great, East-West cultural contacts from Greece to Japan", p. 23)</ref> and the near-[[classical antiquity|Classical]] floral patterns in temple decorations.<ref>The transmission of the floral scroll pattern from West to East is presented in the regular exhibition of Ancient Japanese Art, at the [[Tokyo National Museum]].</ref>

The earliest Buddhist structures still extant in Japan, and the oldest wooden buildings in the [[Far East]] are found at the [[Hōryū-ji]] to the southwest of Nara. First built in the early 7th century as the private temple of Crown [[Prince Shōtoku]], it consists of 41 independent buildings. The most important ones, the main worship hall, or ''Kondō'' (Golden Hall), and ''Gojū-no-tō'' (Five-story [[Pagoda]]), stand in the center of an open area surrounded by a roofed cloister. The ''Kondō'', in the style of [[Buddhism in China|Chinese worship]] halls, is a two-story structure of post-and-beam construction, capped by an ''[[irimoya]]'', or hipped-gabled roof of ceramic tiles.

Inside the ''Kondō'', on a large rectangular platform, are some of the most important sculptures of the period. The central image is a Shaka Trinity (623), the historical [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]] flanked by two [[bodhisattva]]s, sculpture cast in bronze by the sculptor [[Tori Busshi]] (flourished early 7th century) in homage to the recently deceased Prince Shōtoku. At the four corners of the platform are the [[Four Heavenly Kings|Guardian Kings of the Four Directions]], carved in wood around 650. Also housed at [[Hōryū-ji]] is the [[Tamamushi]] Shrine, a wooden replica of a ''Kondō'', which is set on a high wooden base that is decorated with figural paintings executed in a medium of mineral pigments mixed with lacquer.

Temple building in the 8th century was focused around the [[Tōdai-ji]] in Nara. Constructed as the headquarters for a network of temples in each of the provinces, the Tōdaiji is the most ambitious religious complex erected in the early centuries of Buddhist worship in Japan. Appropriately, the 16.2-m (53-ft) Buddha (completed 752) enshrined in the main Buddha hall, or ''Daibutsuden'', is a [[Rushana]] Buddha, the figure that represents the essence of Buddhahood, just as the Tōdaiji represented the center for Imperially sponsored Buddhism and its dissemination throughout Japan. Only a few fragments of the original statue survive, and the present hall and central Buddha are reconstructions from the [[Edo period]].

Clustered around the Daibutsuden on a gently sloping hillside are a number of secondary halls: the ''[[Hokke-dō]]'' (Lotus Sutra Hall), with its principal image, the [[Fukukenjaku Kannon]] (不空羂索観音立像, the most popular bodhisattva), crafted of dry lacquer (cloth dipped in lacquer and shaped over a wooden armature); the ''[[Kaidanin]]'' (戒壇院, Ordination Hall) with its magnificent clay statues of the [[Four Heavenly Kings|Four Guardian Kings]]; and the storehouse, called the ''[[Shōsōin]]''. This last structure is of great importance as an art-historical cache, because in it are stored the utensils that were used in the temple's dedication ceremony in 752, the eye-opening ritual for the Rushana image, as well as government documents and many secular objects owned by the Imperial family.

'''Choukin''' (or '''chōkin'''), the art of metal [[engraving]] or sculpting, is thought to have started in the Nara period.<ref>{{cite web|title=Choukin (彫金)|url=http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/c/choukin.htm|website=[[Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System|JAANUS]]|access-date=13 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Frédéric|first1=Louis|last2=Roth|first2=Käthe|title=Japan Encyclopedia|date=2002|publisher=Harvard University Press|page=120|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2QnPijAEmEC&pg=PA120|isbn=978-0-674-01753-5}}</ref>