Page 401 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

what gothic interests of religious sculpture in the
sixteenth century. There are other examples of
Datsueba sculptures from the same period, show-
ing her seated, as here, in prayer or meditation,
but attired only in a loincloth.
Koen's name is prominent from the 14805,
appearing in connection with a variety of restora-
tion projects taking place in the Kanto region (the
area around present-day Tokyo). He was probably
the preeminent Buddhist sculptor of the period in
eastern Japan.
From the seventh century the primary patron-
age of Buddhist sculpture had come from western
Japan, particularly from temples in Nara and,
later, Kyoto. These temples also commissioned the
major restorations required after the ravages of
civil war in the second half of the twelfth century.
The force of the new "realism" developed at that
time in western Japan by such influential artists
as Unkei (act. c. 1163-1223) and Kaikei (act.
c. 1185-1223) was also felt in eastern Japan. It
proved well suited to the portrait sculpture
emphasized in the Zen tradition brought in the
thirteenth century by Chinese refugees from the
Mongol invasion. These Chinese immigrants,
moreover, brought with them the trends and
styles of late Song (960-1279) and Yuan dynasty
(1279-1368) painting, and it has been suggested
that painting also played a part in the develop-
ment of a distinctive Kamakura, or eastern
Japanese, sculptural style. Surely the bizarre sub-
ject matter of the Datsueba sculpture emerged
from painted sources, and in style it clearly paro-
dies the Zen portrait-sculpture tradition. j.u.

241
DEER BEARING SACRED MIRROR Kamatari (614-669) had skillfully served a series During the Jingo-keiun era (767-770) the Kasuga
Shrine of the
Fujiwara family was erected at
of emperors and in 669 was awarded the family
the
WITH SYMBOLS OF THE name of Fujiwara. foot of Mt. Mikasa and the four deities were
FIVE KASUGA HONJI-BUTSU The Nakatomi clan, originally from Kawachi installed there. Later a fifth deity, known as
i$th century Province to the east of present-day Osaka, Kasuga Wakamiya and depicted as a youth, was
Japanese reverenced as tutelary deities Ame no Koyane no added to the group. The wakamiya figure occurs
gilt bronze Mikoto and his female consort Himegami. When among the Shinto deities of many locales, and
height 105.3 (4^/2); diameter of mirror 23.5 the court —including the Fujiwara —settled at may be understood as an offspring of the senior
Nara in 710, these divine protectors were moved deities of a particular sacred place. Unlike the
Hosomi Minoru, Osaka to a Nara site; Mt. Mikasa, to the east of the city wakamiya of other cults, the Kasuga Wakamiya
Important Cultural Property
and long regarded locally as a sacred place, was is thought to spring from local mountain deities
chosen. In addition, two more guardian deities, who antedated the establishment of the shrine.
Futsunushi no Mikoto of Katori (present-day Deer too are prominent in the wide range of
Ibaraki Pref.) and Takemikazuchi no Mikoto of Kasuga-related iconography, in general because
In 710, when the imperial court moved to Nara, Kashima (present-day Chiba Pref.), were adopted. they were conceived to be auspicious divine mes-
the Fujiwara family was already firmly established These latter two are understood originally to have sengers, in particular because a white deer bore
in power as advisors and ministers to the royal been guardian or warrior spirits instrumental in Takemikazuchi no Mikoto to Mt. Mikasa from
line. In the preceding century Nakatomi no the pacification of clans in the eastern provinces. the eastern provinces.

400 CIRCA 1492