

732 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



purpose of upward endeavor! The Most Illuminated whom mankind 

 worships, and who in his great mercy did good to all creatures and 

 brought them to salvation, verily he willed that also the silly common 

 man should strive gradually, step by step, to Perfection." The book is 

 a description of native and foreign saints; the writer, apparently by no 

 means a vigorous or ardent believer in Buddhism, makes a shrewd ap- 

 peal to that class of minds in all parts of the world which sees in reli- 

 gious forms a wholesome regimen for the ignorant. 



But since 1874 Buddhism has lost the support of the Shoguns and 

 feudal upper class, owing to the practical abolishment of their power. 

 They were patrons of Buddhism from policy, if not from conviction, 

 and the bronze gifts to temples have fallen off. Moreover, they were 

 patrons of bronze work not religious in purpose, and now they, or such 

 as can be said to represent them, dress like Europeans, aspire to Euro- 

 pean habits, and use foreign furniture. Last, but not least of all, the 

 full establishment of commerce with the West, before the country was 

 prepared for it, appears to have had for its first effects a singularly 

 rapid and universal lowering of the artistic quality of all objects of art, 

 because cheap and quickly fabricated articles in enormous quantities 

 had to be supplied to America and Europe. From these causes of dis- 

 couragement the production of good bronzes, that is to say, bronzes of 

 a high artistic, not merely a fine technical quality, has undoubtedly 

 fallen away. 



Some connoisseurs prefer the most important castings in bronze made 

 by the early Buddhists of Japan, owing to their grandeur, simplicity, 

 and noble massiveuess. Such are the colossal Yakushi in the temple 

 at Nara and the famous Daibuts, or seated figure of Buddha, cast by 

 Kimimaro in A. D. 74i». In pottery and faience the same taste is likely 

 to prefer the comparatively small and undecorated pieces which the 

 native collectors treasure in silken bags and fondle with the amiable 

 folly of him who is ridden by his hobby. Professor Morse describes 

 these amateurs as aghast at the overdeoorated vases which modern 

 Japanese potters fabricate for us, and which the dealers sell us for 

 pieces of the great epochs. 



Besides the colossi mentioned there are other images in bronze of a 

 larger size, but they have rarely left the country. A seated Buddha of 

 this sort, which was exported to the United States before the Japanese 

 became attentive to the need of preserving the monuments of Japan, 

 had a romantic career of neglect and discovery in New York ; it is now 

 in the National Museum at Washington, thanks to the knowledge of 

 Mr. Edward Greey, the author of various translations from the Japa- 

 nese (Plate CV1I). 



It has a bronze halo, and differs from the beautiful and impressive 

 seated Buddha at Kamakura in size and in the position of the fore- 

 fingers. These do not touch each other along the two upper joints, but 

 lie one within the other. A slight trait of this kind is of the greatest 

 importance to a Buddhist. It marks the difference between figures 



