622 THE ART OF CASTING BRONZE IN JAPAN. 



petals, for tlie base of the image of the Daibutsu at Kamakura, were 

 cast at the beginniug of the eighteenth century (1717). A small bronze 

 of the seventeenth century I am enabled to show you through the kind- 

 ness of Mr. W. Cleverly Alexander; it is an incense burner, in the 

 form of two rats, by Meiho. Also a candlestick for the Buddhist altar, 

 decorated with a dragon coiled round its stem, from the collection of 

 Mr. Alfred Cock. Two other candlesticks of the seventh century, or 

 probably earlier, have been kindly lent by Mr. E, W. Heunell. 



FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY UP TO THE 



PRESENT TIME. 



Hitherto the skill of the bronze founders had been chiefly exerted in 

 the production of colossal images and other huge castings for the tem- 

 l)le of Buddha, and in giving a severe beauty to the forms and orna- 

 ments of utensils and implements for ceremonial purposes ; but during 

 this period, with the continuation of peace their art found a wider 

 range in the designing of objects for secular use for the decoration of 

 the home and the everyday needs of life. 



Shortly before, the okimono, or ornament, a thing of no practical 

 utility, but only of display, had been introduced, and this specially 

 opened up to the artist a rich and unlimited field for the exercise of his 

 ingenuity and skill in the art of ornament and design. The vase, too, 

 formerly used only as a ceremonial vessel of the Buddhist altar, now 

 became a necessary object for the adornment of private life, and in its 

 form and decoration the artist was no longer hampered by the old tradi- 

 tions and rules ot the church. The founders of this period hence are 

 not chiefly notable, as in earlier times, for the works destined for the 

 services of Buddhism or the embellishment of its shrines, although 

 many remarkable castings were made, principally standard lanterns, 

 dedicated as votive offerings to temples and monasteries, and torii, or 

 gateways of Shinto shrines, but owe their world -wide fame to the skill 

 and fertility of design exhibited in the objects above mentioned for 

 household use, many of which are masterpieces of form and ornament. 

 The following characteristic examples of Buddhist art can not, however, 

 be omitted from my account of this period: 



Date 1736 A. D. — A fine image of Sakya-muui, in the grounds of 

 Zojoji (Tokyo). 



Bate 1765 A. D. — A colossal figure of Kwanyin, 9 to 10 feet high, 

 near the post town of Futagawa, on the Tokaidd. 



Date 1778 A. D. — An image of Sakya-muni (7 to 8 feet high?), in the 

 courtyard of Jo-shin-ji, Tokyo. 



End of eighteenth century. — An image of Amitabha, formerly at IMeguro, 

 near Tokyo, now in the Cernuschi collection (Paris). Height from the 

 base of the lotus flower to the top of the nimbus 11 feet 9 inches. 



A figure of Amitabha, seated on a lotus flower (date 177U), lent by 



