Studio: international art (59.1913)

Modern Tendencies in Japanese Sculpture

“A cool breeze

Apart from this saving of trouble and risk, the
adoption of the new method of procedure was
necessitated by modern requirements. The erection
of bronze statues in public places is somewhat of a
novelty in Japan. To be sure, we have gigantic
bronze images of Buddha at Nara and Kamakura,
both of which have become famous throughout the
world on account of their colossal size and also—
the latter especially—because they testify to the
excellent workmanship accomplished in Old Japan ;
and, all over the country we have images of
Buddha, Kwannon (the goddess of mercy), saints,
and other religious figures in smaller sizes mainly
executed in wood, bronze, and dry lacquer. These
figures were, however,
generally dedicated to
ancestors or intended as
votive offerings. They
were erected to be wor-
shipped and supplicated
for help and salvation.

The practice of perpetu-
ating in bronze the
figures of our great men
and heroes of the past as
well as the present is a
new departure with us.

Hitherto it has been cus-
tomary with our people
to erect shrines for great
national heroes so that
their spirits might con-
tinue to protect the nation
and where their posterity “the sacred cow,:

14

could worship. Homage is
paid to other worthy dead, to
whom no shrine is to be dedi-
cated, by erecting stones with
suitable inscriptions. It is
customary, as one of our
Buddhistic observances, to
give each person when dead
a holy name; this is en-
graved on a wooden tablet,
which is kept in the temple or
at home, and is as sacred as
the very spirit of the dead.
This Buddhistic teaching,
likewise the spirit of Shin-
toism or ancestor-worship, the
inherent religion of Japan, in
which all departed souls are
by ota nankai deified, stamped itself deeply
on the national mind, en-
abling it to appreciate the spiritual side of symbolic
representations. For in many shrines and temples
symbols alone are to be found, while in others
there are wooden or metallic representations which
in themselves are often simple and crude. This
spirit of reverence for the symbols of gods and
deities has been very strong with our people.

Of course we can by no means claim monopoly
for such a spirit of reverence for the dead, whether
symbolised in a simple tablet or in a statue. The
writer was deeply moved whenever he saw the
statue of Sir Henry Irving near the National
Portrait Gallery in London decorated with wreaths
of flowers, to which were often attached cards

BY YAMAZAKI CHOUN