Japanese Art: Religious Art.

Japanese Art I . RELIGIOUS ART 6K) II !)()R PUBLISHING i O. 21 JAPANESE ART RELIGIOUS ART PETITE ENCYCLOPEDIE DE L ' A R T FERNAND HAZAN, PARIS PRINTED IN FRANCE 958 JAPANESE ART RELIGIOUS ART BY ALAIN LEMIERE TUDOR PUBLISHING CO NEW-YORK . Shinto and Buddhism have played such a part shaping the soul and sensibility of and have so influenced their in Japanese, the conception and representation of the world, that one cannot form an idea, even a superone. of their art and their civilisation ficial without some general understanding of these religions, any more than one can study Romanesque and Gothic art in ignorance of two Christianit\ As the ancient myth has it. Japan was created by the god Izanagi and the goddess — the Active — who from on and the Passive Prinhigh on the floating Bridge of the sky formed the sacred islands from the drops of water that fell from the jewel-lance they had plunged into the great ocean. And from immemorial times the Izanami ciple country has been known as " The land of the Kami ", that is to say. begotten Man. life by the the supernatural beings Gods at the Present everywhere, the into all that exists: Sun. same time Kami Moon, as breathe winds, waters, mountains, animals and plants as well as the warrior's arms, the craftsman's tools. and the kitchen pots. And they dance in the of the lamps. light Moreover Shinto Kami became — the — the Way of the gods, especially concerned with worship of the Emperor, the Tenno, grandson of the Sun Goddess, and with that of the Ancestors become Kami on their deaths, as well as with the worship of Nature, the inexhaustible Life Force animating the the multitudinous creation. No sacred image in their temples, but austere metaphysical symbols: a sword, a mirror, a It was for Nature alone, for Nature and mother, to whom sacred gateways (torii) were erected where the beauty of the world most directly touched the heart of man, to show forth the divine and not for images, since external nature and nature in the heart of man should be one and indivisible in the All. Was not that the symbolic meaning of the Mirror of Truth, one of the three jewel. — virgin — " treasures " of Shinto, the mirror to reveal man's own image? No other people shows an equal feeling for This feeling is so deep and so integral a part of heart and soul that the word " nature " does not exist in the Japanese language. nor is there a word for " fine arts ", Perhaps nature. the Japanese had never tried to dissociate himself from the world around him and ne