Viewing page 36 of 234

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[start page]]
29
period, and a [[underline] Niwo [[/underline]] or guardian god supposed to have come from the grottoes of Lung Men in Honan and obviously of the same date as the work seen there. I was surprised to notice a complete head, in good condition, dating from the Tempyo period of Japan, fashioned from [[underline]] "kwanshitsu" [[/underline]] (dried lacquer). In my opinion it must have left Japan at the time of the disposal of objects from the temple of Tofukuji in Yamato, as such things are not allowed to be exported at the present. The subject was one of the [[underline]] "ju ni Ten" [[/underline]] (XII warrior Kings) and was in the style of the others still at Tofukuji.
     A Japanese [[underline]] makimono [[/underline]] dating from the Kamakura period, representing Emma 0, the King of Hell, and scenes in the Inferno, was a noteworthy example of the Takuma school of Buddhist painting, and the only one in that style which I remember to have seen dealing with that particular subject.
     M. Mallon kindly made it possible for me to see the large lime-stone Bodhisattva of the T'ang period which is said to have been brought from the grottoes of Lung Men. This was at the house of M. Poiret the famous costumer, to whom M. Mallon had sold it.
     I was told that M. Migeon of the Louvre and some of his colleagues have declared the figure to be in the T'ang manner, but to date from the thirteenth century. I was unable, however, upon close examination to find any evidence upon which to base this opinion, and remain convinced that it is the workmanship of the very finest years of early T'ang--before the decline of plastic art and the encroachment of over-emphasized draughtsmanship on the field of sculpture. Later my opinion was upheld
[[end page]]