But for actual examples of Tang art on screens we have to turn to Japan where, in the Imperial repository called the ShOsoin, at Nara, are still preserved relics of the art of that golden epoch. This treasure-house contains principally the per sonal belongings of the Emperor Shomu, which were given to the Great Buddha of the TOdaiji by the Empress Komy6, in 756. The list of donations mentions, among other objects, zoo screens, to which several more were added, at three different times, be tween the years 756 and 758. Among this large number of screens were examples of Chinese, Korean or Japanese origin which in cluded paintings of landscapes, palaces, figures and flowers ; others of batik and of block-resist dyeing, figuring birds, animals and flowers; and, in addition, some screens on which Chinese ideo graphs formed the chief decoration. Of these Ioo odd screens but few remain at present, in whole or in part, among them no painted screens. Nevertheless, the pictorial accomplishments of the 8th century may still be seen in this collection in a six-fold screen, in each leaf of which is shown a figure of a woman stand ing under a tree. The subject was originally worked in birds' feathers which have disappeared, leaving only the preliminary drawings. Despite the sketchy nature of the drawings of the figures, trees and rocks, one may detect the mature brush-strokes, the importance of which is so much emphasized in the art of painting in the Far East. The screen is probably Japanese, yet its conception and execution are based upon contemporary Chinese patterns. There are also two six-fold screens in this imperial collection, the chief decorative features of which are Chinese inscriptions in large characters. One (Plate III., fig. I) Contains a precept for a ruler, consisting of 48 Chinese ideographs, each written twice, once in the chuan ("seal") style and once in the hsing ("running") style. The backgrounds are of silk dyed in green and red—alternating in the six panels—bearing designs of conventionalized clouds, birds, animals, trees, plants and rocks, all in white reserve. The screen is very likely Chinese, one
of many gifts sent to the Japanese court from China, although it is said that at one time there was discovered upon it a Japanese date corresponding to the year 751—a fact lacking substantiation. In the Orient, to use writing on a large scale for a decorative scheme is no less frequent than to employ a picture for the pur pose. Indeed, good calligraphy (q.v.) is considered an art of as great importance as good painting, both being the result of brush-work and both presenting images of mental conception.
An example of the pictorial art of the T'ang as reflected in the art of Japan may be seen in a screen (Plate III., fig. 2), preserved in the Buddhist monastery of Toji in Kyoto. It treats a land scape in polychrome : among trees surrounded by hills and water is a rustic abode within which sits a hermit who is being visited by nobles with their servants. According to an old tradition, the screen was one of the treasures brought back by Kobo Daishi from China in 8o6. However, some authorities now regard the painting as a Japanese production of the iith century, based upon a Tang original. For, despite its Chinese design, in it are discern ible certain technical peculiarities of the early Yamato-e (liter ally "Japanese picture") style which was developed during the Fujiwara period (900-1189) and is characterized by over refinement of drawings. Such a landscape screen was used in the baptismal rituals of esoteric Buddhism which required a pic torial representation of a mountain scene in lieu of the natural setting in which the religious service took place in old India. No screens of a secular nature dating from the Fujiwara period are now extant, but literary sources disclose the thousands of screens painted for the use of the Japanese court and for the mansions of nobles. As in the preceding epoch, the need for screens was pressing, because of the peculiar style of the archi tecture of those days—wide openings on the sides of a building which were closed by wooden doors at night but which during the day needed screening arrangements. Regular and occasional State functions also required special screens appropriate to the events. That a large number of screens was produced may be gathered from the record that Yoshichika (11th century) painted 200 screens on Lord Yoshimichi's order. A story is told about Hirotaka (I oth century) who delineated a scene of hell con taining a demon who proved so lifelike as to convince the artist that the call to the unknown region was immediate. The sub jects, some Chinese and some Japanese, mentioned in this period are varied and numerous : landscapes of the four seasons, monthly observances, trees and plants, falconry, picnics, polo-playing, the paragons of noble deeds, the descent of the Amitabha, the ten Buddhist regions, etc. In Japan, during the Kamakura period (119o-1336), in making screens they followed the preceding Fujiwara in the main, both pictorially and technically.