15. JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE. The architecture of Japan, like that of China from which it is derived by way of Korea, is wholly distinct from any of the styles of southern or western Asia. It was brought to Japan in the 6th century of our era by Korean Buddhists; there appears no trace of any precedent indige nous style. As developed by Japan from this imported type, it has persisted until the present time.
Characteristics.— Superficially, Japanese ar chitecture appears to be a single style, on ac count of certain characteristics which run through all the periods; on closer examination these periods are distinguishable by their de tails and ornament, as well as by subtle dif ferences of taste. Like the Chinese and Korean, it is an architecture of wood, employ ing this material with such refinement and dignity as to exalt it to an artistic and monu mental importance which it has nowhere else attained. While stone is used for terraces, stairways and embankment walls, and—singu larly enough— for decorative lanterns as archi tectural adjuncts, the entire structure of tem ples, gates or torii, towers or pagodas, houses and palaces, is of wood. Even stucco appears only in rare instances. The most distinctive feature is the roof, gabled or hipped, having invariably a concave-curved sweep, with very wide eaves upturned at the corners. The sup porting structure consists of heavy posts, square or round, carrying equally heavy girders framed into them, which in turn carry an elaborate and complicated framework of brackets and ties. The principle of the truss supported at the ends is not recognized; that of the canti lever appears in the bracketed construction, which rests directly • on the main posts and girders. A central mast is an essential feature of every pagoda. Superposed stories are in retreating stages, each marked by a tiled roof forming wide-projecting eaves. All wooden members are mortised or halved into each other, without nails or pins. Sheet-metal collars of copper, silver or bronze often decorate the points of junction. The wood is highly finished
and left either of its natural color, or lac quered in red, black or other colors, especially in temple interiors. All roofs are tiled with gray, dark green or red tiles. There is no wall-design, properly speaking: temple struc tures are generally open ; domestic buildings walled only with wooden panels and paper shutters, except in rare instances of palaces and castles which have plain plastered walls. The masonry of terrace walls is finely executed, but the principles of jointing employed in the West are not followed, and the masonry is, on the whole, the least successful part of the architecture, though never failing in the pic turesque quality. In some of the Tokugawa castles, however, stones of huge size were em ployed, rivaling those of Baalbek in Syria.
Periods.—The Korean style, called Shichido Garan, lasted from 580 to nearly 800 AD. ; it was at first purely Chinese in character, and has left in excellent preservation the beautiful pagoda and hondo (temple hall) at Horiuji (580 A.D.), the Sanjuto at Hokiji (about 646), and monasteries, much rebuilt, at Horiuji, Nara and Osaka. The noble Yakushiji pagoda near Nara (680 Aix) represents the Japanese modifi cation of this style, which declined after 725, leaving only a few small and simple temples (Todaiji, Shinyakushiji, etc.). This style is marked by the purity and refinement of its curves, the grace of its proportions and its internal simplicity.
The Helen period followed with the transfer of the capital to Kioto, in 782, by the Mikado Kwammi, and was marked by a new ,impulse from China direct, with a great increase in decorative splendor. Its one extant unmodified monument is the Ho-o-do at Uji, built as a villa hut later converted into the "Phoenix of the temple Byodo-in, remarkable for its beautiful lines and its internal splendor, especially for its coffered, carved, lacquered and inlaid ceiling. The Enriakuji on Mount Shiei and the Chion-in at Kioto have been largely rebuilt.