Chinese and Japanese Art.
To many the curios from China and Japan are more familiar than those from India and British Asiatic possessions. The pottery and porcelain of China have long been used in this country, and during recent years other objects of a curious and antiquarian nature have been imported in large quantities from both these ancient countries. In shops and bazaars the metallic wares of China and Japan have been much popularized too. That China has a great past and possessed a civilization hundreds of years before similar conditions appertained in Europe is well known. Collectors of the antique go back in their search after specimens of bronze and other metals to those produced by the artists of China in the Han Dynasty, which dates from B.C. 216. In records of that period, concurrent with accounts of pottery, there are well authenticated details of the metal cooking vessels then in common use. There were utilitarian bronzes and many beautiful vases, some of almost the same designs as the concurrent pottery. There were cooking utensils not at all unlike the mediæval bronze pots of modern Europe; their handles, however, were more decorative, often taking the form of a dragon's head. The feet of these ancient cooking-pots were often like lions' claws or eagles' talons. Among other relics of that period are quadrangular wine jars, some of the rarer types being decorated with fishes, in the drawing of which the Chinese artists of the Han Dynasty were very clever. They used such decorations appropriately, too for this was the ornament they chose on fish kettles.
A peculiarity of the metal-work of the Han period was the dark red copper which seems to have been used concurrently with bronze. When we note that some of the pottery was beautifully formed we can quite understand that the bronzes were equally well shaped, for the metal-workers would not be behind the potters in their craftmanship. Some of the rarer bronze tazzas are also well shaped and have been carefully moulded.
The chief curios coming into the hands of collectors are of a somewhat later date than the Han Dynasty; but China moves on slowly, and there does not appear to have been much advance or change for many centuries. The metal-work made during what we term mediæval days in Europe was often copied from familiar objects made of other materials. There is a bronze vase made in the Sung Dynasty, fashioned in imitation of an old jar tied up with rope, the ring handles being technically described as "conventional heads applique"; this vessel measures 14¼ in. diameter at the shoulder and stands 9½ in. high. It is difficult to trace where such pieces come from; it is, however, well known that many have been looted from the temples; others, probably imitating older examples, are mainly of nineteenth-century workmanship.
FIG. 68.—BRONZE FIGURE (ONE OF A PAIR) INLAID WITH SILVER AND GOLD.
(In the author's collection.)
The metal-work which comes from Japan has reached us in great variety. There has been no need for the traveller or collector to search the island for curios to bring over to this country, for the commercial instincts of a new race of Japanese merchants have poured out a wealth of antiques, collected from the native villages; with these and modern imitations they have gladly supplied the demand of the Western world. In this way attention has been called to the products of that country where craftsmen have gone on hammering copper and brass, and inlaying the metal in highly decorated patterns in silver and gold for so many years.
Reference has already been made to the rare temple pieces and sets which have been looted or purchased from Asiatic countries, so many of which are of rare cloissonné enamels. Some of these of Japanese origin are mentioned in [Chapter XIV]. Of the minor bronzes, replicas of temple relics, there are many beautiful koros or incense burners. Other bronzes serve the purpose of ornament in the Western countries to which they have found their way. In Fig. 68 is shown a beautiful bronze. The sacred carp is inlaid with gold and silver and is exceptionally well finished. The pair, of which it is one, came from Japan about thirty years ago, and are of much finer workmanship than many of the more modern replicas.
Household requisites as well as ornamental treasures have been made with care by hammer and engraving tool into things of beauty as well as usefulness. The household requirements of the Japanese are limited in number, but in the entertainment of her friends the Japanese lady is able to cause envy among her Western sisters because of the beauty of her kettles and brazier. The kettle shown in Fig. 66 is one of a toilet set of hammered brass, engraved with badges and foliage. It was probably produced early in the nineteenth century, before Western commercial ideas began to invade the workshops of Old Japan. In conjunction with such kettles (the Japanese name of a kettle is yuwakashi) metal bowls were used, the water being poured over the hands of the fair Japanese and her guests by attendants, who also held the bowl to catch the dropping water.
In Old Japan there was much patience as well as skill, and the methods adopted by the artists of those days would be too tedious and expensive now when the merchants buy and sell and compete in Western markets. The processes by which the beautiful bronze objects were moulded took time, and the incising and inlays could never be paid for in proper proportion to the labour expended on them. The metals of which Japanese bronzes were made consisted of curious alloys, the composition of which was long kept a secret. One of their finest brasses is known as sinchu, consisting of ten parts of copper and five of zinc. Another very beautiful copper is called shadko, in which splendid hues are imparted by the treatment of acids; in this alloy there is one part of gold to ten of copper, to which is attributable the splendid colouring of the so-called bronze. Older methods, however, are gradually giving way to more economic production on Western plans and formulæ, so that in time perhaps the Eastern and Oriental influence and characteristics of Asiatic bronzes, so charming and so much appreciated by collectors, may diminish if not disappear altogether.
XIV
IDOLS
AND
TEMPLE
RELICS
INDIAN IDOLS.
FIG. 69.—AMIDA. FIG. 70.—A "BLUE" TARA.
FIG. 71.—AMITAYUS.
FIG. 72.—VAJRA DHARMA. FIG. 73.—AMITAYUS.
CHAPTER XIV
IDOLS AND TEMPLE RELICS
Varied shrines and many idols—Indian idols—Temple vases and ornaments.
There are some who hold it to be a wicked thing to loot the temple of a heathen deity, and regard it as sacrilege to ruthlessly tear down the idol from its shrine. Others glory in an opportunity of proving the powerlessness of the man-created idol to save the temple from ruin and desecration. Yet there are many who recognize in these idols of wood, stone, and metal, emblems and symbols of ancient faiths in which there may be a greater reality, and, for all we can tell, potency, to those who look beyond the mere shrine, than appears at first sight. Notwithstanding all that, the multiplicity of gods and the number of so-called deities make many sceptical about the worship of their devotees, and there are few who feel much compunction when adding such objects as metal idols to their curios—when they are able to secure them honestly.