Asuka and Nara Periods (538–794)

Asuka and Nara Periods (538–794)

 

 

Miniature pagoda, early Nara period (710–794; ca. 767)
Japan
Wood

 

This miniature wooden pagoda, which was originally painted white, is identical to the thousands displayed today at the Treasure House of Horyuji temple in Nara. Historical information on these small pagodas is found in two sources: the Shoku Nihongi (History of Japan Continued, 797) and the Todaiji yoroku (Chronicles of Todaiji, 1134). According to these documents, Empress Koken, who reigned from 749 to 758 and again from 764 to 770 as Empress Shotoku, ordered the production of one million tiny scrolls printed with magical Buddhist incantations, each one enshrined in a miniature pagoda. The project, commissioned as an act of atonement, was completed in 770, at which time 100,000 scrolls and pagodas were distributed to each of the ten major Buddhist temples in Nara. Surprisingly, only Horyuji still houses these royal gifts.

 

 

Long-necked bottle, Nara period (710–794), 8th century
Japan
Stoneware with natural ash glaze and incised decoration (Sue ware)

 

Sue ware represents a decisive turning point in the history of Japanese ceramics, marking a break with the long tradition of producing earthenware. Largely as a result of innovations introduced by immigrant Korean potters, sueki (sue ware) was technically more advanced than wares of the preceding Jomon and Yayoi cultures. Japanese craftsmen began to use the potter's wheel during this time, as revealed by the even, relatively thin walls of this bottle's neck. Fired at a higher temperature than previously achieved—roughly 1000 to 1200° C, in the range of modern stoneware—Sue wares have hard, bluish gray bodies. They were fired in Korean-style kilns, known as anagama in Japanese, which were single tunnel-like chambers half buried in the ground along the slope of a hill.

The mottled greenish brown glaze that coats most of this vessel's surface represents an early stage of another important development in pottery production. In this case, the glaze was formed when ash from the burning wood accidentally settled on the bottle during firing and fused to its surface in the hot temperature of the kiln. As this effect became desirable and potters learned to control the process, ash glaze was applied intentionally.

 

 

Segment of a Daihokobutsu Kegongyo (Avatamsaka Sutra), Nara period (710–794), ca. 744
Unidentified artist
Japan
Silver ink on indigo paper

 

This fragment of a handscroll, now mounted as a hanging scroll, comes from an original set of sixty handscrolls donated to the Todaiji temple in Nara in 744. It is one of the earliest surviving examples of the practice of transcribing Buddhist texts using precious materials. The copying of religious writings was thought to confer spiritual merit on all involved in the project, including the donors, scribes, and craftsmen who prepared the materials, and so was done in great numbers during this period. This fragment is a section of the Avatamsaka Sutra (Japanese: Kegongyo), one of the most revered Buddhist texts in East Asia. The characters are written in a special form of regular script that is balanced and even, with each stroke clearly visible to maximize legibility. The thickened downward diagonal strokes and exaggerated hooks at the end of some strokes lend a sense of ornamentation and elegance.

 

Fire damage is visible along the base of this sutra fragment. The accident occurred in February 1667 when sparks from torches used in annual purification rites ignited a blaze. Because the effect captures the Buddhist idea that everything is impermanent, "burned sutras" (yakekyo) such as this came to be highly prized.

 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art