JAPANESE APPLIED ART
make their appearance in decorative schemes, as do also conventionalised plants and foliage, especially the acanthus, and although the wide inter-relations of Asiatic countries and their occasional contact even with Greece and Rome find evident expression, on the other hand, the realistic and grace-loving genius of the Japanese begins to show itself very distinctly. Many authenticated relics of the period survive. They indicate a development of technical skill scarcely credible by comparison with the rudimentary essays of the preceding cycle, and they indicate also a conception of majestic beauty wholly unpredicted by any
examples of earlier statuary, except, perhaps, the Kwannon of Prince Shotoku. It is to this epoch that posterity owes two groups of bronze statues justly regarded with admiration. One is the three Amidas of Koriu-ji; the other Yakushi and his two acolytes in the temple Yakushi-ji. Comparatively small figures,—0.32 metre in height,—the central effigy of the three Amidas is seated, the two others stand on lotus flowers, the stalks of which rise from a dais having for background a reredos on which Buddhist figures are cast in medium relief. This remarkably graceful and beautiful object is technically far superior to anything of the previous epoch, and the majestically benign repose that pervades the figures belongs to a high range of artistic conception. It is known that these statues were executed by order of Tachibana, spouse of the Emperor Tenchi (668–671), but the name of their artist has not been preserved. The Yakushi group is of even greater excellence. Its central figure (Bhaichadjya-guru)—4.25 metres in height—is seated on a dais, also of bronze, the faces of which have demons cast in relief
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