refinement his chief aims, and by excessive striving after grace, fell into effeminacy and pettiness. To his demons as well as to his divinities he gave a mien soft as that of an infant, delicate as that of a woman, and even his monsters looked benign and gentle. Following also the example of the Sung artists of China, he sought extreme elaboration of detail and magnificence of decoration, so that some of his effigies became dazzling coruscations of gold and gems. The contrast between Jōchō's style and that of the artists at the close of the Fujiwara (or Heian) epoch is well illustrated by the great sculptor's statues of the Four Deva Kings, preserved in the Hokuyendō at
Nara, and the Senju Kwannon (many-handed Kwannon) preserved in the temple Chōmei-ji.
Kōshō, Jōchō, and their descendants and chief pupils are generally known as the "Nara Busshi," or "Buddhist sculptors of Nara," though they lived in Kyōtō, and though most of their best work was executed for temples in Kyōtō or in localities remote from Nara. They are also spoken of as "Masamune no Busshi," the prefix "Masamune" being intended to indicate that they exhibited as sculptors talent not inferior to that of Masamune as a swordsmith. The names of the best-remembered sculptors of the Heian epoch are:—
