The Asuka period was a time of transformation for Japanese society. It is named for the Asuka area at the southern end of the Nara (Yamato) Basin (a few miles to the south of the present-day city of Nara), which was the political and cultural centre of the country at the time. From there, the imperial court—which claimed lineage from the sun goddess—ruled over a loose confederation of rival clans, the most powerful of which were the Soga, Mononobe, and Nakatomi. Each of the clans was tied to the imperial line by providing wives for the emperors. They also provided increasingly specialized hereditary services to the court; for example, the Mononobe were warriors, the Soga tax administrators, and the Nakatomi masters of religious ritual.
Japan’s interest in and contacts with continental cultures continued to increase in the Asuka. A wide range of political and cultural relations with the Korean kingdoms of Koguryŏ, Silla, and, in particular, Paekche provided an opportunity for comparatively systematic assimilation of vast amounts of Korean culture, Chinese culture read through a Korean prism, and the religious beliefs of Buddhism. The Japanese attempted to maintain a presence on the Korean peninsula through ties with the tribal league of Kaya (Japanese: Mimana). They were also allied with Paekche in fending off attempts by Silla to absorb Kaya and to advance on Paekche. More than a century of maneuvering ended with the defeat of the Japanese fleet by Silla in 663. Nevertheless, it was within that period of intensive relations with Paekche that critical foundations were constructed for a radical shift in the direction of Japanese visual arts.
The most significant change, of course, was the introduction of Buddhism. Historians debate the actual date of the arrival of Buddhist texts, implements of worship, and iconography in Japan, but according to tradition a Paekche delegation to the emperor Kimmei in 538 or 552 made the presentation of certain religious articles. Given the extent of contact with Korea, however, various “unofficial” introductions of Buddhism had probably already occurred.
It was during this period, as well, that contention among the leading Japanese clans increased. The Soga clan was an enthusiastic recipient of the benefits of the Korean alliance. Some scholars suggest that the Soga were arrivals from Korea not many generations previous who, lacking the ancestral connections of other clans, parlayed the Korean connection, a relationship with a more complex and sophisticated society, to achieve eventual control in Japan. The Soga clan, led by Soga Umako, clearly appreciated the Chinese and Korean forms of centralized government and the integration of Buddhism as a state religion. The Mononobe and, in particular, the Nakatomi resisted and were rigorous persecutors of Buddhism. They were defeated militarily by the Soga in 587, and in 593 Prince Shōtoku (574–622), who was related to the Soga clan, became regent to Umako’s niece the empress Suiko and consolidated the Buddhist position. Prince Shōtoku, aided by Korean scholars, was a dedicated student of Korean culture, Confucianism, and Buddhism. He not only established Buddhism as the state religion but also promulgated civil codes based on Confucian principles. His leadership provided the important first step in an integration of civil and religious foundations of the state. Although abuse of power precipitated the Soga clan’s eclipse in the 640s, enthusiasm for Buddhism was unabated.
Buddhism was already a thousand years old when it arrived in Japan. It had transformed and been transformed by the iconography and artistic styles of the various cultures along its path of expansion from India. The central message of Gautama Buddha (6th–5th centuries bce) had also experienced multiple interpretations, as evidenced by the numerous sectarian divisions in Buddhism. The artistic forms necessary to provide the proper environment for the practice of the religion were well defined, however—calligraphy, painting, sculpture, liturgical implements, and temple architecture—and these were the means by which nearly all continental modes of Buddhism were absorbed and adapted by the Japanese culture.
During this period of intensive peninsular contact, Korean artisans skilled in metalwork, sculpture, painting, ceramics, and other fields necessary to the production of Buddhist iconography immigrated to or were brought to Japan in large numbers. While the practice of most of the above-mentioned forms was the purview of professionals, the calligraphic rendering of the written word was a skill available to the educated elite of the period. Thus, in the Asuka period the foundations of both individualized and public forms of visual expression were secured.
Sculpture
While the structures of these temples did not survive, certain important sculptures did, and these images are generally associated with the name of Kuratsukuri Tori (also known as Tori Busshi). Tori—like his grandfather, who had emigrated from China, and his father, an ardent Buddhist—belonged to the saddlemakers’ guild. Excellence in this trade required mastery of the component media of lacquer, leather, wood, and metal, each of which was, in various ways, also used in the production of sculpture.
A large, seated, gilt-bronze image of Shaka (the Japanese name for Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha) survives from the Asuka Temple and is dated to 606. Also extant is the gilt-bronze Shaka Triad of Hōryū Temple, which is dated by inscription to 623. The Asuka Buddha, heavily restored, is attributed to Tori based on the stylistic similarity of its undisturbed head to the renderings found in the Shaka Triad, which is confidently assigned to the master sculptor’s hand. A more controversial work is a gilt bronze Yakushi (Bhaishajya-guru, the healing Buddha), which carries an inscription of 607. It is very close to the style of Tori, but many date the work to the latter part of the century. The Triad and the Yakushi are now housed in Hōryū Temple. An inscribed dedication found on the halo of the central figure of the Triad suggests that the ensemble was dedicated to the recently deceased Shōtoku and his consort. A stylistically related work is the wooden statue of the bodhisattva Kuze Kannon in the Hall of Dreams (Yumedono) of the Hōryū Temple. The Tori style seen in these works reveals an interpretive dependence on Chinese Buddhist sculpture of the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534/535), such as that found in the Longmen caves. Symmetry, a highly stylized linear treatment of draped garments, and a reserved and gentle facial expression with a characteristic archaic smile are the prominent distinguishing features of this sculpture. The Japanese interpretations in bronze and wood advance the frontally focused Chinese relief sculptures by beginning to suggest more fully rounded figures.
Painting
Buddhist temples were decorated not only with sculpture but also with religious paintings, tapestries, and other objects. Most such works from the Asuka period have not survived. An exception is the Tamamushi Shrine, which consists of a miniature kondō affixed to a rectangular pedestal or base. This assemblage of wood, metal, and lacquer provides an excellent view of what a kondō of the period may have looked like and, perhaps more important, is decorated with the only known painting from the Asuka period. The painting program on the miniature kondō seems to depict, through images on various panels and doors, the deities normally found in sculptural form within the hall. Paintings on the panels of the base show aspects of Buddhist cosmology and scenes from jataka tales, those narratives that tell of exemplary incidents in the previous incarnations of the Buddha. Perhaps best known is the jataka of the Hungry Tigress, in which the Buddha prior to enlightenment chances upon a tigress and her cubs starving in a desolate ravine and offers his own body to them. The painting depicts a sequential narrative in one panel, showing the saint removing his robe, leaping from a cliff, and being eaten by the tigers. The painting style suggests an Indian prototype vastly influenced by the fluid linearity of Chinese Wei styles.
Hakuhō period
In the early 640s the Soga clan was afflicted with bloody internal intrigue, which offered its rivals the opportunity to usurp power. In 645 Prince Nakono Ōe (later the emperor Tenji) and Nakatomi Kamatari (later Fujiwara Kamatari) led a successful coup and promulgated the Taika reforms, a series of edicts that significantly strengthened the control of the central government. Through successive regimes, some violently introduced, the structuring of a highly centralized government continued through the second half of the 7th century. A major feature of the centralization process was the incorporation and use of Buddhism as an instrument of unification. The period was thus noted for a rapid expansion of Buddhism as aristocrats competed in the construction of temples. Increasing funds were allotted for the expansion of Buddhist temples and acquisition of the attendant iconography required for the expression of the faith.
The seat of government moved several times after the coup, but in 694 the court returned to the Asuka area and a plan to construct a permanent capital at Fujiwara was implemented. The capital was eventually moved again in 710 to Nara.
Art historians have given the name Hakuhō to the period beginning with the Taika reforms and ending with the imperial move to Nara. As noted, it overlaps with the Late Kofun period and is also sometimes referred to as the Late Asuka or Early Nara period.
Sculpture
With the exception of the Shaka Triad dedicated in 623 (see Asuka period), sculpture at Hōryū Temple was created in a period from approximately 650 until 711. Sculpture created from the middle of the century begins to reflect the influence of the Chinese Northern Qi dynasty (550–577) styles. The highly linear features of Northern Wei sculpture are supplanted by works that have emerged from their origin in relief wall sculpture and stand in the round as stolid, columnar figures with slight attenuation at the waist. Noteworthy of this new style are the four guardian figures who stand sentry over the quadrants surrounding the Shaka Triad and the more delicate Kudara Kannon held in the Hōryū Temple treasure house. The drapery at the feet of these statues flares forward rather than to the sides as in earlier works, allowing for a heightened sense of volume. The sculptures are executed in indigenous wood with some traces of gold and polychromy still remaining.
At Chūgū Temple, near Hōryū and once the residence of Prince Shōtoku’s mother, a wood-sculpted image of Miroku Bosatsu (Maitreya) embodies many of the characteristic features of the Hakuhō period. The delicately meditative figure sits with one leg pendant, its foot supported on a lotus, and the other leg crossed. The rounded cheeks, arching eyebrows, slight disproportionate swelling of the upper torso, and soft modeling suggest innocent, almost childlike features.
Other sculptural works from the second half of the 7th century show increased mastery of a wide variety of materials, including clay, and adaptive uses of lacquer. At Hōryū Temple a group of sculptures constructed of clay over wood and metal structures is arrayed in four distinct tableaux on the first level of the pagoda. Completed in 711, they are technically works falling into the Nara period. However, their virtuosity suggests that the techniques employed had been mastered in the final years of the 7th century. The heightened sense of realism, the more expressive faces, and the more rounded, three-dimensional forms, particularly as seen in the north-side tableau of the death of Shaka, suggest an assimilation of Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907) style.
The cast-bronze statues in the Yakushi Temple are among the finest examples of Japanese sculpture extant. Known as the Yakushi Triad, the work consists of the seated Yakushi Buddha flanked by the standing attendants Nikkō (Suryaprabha, bodhisattva of the Sun) and Gakkō (Candraprabha, bodhisattva of the Moon). It is unclear whether these sculptures were produced after the temple’s relocation to Nara or if they were transported from the original site. Literary evidence from the 11th century suggests the latter hypothesis, however, and these striking works are consistent with the confident, fleshy, idealized figures of the early Tang period.
Painting
The finest examples of late 7th-century painting are found in the Golden Hall at Hōryū Temple. Many of these wall paintings were irreparably damaged by fire in 1949, but photos and reproductions remain. One fresco depicting an Amida (Amitabha) Triad shows graceful figures rendered with comparative naturalism and defined with consistent, unmodulated brush lines known as “wire lines” (tessen-byō). Like the Hōryū pagoda sculptures, the wall paintings suggest the influence of Tang style.
Thus, the second half of the 7th century was a vitally expansive and experimental period for Japanese Buddhist art. The constant relocation of court sites during this period did not seem to affect the enthusiastic production of temples and imagery or the innovative assimilation of continental models and techniques.
Nara period
During the reign of the empress Gemmei (707–715) the site of the capital was moved to the northwest sector of the Nara Basin. The new capital was called Heijō-kyō and is known today as Nara. Overcrowding, the relative isolation of the Fujiwara capital, and what would prove to be a constant nemesis to the Japanese state, an overly powerful Buddhist establishment, were some of the main factors contributing to the move.
The Nara period (710–784), also known as the Tempyō period, marks the apex of concentrated Japanese efforts to emulate Chinese cultural and political models. Official Japanese contact with Tang China had dropped off after the defeat of the Japanese in 663 by combined Tang and Silla forces. However, Japanese court perception of the governing effectiveness of the centralized Chinese state sparked renewal of relationships with the mainland at many levels. The new capital city was modeled after the Tang capital at Chang’an (near modern Xi’an), and complex legal codifications (ritsuryō) based on the Chinese system established an idealized order of social relationships and obligations. Thus, a hierarchical society was established, in symbolic and real terms, with all power proceeding from the emperor. The integration of religion into this scheme fixed a properly understood relationship between spiritual and earthly authority. Secular authority ultimately drew its power from this relationship. The ever more precise articulation of these notions further positioned Buddhism to receive massive governmental support.
The first several decades of the 8th century were marked by power struggles, political intrigue, attempted coups, and epidemics. This generally unsettled and contentious atmosphere caused the emperor Shōmu (724–749) to press determinedly for strengthening the spiritual corrective that he perceived to be offered by Buddhism. In 741 he established the kokubunji system, building a monastery and a nunnery in each province, all under a central authority at Nara. In 743 he initiated the planning for construction of that central authority—the Tōdai Temple—and of its central image, a massive bronze statue of the Birushana (Vairocana) Buddha, known as the Great Buddha (Daibutsu). Shōmu envisioned religion as a supportive and integrated power in the rule of the state, not as a private faith or as a parallel or contending force. His merging of church and state, however, later enabled the temples to acquire wealth and privilege and allowed Buddhist priests to interfere in secular affairs, eventually leading to a degeneration of the national administration.
The Chinese taxation system, which was first adopted in Japan during the Taika reforms and further promulgated by the ritsuryō system, was based on the principle of state ownership of land and a national appropriation of the rice crop. It was, from the beginning, an inappropriate fit for the realities of Japanese agriculture. By mid-century the growth of privately owned, tax-free estates had shrunk the tax base, and this, coupled with the extraordinary demands for expansion, temple building, and icon manufacture, placed great strain on the general population. After mid-century an important minister of state, Fujiwara Nakamaro (706–764), attempted reforms and more equitable taxation. Nakamaro, whose instincts were essentially Confucian, was in conflict with the firmly established Buddhist clergy led by the powerful monk Dōkyō. As counselor to the empress Kōken (718–770), who later reigned also under the name of Empress Shōtoku, Dōkyō held extraordinary power and a secular title but was finally thwarted in his attempt to be named emperor. The concluding decades of the century were characterized by attempts to regularize government expenditure and to control the power of the Buddhist clergy. In 784 the capital was transferred north to Nagaoka, just west of present-day Kyōto. This was a prelude to the establishment of the capital at Heian-kyō, now called Kyōto, in 794.
What was meant to have been perceived as the cultural expression of a powerful government intent on adapting the very finest elements of Tang international style was actually an extreme attempt by a comparatively weak government to conjure power through symbolic gesture. Nevertheless, the push to establish Japan as at least equal in splendour to Tang China in its celebrations of Buddhism and to mark Japan as the magnificent easternmost extension of the faith’s expansion in Asia allowed for a halcyon period for the creation of Buddhist art. Virtually all aspects of Tang culture were absorbed during this period. Indeed, because Buddhism was later suppressed in China and much of Tang Buddhist iconography destroyed, extant Japanese art of the Nara period serves as the single best reminder, once removed, of what the Buddhist glories of Tang China must have been.
The main monument to the Nara period is undoubtedly the huge Tōdai Temple complex with its colossal central image of the cast-bronze Great Buddha. The construction of the Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden) commenced in 745, and dedication ceremonies for the nearly 50-foot- (15-metre-) high seated figure were held in 752. Only fragments of the original are extant. Most of the present sculpture dates to a reconstruction in 1692, which nevertheless gives ample sense of the scale and ambitions of Emperor Shōmu.
Two important Nara temples predate the initiation of the Tōdai Temple project. Kōfuku and Hokkedō were both constructed in the Gekyō (“Outer Capital”) area to the east of the imperial palace (this “outer” area is now where most extant Nara period sites are located), and their assorted extant iconography bears witness to the revolution in sculptural rendering that is a distinguishing feature of 8th-century Japanese art.
