The Kojiki told nothing of life hereafter, and kept silence on a
hundred points at which human curiosity is sure to be active, and at
which the Yoga system was voluble. Buddhism came with a set of visible
symbols which should attract the eye and fire the imagination, and
within ethical limits, the passions also. It was a mixed and variegated
system,--a resultant of many forces.[7] It came with the thought of
India, the art-influence of Greece, the philosophy of Persia, the
speculations of the Gnostics and, in all probability, with ideas
borrowed indirectly from Nestorian or other forms of Christianity; and
thus furnished, it entered Japan.
The Mission of Art.
Thus far the insular kingdom had known only the monochrome sketches of
the Chinese painters, which could have a meaning for the educated few
alone. The composite Tantra dogmas fed the fancy and stimulated the
imagination, filling them with pictures of life, past, present and
future. "The sketch was replaced by the illumination." Whole schools of
artists, imported from China and Korea, multiplied their works and
attracted the untrained senses of the people, by filling the temples
with a blaze of glory. "This result was sought by a gorgeous but studied
play of gold and color, and a lavish richness of mounting and
accessories, that appear strangely at variance with the begging bowl and
patched garments of primitive Buddhism.
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