Fierce Old Bird

The big hall seemed more like a temple than merely the exhibition gallery of Tokyo's Mitsukoshi department store. There, in hushed appreciation, some 30,000 viewers a day have shuffled for two weeks among the sculptured Buddhas, peered into sacred mirrors, gazed at ancient masks and paintings. Japan is one country where a show of art treasures can draw more people than generally turn out for a baseball game.

Many of the items on exhibit were glittering reminders of the Nara era (710-794 A.D.)--the golden age of Japanese art, when the Japanese were beginning to throw off the influences of India and China and to develop styles of their own. In those days, artists of every sort swarmed about the great Buddhist temples at Nara, 20 miles south of Kyoto. Some worked with stone, wood and metals. Others chose lacquer, mixing it with powdered incense, spreading it on linen strips over models of wood or plaster, and then painting their work in flaming vermilion, gold and blue. Over the years, most of their work has been lost or burned, but enough of it remains to show how good some of the old, forgotten artists were.

Among the most striking statues in the exhibition was a Nara-period lacquer of the demigod Karura, one of the legendary protectors of Shakamuni Buddha. His unknown craftsman visualized him as looking a good deal like an ancient warrior, with stern glance, hanging jowls and a suit of mail--but distinguished from ordinary mortals by a belligerently bird-like beak.

Why the beak? Modern Japanese are not sure. One opinion is that Karura is patterned after the Indian bird-god. Garuda, who used to thrive on serpents. Another version: Karura broke some of Buddha's precepts and got his face altered in punishment. The 420,000 Japanese who trooped past him were hardly bothered by historical uncertainties; Karura, in all his fierce, proud finery, was simply a pleasure to look at.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.