IN THE NARA EPOCH
choice of red was dictated by an instinctive knowledge of the law of complementary colours. The beautiful harmonies commonly seen in Japan between rich vermilion pagodas, or deep-red columns of temples, and their environment of green woods, had its origin in the desire to make religious edifices an object lesson to architects of private residences. But the project failed signally. Rough timbers, indeed, soon ceased to be used for building the houses of the upper classes, but no one could ever be induced to have his private residence of the prescribed tint. Red, in short, came to be regarded as a religious colour, and that fact alone would have sufficed to prevent its employment by lay architects, for in every age the Japanese have persistently refused to admit the structural or decorative style of sacred edifices into the domain of private architecture.
It is, perhaps, by considering the costumes of the Nara epoch that the clearest conception is obtained of the refinement of the nation's life at that time, and of the source from which it derived its new civilisation. Speaking generally, the garments worn by men differed much less from those of modern Europe than did the garments of the Japanese when they first became known to the Occident. The essentials were a tunic-like coat and trousers, the former having comparatively tight sleeves, and being girt at the waist by a belt made either of Korean brocade
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