JAPANESE PICTORIAL ART
a manner never surpassed by the Japanese. In sum, therefore, nothing can be confidently affirmed except that from the close of the eighth century secular pictures began to be painted in Japan with sufficient success to command the warm admiration of connoisseurs whose judgment had been formed by study of Chinese masterpieces.
Nor must it be imagined that because Kawanari and Kanaoka laid the foundations of a Japanese school of secular painting, the religious picture of the Chinese school fell out of public favour. On the contrary, it held its place almost as firmly as ever. Buddhist priests became famous artists as well as ethical teachers, and, visiting China in constantly increasing numbers, saw models there which they hastened to copy or procured pictures which they carried to Japan. The central figure of these enthusiasts was Kukai, better known by his posthumous title of Kōbō Daishi (790-840), the greatest priest in Japanese history. Repairing to China to complete his religious studies, he had an opportunity of witnessing the civilisation of the Tang dynasty, and on his return to Japan he set himself to propagate, under official auspices, a doctrine (the Mikkio), which depended largely on appeals to the sensuous side of human nature, and enlisted in its services whatever aids were furnished by the beautiful, the gorgeous, and the picturesque. In painting and in sculpture alike he attained high renown, and his century is further illuminated by the names of Saicho (commonly called Dengyō Daishi), Jitsuye, Yenchin, and one or two other priests reputed to have been great artists. But posterity knows them in the pages of history alone. Their works have not survived. Not more than three
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