by Corea. Its temples are more
ornamented than the Shinto temples, and contain images of deities,
bells, drums, holy books, and a great quantity of altar ornaments.
The transmigration of souls, and rewards and punishments in a life
after this, are doctrines of Buddhism. Outside the temples proper
there are to be found in many places large or small images in stone
or bronze of the deities of Buddha. The largest of these consist of
colossal statues in bronze (_Daibutsu_), representing Buddha in a
sitting position, and themselves forming the screen to a temple with
smaller images. A similar statue is also to be found at Kamakura,
another at Tokio, a third at Nara near Kioto, and so on. Some have
of late years been sold for the value of the metal, one has in this
way been brought to London, and is now exhibited in the Kensington
Museum. The metal of the statues consists of an alloy of copper with
tin and a little gold, the last named constituent giving rise to the
report that their value is very considerable. To give an idea of the
size of some _Daibutsu_ statues it may be mentioned that the one at
Nara is fifty-three and a half feet high, and that one can crawl
into the head through the nose orifices.

[Illustration: BUDDHIST TEMPLE AT KOBE. ]

Nearly all the _Daibutsu_ images are made after nearly the same
design, which has been improved from generation to generation until
the countenance of the image has received a stamp of benevolence,
calm, and majesty, which has probably never been surpassed by the
productions of western art. _Daibutsu_ images evidently stand in
the same relation to the works of private sculptors as folk-poetry
to that of individual bards.

As I have before pointed out, the Western taste for the gigantic was
not prevalent in Old Japan. It was evidently elegance and neatness,
not grandeur, that formed the object towards which the efforts of
the artist, the architect, and the gardener were directed. Only the
_Daibutsu_ images, some bells, and other instruments of worship form
exceptions to this. During our excursion at Kioto we passed an
inclosure where the walls were built of blocks of stone so colossal,
that it was difficult to comprehend how it had been possible to lift
and move them with the means that were at the disposal of the
Japanese in former times. In the neighbourhood of that place there
was a grave, probably the only one of its kind. It is described in
the following way in an account