MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
sometimes picked out with various colours; coffered ceilings with coved cornices, the coffer of the ceiling and the carved panels of the coving filled with decorations in colour or in gold lacquer, pillars with decoration of embroidered drapery, and beams, brackets, etc. coloured much on the same principle as the external members. Occasionally the ceiling is not coffered, but presents a flat surface carrying a large painting of angels, dragons, phoenixes, or Dogs of Fo. A celebrated example of this treatment is to be seen at Nanzen-ji in Kyōtō, where a ceiling, sixteen hundred square feet in area, carries a painting of a colossal dragon in black and gold.
It would be quite useless, of course, to attempt any detailed description of Japanese temple decoration in these volumes. A special work elaborately illustrated would be necessary. The general effect is at once gorgeous and delicate, lacking, however, in massiveness and grandeur. Apart from the main structure there are several objects of beauty and interest: the sepulchres of the mausolea; the gateways, which Japanese architects have made an object of extraordinary study; the font-sheds, with their basins of bronze or granite;[1] the belfries; the exquisitely toned bells they contain; the pillar-lanterns of stone or bronze; the sculptured images that flank the gates; and the pagodas.[2] The charm of the whole is greatly
89
