Deck 17: Japan Before 1333

Question 1

What is the name of the sculptor who created the Shaka triad for the Horyuji Kondo?

A) Shunjobo Chogen
B) Lady Murasaki
C) Tori Busshi
D) Fujiwara Yorimichi

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Who is the deity associated with the Ise Shrine?

A) Buddha
B) Shaka
C) Vishnu
D) Amaterasu

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The Phoenix Hall, Byodoin, with its light exterior pillars, elevated wings, and reflective pond, is a physical metaphor for which of the following?

A) Kamakura imperial power
B) Buddha's palace in the Pure Land
C) Fujiwara clan
D) Buddha's Parinirvana

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following roofing materials did the Japanese builders of the Kondo, or Golden Hall, of the Horyuji derive from the Chinese model?

A) Wood
B) Thatch
C) Ceramic tile
D) Marble

Question 5

During the Yayoi period, when villages grew in size and developed fortifications, people continued to live in which structures?

A) Haniwa houses
B) Mud huts
C) Stone houses
D) Pit dwellings

Question 6

Which of the following are the earliest Japanese artworks?

A) Asuka Buddhist statues
B) Nara lacquer figures
C) Copies of Chinese Shang bronzes
D) Jomon ceramics

Question 7

Which of the following describes the funeral practices of the Kofun period?

A) Placing the dead in haniwa containers
B) Placing the dead atop sacred mountains
C) Placing the dead in palace-shaped sarcophagi
D) Placing the dead on stone biers

Question 8

During which period did close relations and exchanges with China shorten the time lag between developments in China and their transferal to Japan?

A) Yayoi
B) Nara
C) Jomon
D) Kamakura

Question 9

Which two cultures did the people of Japan have increased interaction with in the Yayoi period?

A) China and India
B) Korea and India
C) China and Korea
D) India and Tibet

Question 10

How often is the wooden Ise Shrine ritually rebuilt to maintain its spiritual purity?

A) Every 50 years
B) Every 20 years
C) Every century
D) Every millennium

Question 11

During which period did the Korean ruler of Baekje send to the ruler of Japan a statue of Buddha and Buddhist scriptures?

A) Early Nara
B) Late Heian
C) Kamakura
D) Asuka

Question 12

How does the story told in the Tale of Genji handscrolls differ from that of Chinese prototypes such as Gu Kaizhi's Admonitions scroll?

A) It focuses on lessons in exemplary behaviors.
B) It focuses on emotionally charged personal relationships.
C) It focuses on imperial court etiquette as it relates to the empress.
D) It focuses on diplomatic relations between China and Japan.

Question 13

Which artwork did a catastrophic fire destroy in 1949?

A) Decorated interior walls of the Phoenix Hall, Byodoin
B) Structure of Phoenix Hall, Byodoin
C) Structure Golden Hall, Horyuji
D) Decorated interior walls of the Golden Hall, Horyuji

Question 14

During the Kamakura period, there was more frequent and positive contact with China, bringing which of the following belief systems to Japan?

A) Tendai sect of Esoteric Buddhism
B) Shingon sect of Esoteric Buddhism
C) Zen (Chan) Buddhism
D) Legalism sect of Confucianism

Question 15

The Legends of Mount Shigi represents a type of narrative handscroll painting belonging to which of the following genres?

A) Erotic court tales
B) Japanese travel journals
C) Histories of the Nara court
D) Pious Buddhist tales

Question 16

What was the first artistic development of the Jomon culture?

A) Bronze-casting
B) Ceramic technology
C) Yamato-e painting
D) Agriculture

Question 17

Paintings and sculptures of the Amida Buddha descending with a retinue to greet his followers were popular with members of which of the following sects?

A) Esoteric sects
B) Maitreya sects
C) Paradise sects
D) Hinayana sects

Question 18

What was the earliest art-producing culture to develop in Japan?

A) Nara
B) Heian
C) Yayoi
D) Jomon

Question 19

The standard shape for the central mound of tumuli during the Kofun period is which of the following?

A) Beehive
B) Wedge
C) Triangular
D) Keyhole

Question 20

Who were the first users of hiragana script, which became the primary medium for writing court poetry during the Heian period?

A) Court administrators
B) Samurai warriors
C) Women of the court
D) Buddhist monks

Question 21

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Which artistic period produced this flame-style vessel?

A) Heian
B) Kofun
C) Kamakura
D) Jomon

Question 22

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Which structure appears in this image?

A) Phoenix Hall
B) Katsura Imperial Villa
C) Ise Shrine
D) Kondo (Golden Hall)

Question 23

The style of the Yakushi triad can be traced back to its origin in which area?

A) Korea
B) India
C) China
D) Java

Question 24

What device does the artist of the illustrations in the Tale of Genji handscrolls use to show the interior space of a building?

A) Shows only the interior space, no exterior
B) Paints the room with no ceiling or roof
C) Paints interior in bright colors, exterior black ink lines only
D) Paints figures as if on a stage, with no ceiling or walls

Question 25

Iron-wire lines are an aspect of which Japanese art form?

A) Woodcutting
B) Sculpture
C) Painting
D) Weaving

Question 26

Which artist created the bronze Shaka triad now in the kondo of the Horyuji complex?

A) Shunjobo Chogen
B) Tori Busshi
C) Yakushi Nikko
D) Koken-Shotuku

Question 27

Which of the following is an artwork in the tradition of Shingon Buddhism?

A) Amida triad
B) Ise Jingu honden
C) Taizokai mandara
D) Ishiyama-gire

Question 28

Which sculptural style was prevalent in the Kamakura period?

A) Idealism
B) Realism
C) Abstraction
D) Primitivism

Question 29

Which of the following has NOT been suggested as an identification of the Kofun haniwa figures set up around burial mounds?

A) Tomb guardians
B) Funeral procession
C) Dwellers in the realm
D) Family of the deceased

Question 30

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What is the subject of this ink-and-color handscroll illustration?

A) Legends of Mount Shigi
B) Genji Visits Murasaki
C) Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace
D) Events of the Heiji Period

Question 31

Which Nara period building saw Buddhist dignitaries from China and India attend its dedication?

A) Kondo, Horyuji
B) Daibutsuden, Todaiji
C) Honden, Ise Jungu
D) Kondo, Yakushiji

Question 32

In Japanese sacred architecture, pagodas served as which of the following?

A) Shinto shrines
B) Temples
C) Schools
D) Shelter for relics

Question 33

What was the original inspiration for the form of the main hall ( honden ) at the shrine of Ise Jingu?

A) Indian stupa
B) Han temple
C) Early granary
D) Jomon house

Question 34

What construction method was used to construct the Ise Shrine?

A) Wattle-and-daub system
B) Post-and-lintel system
C) Staggered-truss system
D) Mortise-and-tenon system

Question 35

During the Kamakura period, which social group became the dominant sociopolitical force in Japan?

A) Imperial court
B) Priesthood
C) Shogunate
D) Chinese immigrants

Question 36

In what artistic tradition did the Kei School train its members?

A) Ceramics
B) Painting
C) Sculpture
D) Embroidery

Question 37

Which Heian period clan had a strong influence in the imperial court over several generations?

A) Taizokai
B) Minamoto
C) Shunjobo
D) Fujiwara

Question 38

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From which larger work does this scene derive?

A) Legends of Mount Shigi
B) The Tale of Genji handscrolls
C) Ishiyama-gire
D) Events of the Heiji Period

Question 39

In the Tale of Genji handscrolls, which plant came to symbolize fading life and love and the season of autumn?

A) Cherry blossom
B) Peony
C) Bush-clover
D) Chrysanthemum

Question 40

In what medium did the Kamakura sculptor Kosho fashion his figures, such as the Buddhist priest Kuya?

A) Stone
B) Wood
C) Clay
D) Bronze

Question 41

What was the original function of a pagoda in Japanese Buddhist architecture?

A) Serve as hall for readings of scripture
B) Shelter the image of the Buddha and attendants
C) Provide a monumental entrance gateway
D) House relics of the Buddha

Question 42

What type of artwork served as an aid to meditation and visualization in Shingon Buddhism?

A) Handscroll
B) Dotaku
C) Nembutsu
D) Mandara

Question 43

Who was the sculptor of the wooden statue of the Amida in the Phoenix Hall?

A) Tori Bosshi
B) Jocho
C) Kosho
D) Kuya

Question 44

In what year do historians believe Buddhism arrived in Japan?

A) 401
B) 757
C) 552
D) 253

Question 45

In what script were the Tale of Genji handscrolls originally written?

A) Romaji
B) Katakana
C) Hiragana
D) Kanji

Question 46

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What is the title of the narrative work from which this illustration is drawn?

A) Tale of Genji
B) Legends of Mount Shigi
C) Thirty-Six Immortal Poets
D) Events of Heiji Period

Question 47

The painting Night Attack on the Sanjo Palace tells the narrative of events in which period?

A) Kofun
B) Nara
C) Heian
D) Yayoi

Question 48

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What is the subject of this scene on a hanging scroll?

A) Priest Kuya Preaching
B) Diamond World
C) Birth of the Buddh a
D) Amida Descending over the Mountains

Question 49

Which individual guided the reconstruction the temple of Todaiji in the Kamakura period?

A) Kosho
B) Shunjobo Chogen
C) Koken-Shotuku
D) Murasaki Shikubu

Question 50

Which of the following would NOT be considered a formal feature of yamato-e painting?

A) Lack of emphasis on brushwork
B) Individualization of features
C) Bright mineral pigments
D) Native Japanese subjects