At Ise Jingū, sanctuary buildings are rebuilt on an adjoining site at regular intervals. What does this Shinto practice chiefly preserve?

A torii stands at the approach to a Shinto shrine. What does crossing it signify?

Look at the enormous timber Great Buddha Hall at Tōdai-ji. Its monumental scale most strongly communicates what?

What does Tōdai-ji's main hall, the Daibutsuden, enshrine?

At Tōdai-ji, the Great South Gate, a middle gate and a walled court lead in one line to the Great Buddha Hall. Why does this axial approach matter to a visitor?

The Tōdai-ji hall is built of columns, beams, and bracket sets rather than stone vaulting. Which building tradition does it represent?

In the Tale of Genji Illustrated Scroll, the artists leave out roofs and ceilings. What does this device let the viewer see?

The Tale of Genji Illustrated Scroll renders aristocratic faces with slit eyes and hooked noses. How is emotion chiefly conveyed instead?

Why is a handscroll especially suited to telling the courtly story of The Tale of Genji?

Look at this section of the Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace handscroll. What kind of narrative does it tell?

As a viewer unrolls the Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace handscroll section by section, what does this format make possible?

The Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace scroll shows a battle of 1159 but was painted about a century later. In which period was it painted?

Ukiyo-e prints mostly show kabuki actors, courtesans, and travelers rather than court nobles or Buddhist deities. What does the term "ukiyo-e" itself mean?

A color ukiyo-e print needed each woodblock printed in exact alignment with the one before it. What let the printer register each color precisely?

Look at the Ryōan-ji dry garden from the veranda. Why is its restricted viewpoint important?

At Ryōan-ji, raked gravel and rock groups replace flowing water and mountains. What visual strategy is at work?

Ryōan-ji's walled garden of rocks and raked gravel is the best-known example of which Japanese garden type?

In a Zen ink landscape, broad unpainted paper may stand for mist or water. What does this use of empty space encourage?

Ryōan-ji and its dry garden belong to which school of Buddhism?

Look at Ogata Kōrin's Red and White Plum Blossoms. What did its folding-screen support allow in a Japanese interior?

In Red and White Plum Blossoms, two trees flank a broad stylized stream on a gold ground. What visual effect is strongest?

Kōrin used tarashikomi on the tree trunks in Red and White Plum Blossoms. What does that technique involve?

Why is the gold ground in Red and White Plum Blossoms unlike a naturalistic sky?

Ogata Kōrin, painter of Red and White Plum Blossoms, gave his name to which school of Japanese decorative painting?

Look at Hokusai's Under the Wave off Kanagawa. Why does Mount Fuji appear unusually small beneath the towering wave?

A publisher commissions a color ukiyo-e print after receiving an artist's finished design. Who cuts that design into woodblocks?

In Under the Wave off Kanagawa, fishing boats struggle below a huge wave while Mount Fuji appears behind them. What contrast drives the composition?

In the ukiyo-e print trade, what was the publisher's main role?

Why could ukiyo-e woodblock prints reach a broad urban market in Edo Japan?

Which member of an ukiyo-e production team made the design drawing that the others turned into prints?