bronze sculptures of extreme virtuosity, ivory and porcelain figurines, and other types of small sculpture, increasingly emphasizing technical accomplishment. History Ancient art Interest in ancient art is growing and artists seek to produce similar artistry in their own works. In every instance, examples of ancient art have been found to possess characteristics identical to modern arts, and the ancient Japanese clay figures known as dogū () and haniwa () are no exceptions to this rule. No scholar has been able to determine absolutely just when humans moved over into the Japanese archipelago. It was these early inhabitants who eventually evolved the first Japanese native art in rough earthenware and in strange clay figures called , which are probably fetishes of some religious nature. Some may have been used in fertility rites, and some for exorcism or other forms of ritual. The figures are impressive in their elaborate and mysterious symbolism; and there is a sense of force and passion in the strongly engraved lines and swirls with which the figures are decorated. Legend, as recorded in the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) which is an ancient history of Japan compiled in 720, states that was ordered at the time of an empress's death by the emperor who regretted the custom of servants and maids of the deceased following their master in death, and ordered that clay figures be molded and placed around the kofun burial mound instead of the sacrifice of living beings. Scholars doubt the authenticity of this story and contend that plain cylindrical clay pipes were the first forms, and that they were used in the manner of stakes to hold the earth of the burial mound in place. Later these plain cylindrical came to be decorated and to take various forms, including the shapes of houses and domestic animals as well as human beings. They have been found arranged in a circle around the mound, lending credence to the scholars' theory. However, the figures no doubt came to take on some sort of religious symbolism later, aside from their original practical purpose as stakes. Asuka and Hakuhō periods Japanese emergence from the period of native primitive arts was instigated mainly by the introduction of Buddhism from the mainland Asian continent about the middle of the sixth century. Together with the new religion, skilled artists and craftsmen from China came to Japan to build its temples and sculpted