What is the student interested in exactly?

W: Professor Williams, I’m a student of your art class. I feel very interested in Japanese art, especially when you were saying that there is close relationship between Japanese art and Chinese art. Can you tell me something more about it?
M: No problem. What do you want to know?
W: How did the relations start?
M: Well, that was in the 7th century when the first temples were built in Japan, the first pictures were painted, and the first sculptures were made. At that time, all branches of art were already highly developed in China.
W: You mean that the Japanese first learnt art from China?
M: Not so exactly. The earliest works of art in Japan were mostly done by Chinese and Korean artists who went to Japan from the 6th century on.
W: How long did that last?
M: That continued until about the 9th century. For that period, if you want to understand Japanese art, you have to know something of Chinese art first.
W: What happened after that?
M: In the 10th century the once mighty Chinese Empire of the Tang Dynasty was in a state of constant war and disintegration. Then Japanese art began to acquire a character of its own. Paintings and sculptures with the unusual Japanese gracefulness emerged from then on.
W: So that relationship came to an end?
M: Not so exactly. Actually, in the 13th century there was a new wave of Chinese influence. The sculpture at that time echoes Chinese sculpture of the Song Dynasty. In the early 17th century, the art of distinctive Japanese features was truly established. But the influence of Chinese art continued. Even now you can find that influence in much of modern Japanese art, though often it’s a combination with other styles...