Abstract
On March 1972, highly coloured wall paintings were discovered in Takamatsuzuka Tumulus at Asuka, Nara. The constellation is painted on the roof of the small burial chamber, and the Sun and the Moon, the religious motif of four Celestial Guardians in the images of beasts, the secular motif of a group of men and women are on the walls. Concerning the problem of their style and date although the similarity to those of High T'ang at the beginning of the eighth century has been discussed, my present purpose is to argue that, in terms of style, they rather belong to the line of Koguryo wall paintings (A. D. 357-A. D. 668), and they were painted in the middle of the seventh century, on the wane of the Asuka Period. Evidently, clothes of the people are Korean style, at the same time I can not miss the Dragon arabesque which is the very symbol of the Sky, on the limbs of the Blue Dragon and the White Tiger. This arabesque is found also on the limbs of those beats in Koguyro, but it changed into the Honeysuckle arabesque in the eighth century of High T'ang. In Chinese art, this change happened in the middle of the seventh century.
