Sacred images were not the only specimens of glyptic art produced in these six centuries; reliquaries, bells, vases, incenseburners, candlesticks, lanterns, decorated arms and armour, and many other objects, showing no less mastery of design and execution, have reached us.
Costumes of the utmost magnificence were worn, and the chiselling of masks for the use of the performers occupied scores of artists and ranked as a high glyptic accomplishment.
The first historical period of glyptic art in Japan reaches from the end of the 6th to the end of the 12th century, culminating in, the work of the great Nara sculptors, Unkei and Period, his pupil Kwaikei.
The second period in Japanese glyptic art extends from the beginning of the 13th to the early part of the 17th century.
The final manifestation of popular glyptic art was the okimono, an ornament pure and simple, in which utility was altogether seco.ndary in intention to decorative effect.