Overview

The face of this dark grayish brown mirror is plated with copper. The flat knob surround has a pattern of flower pistils and stamens. The medium-sized rim is straight-sided, and the approximately 2-mm mirror plate is thick with two lines separating the inner and outer bands. The inner surface of the rim, visible in the upper part of the image, has been roughened, apparently during the casting process. After casting, a band about 4 mm wide was gouged out along the inner edge of the outer back rim. One of the cranes holds a pine bough in its beak, the defining feature of the "pine-eating crane" pattern. This highly refined version includes butterflies flying delicately among the cranes.

The composition of this mirror is similar to Mirror with Cranes and Pine Needles (EK17-9), however, here, the cranes are rendered in high relief, and the inner rim and thick mirror plate contrasts with EK17-9. Like the latter, there are many examples excavated from sutra mounds (J., kyôzuka), which date to the latter half of the 12th century.