Overview

This mirror is dark gray-brown in color with a reflective face plated with tin. The knob surround consists of flower pistils spread out like petals around the central knob. The mirror itself is nearly identical in shape and size to Mirror with Cranes, Pine Needles, and Butterflies (EK17-10) and Mirror with Waves and Flying Geese (EK17-24). The cranes, one facing outward and one inward, fly counterclockwise around the knob, presenting a composition demarcated by an upper and lower section. This mirror has been handed down in Masumida Shrine, in Ichinomiya City, Aichi Prefecture.

The distribution of mirrors with the same composition of paired cranes, excavated from sutra mounds of the 12th century, is limited to the area from the Kinai region (the areas of Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara) to the eastern half of the Chûgoku region (western part of Honshû). Compared with mirrors of the same composition as Mirror with Cranes and Pine Needles (EK17-9) and EK17-10, the circulation of this mirror was limited to a very small area. The compositional differences displayed by these two groups of mirrors with paired cranes probably reflect differences in place of production and in routes of circulation.