Overview

This dark brown brass mirror has a reflective face plated with tin. The high rim is straight sided and of medium thickness. The knob is conical in shape, and the knob surround takes the form of pistils spread out around the knob like flower petals. On the mirror back, the undulating form of the sandy shore stretches across the center of the compositional space, dividing it into two different seasonal zones. Above, a pine hung with wisteria vines (representing spring) is set in contrast to the autumn grasses and flowers, which occupy the lower part of the pictorial field.

On this mirror poetic image has been translated into a visual design, as the classical poem from Shinshûi wakashû (New Collection of Gleanings of Japanese Poetry), Volume 2, likens wisteria to waves rolling over pines:

High mountain Yama takami
Hanging on a pine tree matsu ni kakareru
wisteria flowers fuji no hana
look like waves sora yori otsuru
rolling down from the sky nami ka to zo miru;

If we accept the notion that the craftsman who conceived of this design thought of it consciously as "waves of wisteria," we might find this composition impossible to grasp at a glance; but in that case we might reinterpret it in extremely concrete terms, as a composition featuring a sandy shore with autumn grasses and flowers against a background of pines and wisteria.