Overview

The back of this dark brown mirror is coated with black lacquer. Shaped like a tortoise, the shallow round of this knob, which was not pierced, is decorated with a design of chrysanthemums and tortoiseshell lozenges. The tapered rim has a flattened top. In the lower half, where there was a small hole to pour metal into the mold, a cast mark of the hole and conspicuous traces of uneven metal flow remain. Compared with Large Mirror with Hôrai (Penglai) Motif (EK17-49), the rocky crags have been depicted with creases suggesting a waterfall that flows in a continuously curving line, and the stylized waves are finely depicted.

A similar style and manner of execution may be seen in a mirror dedicated to Ôdo Shrine in Ibaragi Prefecture, dated by an ink inscription to 1325 (Shôchû 2); in a mirror dedicated to Futarasan Shrine, in Tochigi Prefecture, which has an incised date corresponding to 1361 (Kôan 1); and in a mirror dedicated to Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya, bearing a date corresponding to 1412 (Ôei 19). (The latter, however, appears older than the Futarasan Shrine mirror and to have been in the shrine for nearly half a century. The handling of the spatula on the museum's mirror is closest to that of the mirror at Atsuta Shrine, suggesting a production date of the latter half of the 14th century.