JAPANESE APPLIED ART
antiquities; they indicate a decorative sense by no means rudimentary on the part of their makers and users. Many of the mirrors thus preserved are unquestionably Chinese, and others are frank copies of Chinese models, while all are so much alike that doubts have been raised as to the possibility of distinguishing their provenance, or of confidently attributing any of them to Japanese workers. That objection might be serious had there not been found in ancient Japanese tombs mirrors having attached to their circumference bells of the bivalve, tongueless kind peculiar to Japan, whereas nothing similar has ever been found in China or Korea. It may therefore be assumed that ability to manufacture such objects existed at an early date in Japan, though the source of inspiration was doubtless Chinese. Briefly described, the mirror was a bronze disc, having one side polished or quick-silvered as a reflector and the other ornamented with designs in relief.[1] The metal varied considerably in composition. Its principal ingredients were copper and tin, the former constituting from seventy-five to ninety-five per cent, the latter from twenty-three to one-half per cent. Lead was frequently present, with occasional mixture of silver and traces of gold.
From the remarkable cleanness of casting shown by some of these mirrors, it has been inferred that the cire-perdue process was employed by their makers. But that is exceedingly doubtful. As to the reflecting surface, though probably obtained at first by polishing alone, it soon came to be coated with an amalgam of tin and quicksilver, and as Japan had no quicksilver of her own, she must have had recourse to China, or
- ↑ See Appendix, note 12.
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