Zodiac Animals on a Japanese Sword Guard

Author(s): Stephen V. Grancsay

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Feb., 1936), pp. 32-34
Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3256275
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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

which, however, the stance is reversed. The most identical with ours and of about the
hair is fastened in a knot behind and tied same size but of Roman execution. The
with a fillet, wound twice round the head original from which both statuettes were
and decorated with a meander pattern, the presumably derived must therefore have
outlines of which are still faintly visible. been a famous work. Ours was perhaps an
The motive was then obviously not the approximately contemporary reproduction,8
wringing of water from the hair, as in the the Providence one a later copy.
popular Anadyomene type, but perhaps the At all events, we have in our newly ac-
lifting of a necklace or garland. quired bronze one of the few extant works
The quiet grace of the composition and which can give an adequate idea of the
the refined modeling --| - delicate charm of
point to Greek work- .... Praxitelean sculp-
manship of the fourth
century, of about the
time of Praxiteles. A
comparison with the
large bronze statuette :v~~.:~.'l
ZOD AC
of Aphrodite in the I
Roman Court5-a ANIMALS ON A
Roman adaptation of K
STATUETTE
BRONZE useful. A Japanese
a Praxitelean type -is SWORD GUARD
instructive. Fine and From earliest times
impressivethough this centur whichman
eighteenth has been con-
is, its workmanship RoYellow cerned
the with the sup-
seems hard and sum- influence
posed of t he
mary compared with planets upon human
that of the Greek destinies, his
reanpeated emo-
statuette, in which the tion
al r eactionshave
curves of the girlish been reflected by rep-
figure, the soft flesh, ; resentations of the
and the gentle ex- of the zodiac on
signs
pression have been *
all kinds of objects,
renderedwiththe sen- i ornamental
aswell a s
sitiveness of a great FIG. 2. DETAILOF GRE'EalsK BRONZESTATUETTEuseful A. Japanese
artist. sword
guardthe of
Since Pliny mentions among the bronzes eighteenth o
century, which hasrecently come
of Praxiteles a stephanusam,"a woman hold- to the Museum an as anonymous gift, has on
ing a garland," it is possible that our bronze it the twelve cyclical animals said to inhabit
is a copy on a reduced scale of such a work.6 th Yellowe Road of the Sun, or the sun's
This surmise is strengthened by the fact orbit. This sequence of twelve animals is
that in Providence there is a statuette7 al- five times repeated in the
sexagenary cycle
(one of the several ways in which the Japa-
5 Acc. no. 12.173. In Gallery K 2.
6 Pliny (XXXIV.7o) also mentionsa nese count the years).2 Thus each year is
pseliu-
menen,which has been translatedby some au- associated with of one the zodiacal
signs;
thoritiesas "awomanputtingon a necklace";but the year 1936, for example,is the first of
?4),tovreallymeans bracelet,and the only pas- 8 That statues were copied on a reduced
sage in which?eXt6wmeans"to put on a neck- scale
lace" is Anth. Pal. VII.234, of the first century also in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. is suffi-
A.D.,wherethe transferenceof meaningis proba- ciently attested by the Greek marble statuettes
bly due to the artificialstyle. in Venice,of some of which there exist life-size
7 Bulletin of the Rhode Island Schoolof Design, Romanreproductions(G. Lippold,Kopienund
vol. XIV (1926), pp. 38-42 (reprinted from an UmbildungengriechischerStatuen, pp. 9 ff.).
article by S. Reinach in Monuments Piot, vol. IAcc. no. 35.IO6. On view this month in the
XXVII [1925], pp. 132 if., pls. XIII, XIV); Roomof RecentAccessions.
2 R. H. Rucker, Notes on Japanese Chronology.
Richter, A. J. A., vol. XXXVII (1933), pp. 48 ff.
32
 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

the sequence, or the year of the Rat. Every the seal which would identify our master
Japanese child is familiar with the animals and enable us to get biographical data.
of the zodiac, since one of them presided in Henri L. Joly in his List of Names, Kakihan,
the year of his birth. gives the identical signature with kakihan
The guard is round and made of iron cut but does not mention his source. The Mu-
out into irregular areas the shapes of which seum has two knife handles (in the Have-
suggest fans and paperforwritingor painting. meyer collection; acc. nos.29. Ioo. I 185, 1187)
Each of the divisions is chased in relief with which bear the signature with kakihan of
one of the twelve animals and heightened by Tsuchiya Masachika and a sword guard
overlays of gold or silver. The composition (acc. no. i6.58.I) inscribed "Masachika, a
is asymmetrical, yet balanced when ex- resident of Hagi, province of Nagato." But
amined from both faces. The animals do not as the characters on all these pieces vary,
appear in their regular order, namely, Rat, the signatures must be those of different

SWORD GUARD SHOWING T HE ANIMALS OF THE ZODIAC

JAPANESE, X(VIII CENTURY

Ox, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Snake, Horse, masters. There is still much research to be
Goat, Monkey, Cock, Dog, Boar. However, done in the study of Japanese sword furni-
the first six and the second six appear on op- ture before the work of the many artists
posite sides. Each of these animals has a who bearthe same name can be distinguished.
symbolical significance which is generally Not enough of the work of individual mas-
known by the japanese but not widely known ters has been published to enable one to
among Occidentals. For example, the asso- make a comparative study.
ciation of the hare and the moon is common To return to the decorative motive, the
to the folklore of every country; on the other animals of the zodiac appear on two knife
hand, the dragon is the symbol of sin in the handles and two sword guards in the Mu-
West, while in the East it is the insigne of seum, but the materials and compositions
the Emperor, the Son of Heaven. Without of these are unlike those of our recent ac-
such knowledge the student of Oriental art quisition. There is also, on loan, a dagger
finds many designs incomprehensible. (aikuchi) with a dragon on the scabbard
On our guard is the signature with kakihan and the constellation of the Dragon (identi-
(written seal mark) of the artist, Masachika. fiable by the "tail") on the handle of the
Shinkichi Hara, in his Die Meisterderjapani- knife (ko:uka) belonging to it. This dagger
schen Schwertgieraten,records four artists and our sword guard were undoubtedlyv
with the name Masachika whose signatures valued as talismans.
correspondwith the characters on our guard. Weapons with astrological motives are
Unfortunately, however, Hara does not give also known in the West. In the European
33
 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

heavy, circular foot adequately supports

section of the armorcollection are two swords
the balustered shaft; the massiveness of the
with calendar blades on which the signs of
the zodiac are represented (Gallery H 9, superimposed tooling at the base of the
socket finds compensation in the long, grace-
Case XXIX). It is not strange to find these
ful bobeche.
motives on weapons, for in former centuries
leaders in both East and West had a blind According to George S. McKearin, a no-
table authority on glass, our candlesticks
belief in astrology. It is known that they
were found many years ago in New Jersey.
often regulated the movements of armies in
It is impossible, however, to determine with
time of war as well as events in time of peace
by the course of the stars. surety the locality in which they were made
STEPHENV. GRANCSAY. or to date them with any exactitude, so

FIG. I. AMERICAN GLASS CANDLESTICKS

THREE EXAMPLES OF EARLY little is known concerning early American

AMERICAN GLASS glassmakers and their work. It has long
been customary among cautious writers to
A unique pair of blown candlesticks and a
classify as of the South Jersey type the "off-
rare blown and molded flask are recent ad-
hand" products of the several generations
ditions to the Museum's collection of Ameri-
can glass.' Purchased from the Alfred B. of glass blowers who worked in the eight-
eenth-century tradition established in New
Maclay collection, they will be shown this
month in the Room of Recent Accessions. Jersey by Caspar Wistar and his son Richard
The candlesticks2 easily rank among the at Wistarberg and by the Stanger brothers
foremost examples of native manufacture at Glassboro. Subsequently the same sub-
stantial forms and colors appeared in the
(fig. i). True craftsmanship has endowed
them with stalwart, well-balanced propor- products of New York glassworks at Red-
tions and a strong aquamarine blue color ford, Saratoga, and numerous other places.
that is remarkably clear and sparkling. The This similarity is exemplified by the various
1 Helen A. McKearin, Catalogueof Early Ameri- affinities which a pair of blown oil lamps3
can Glass, nos. 469, 493. 3 Acc. nos. 32.160.1,2. On exhibition in Gallery
2 Acc. nos. 35.124.1, 2. Jesup Fund. H. 9g in. M Io.
34