An Exhibition of Japanese Sword Mounts

Author(s): Robert Hamilton Rucker

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 17, No. 8 (Aug., 1922), pp. 173-176
Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

ily, and we can hardlysuppose that a sig-
net ringthat alone could have been sold for
a competentlivingwould have been con-
ferredon a nobody.
In goblet,in bottle,and in ringwe have
Khamwast's souvenirsof the great experi-
ment, fromits inception,its momentary
success, and its failure. It is worth re-
memberingwhen we look at them in their
museumcases. H. E. W.
the design; the chiselerreproducedit in
metal, cunninglyusing different metals to
achieve the coloreffects;and the lacquerer
suppliedthe scabbard and frequentlysome
of the fittings,when these were of wood.
The result was a distinctcontributionto
the world'sart treasures.
By decorationof the "sword" is meant
thedecorationofitshiltand scabbard;com-
prising,besides the guard, certain other

FIG. 3. DECANTER OF FAIENCE

AN EXHIBITION OF JAPANESE accessoriesand ornaments-collectivelyre-

SWORD MOUNTS
ART, in its broad sense, is an expres-
sionof the race,not ofthe individualartist.
Perhaps no better illustrationof this can
be instancedregardingthe Japanese than
in the decorationof the sword,elegant in
thebeginning,and highlyspecializedat the
close,of its longhistory. Painter,chiseler,
and lacquerer-representingthreepreemi-
nent fields of Japanese art-collaborated
in this decoration. The painterfurnished
173
ferredto by the Japaneseas kodogu(small
fittings)-forthe two swordsusually worn
by the samurai (the katana and the waki-
Zashi),and fortheceremonialor courtsword
(the tachi)-the correspondingJapanese
term forwhich is kanagu (metal fittings).
Into thisdecorationwas woven the legend,
history,and folk-loreof the people, as well
as thesentimentalreactionsto the beauties
of natureoftenso charminglyexpressedin
the thatchedhut near the stream,with its
water-wheel;the swaying flower,tossed

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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

by the wind; or the flightof wild geese individualworkerslikeHosono Masamori-

through the moonlit night. personal in style and execution-also ap-
An exhibitionof these small fittingsor pear to advantage.
mountshas just been placed on view,1com- Remarkablefortheirrarequalityare the
prisingrepresentativespecimensborrowed specimensof mokumeand guri. Mokume
by the Museum fromthe collectionsof cer- (wood grain) is a resultof solderingtwo or
tain specialists and collectorsamong the morealloystogether,beating,twisting,and
membersofthe Armorand ArmsClub. It finallycuttingthemin veneerswhichshow
is worthyof repeated visits and careful characteristiccolors of the alloys when
study,not only forits generalartisticand suitably treated in a "pickle." Seen for
educational value, but forthe reason that the firsttime,it is difficultto realize that
its size, scope, and variety affordan op- the resultis not broughtabout by meansof
portunityto compare the work of famous inlay, or throughsome coloringprocess.
artists through differentand numerous Guri is a metallicimitationofguri lacquer.
examplesrarelyto be seenexceptin such an Perhaps the collector will find special
aggregatefromprivate collections. interestin the pieces of the Gota school,of
As a whole, the exhibitionconsists of S6yoa nd S6min of the Yokoya, J6i of the
somefourhundredand fiftyitems,covering Nara, and Natsua of the Otsuki, because
over six hundredpieces. They rangefrom of theirquality,number,and variety,but
the productionsof the Kaneiye,in the six- moreparticularlybecause of the workman-
teenthcentury,to thoseof Got6 Ichij6 and ship. Design, however,will make a wider
Kan6 Natsua-two famousmastersof the appeal to the general visitorthan subtle
nineteenth-whosurvivedtheirprofession beauties of chisel-work,and here the field
when political changes deprived the sam- is broad and suggestive.
urai of his privilegeof carryingswords,and One is impressedwith the quiet dignity
thus broughtto an end the formerwide of the iron fittingsof the Kaneiye. The
demand for fittings. The objects, in the fisherman,bending over the side of his
main, are the knife-handle(koluka), the boat, floatingnear the reeds (No. 2), is
ringand thetip (fuchi-kashira)forthe hilt, modeled with grace and fidelity. Some-
and those unique and beautifulornaments thingof this same quality is noticed also
forthe sides of the hilt called menuki.The in an iron koluka of the Inouye school
materialsof whichthese piecesare made-- depictingT6ba, a Chinese officialof the
besides shakudoand shibuichi,the charac- eleventhcentury,withlargehat and staff.
teristicalloys peculiar to the Japanese-- Of exceptionalinterestis a shakudoko-
comprisegold, silver,bronze,copper,iron, Zuka by the thirteenthGot6 master,who
enamel(shippo),ebony,lacquer,ivory,and has placed thereon five golden shishi
bone. (mythicallions),originallymade as menuki,
Its scope is indicated by the various by his ancestors the first,second, third,
families and schools of metal-workers fourth,and fifthmasters,which affordan
represented,which includes, besides the unusualopportunity forcomparison.These
Kaneiy6, the Umetada (with the Sh6ami, animals, so playfuland full of life, seem
S6ten, and Ita); the Gota (withthe Ichin- here to reflectlittle of the sober poise of
omiya and Ichij6 schools); the Nara (with their original Chinese habitat. Unusual
the Omori and the Hamano); the Nomura also is the set of pieces by a pupil of the
(with the Isono); the Yokoya and its de- fifteenth Got6 master,showingwind-blown,
rivatives:the Yoshioka,Iwamoto, Furuka- blossomingpeonies. T6mei, who studied
wa, Yanagawa, Kikuoka, Ishiguro,Tanaka with and underthe Gota, depictswith al-
of Yedo, Tsuji of Omi, Sekij6ken,Kikuchi, most microscopicprecision the heads of
and Yegawa. The schools of Mito show millet,workingwith marvelousdetail, in
examples of the Tamagawa, Uchikoshi, gold. A set signed by Got6 Masayasu,
Hitotsuyanagi,and Hirano. Besidesthese, consistingof a koyukaand a pair of menuki,
the Otsuki school of Ky6to and various showsthe Six ImmortalPoets ofJapan.
1InWingH, Room6. In the Nara groupare seen Daruma, the
174

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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

asceticmonk;Kwanyu,theChinesegeneral; undera fullmoon,is by one of the famous

Shinn6,themystic;Hotei,one of thehouse-
hold gods; Dancing Shojo, those mythical,
red-headed lovers of sake! All of these
subjects are familiar to every Japanese
child. There is also a ghost motifwhich
fordelicacy,suggestiveness,and restrained
poweris an achievementof greatmerit.
Amongthe pieces of the Omoriare typi-
cal wave designs, remarkably undercut,
and a carp ascendinga waterfall.
In the Hamano group, a pair of hands
placed togetheron the faceof a kojukagive
Hirata school, noted for its beautiful
productionsof enamel,or shippo.
Two mice, masterly executed with a
few strokes of the chisel; the Goddess
Kwannon,seated on a rock; a carp leaping
fromthe water aftera hornet;and a gold-
fishare fineexamplesof Natsu6.
Japanese humoris shownin a of
kotuka
yellow bronze of the Otsuki school, the
subject of which,in delicatelinesof chisel-
work,is two men drinkingand apparently
quite convivial. The accompanyingpoem

CHARACTERISTIC WORK OF TOMEI

GODA COLLECTION

little clue to designuntilthe back is seen. gives a characteristictouch. It may be

There, on a silverground,is the black sha-
dow of a rabbit; produced,of course,by
the hands on the otherside!
A set, consistingof ko~uka, kogai, and
two pair of menuki,is decorated with the
crawfishmotifof the Nomura, the menuki
representing singlecrawfish.
The Yokoya school has Ch6kwaro, a
sennin,or religiousrecluse; Ebisu, another
of the householdgods; and Sh6ki,a power-
ful deity chargedwith the importantduty
of quellingdemons,who rides majestically
on a lion.
Crows, in black, against a full moon of
silver, are the work of the Tsuji; and a
koguka,showing the flightof wild geese
175
rendered: "Drinking enough sakt makes
the mind like a day in springand, until
a creditorappears, it has the voice of a
nightingale."
In a groupof gold menukiare such sub-
jects as warriorson horseback; lions and
clouds; Bishamon,the God ofWar, chasing
a demon; Marishiten,the deity of Brah-
manic origin, mQuntedon a wild boar;
Sambaso dancers; a storkstandingon one
leg; and a monkeystretchingits long arm
upwards, reaching for the moon. This
last is a symbolof man strivingforthe im-
possible--not inappropriate, perhaps, if
applied to one attemptinga descriptionof
the presentcollectionto those unfamiliar

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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN
with this intricate and highly developed
branchof Japaneseart; forit mustbe seen
to be appreciated.
We can thus see in this exhibitionan
artisticexpressionof Japaneseideals. The
individual artist makes a common appeal
to the race forthe reason that, in a sense,
he is the interpreterof its own thought.
His messagenow goes beyondthe bounda-
ries of the Island Empireand transmitsto
the people of a westernworld,undreamed
ofat the time,somethingofthe spiritwhich
gave inspirationto brushand chisel in an
age that is all too quicklyfadinginto the
shadowsof the past.
ROBERT HAMILTON RUCKER.
A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY
MADONNA
ALBERT VAN OUWATER, to whom
a lately acquired Madonna and Child1 is
attributedby distinguished is a
authorities,2
shadowyfigurein the historyof art. His
name comes down to us in Van Mander's
Book ofthe Painters,wherehe is spokenof
withrespectas one cleverat paintingheads,
hands, draperies, and landscape. The
authorwas familiarwith one of the artist's
paintings-an altarpiece (which has since
disappeared) in the great churchin Haar-
lem. This was called the Roman altarpiece
because it had been erectedby pilgrimson
theirreturnfromRome. He also mentions
anotherworkby van Ouwater,the Raising
of Lazarus, which he knew by means of a
copy in monochrome,the original having
been looted by the Spaniards at the siege
of Haarlem in 1573 and carried away in-
to Spain. "This," says Van Mander, "is
all that time has preservedforus of this
old master to save his name fromobliv-
ion."
It was in 1604that thesewordswerewrit-
ten. The originalof the Raising of Laz-
arus came to light in recentyears, in the
possession of a Genoese family,and has
since foundits way into the Kaiser Fried-
1Panel; H. I5-, W. I2- in. In Gallery34.
2Sir MartinConway and Dr. Tancred Boren-
ius. See an articleby the formerin the Burling- "are of the opinion that the correctmannerof
ton Magazine, March, 1922.
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MUSEUM OF ART
rich Museum in Berlin. On the basis
of its similarityto thisone knownworkby
him,our Madonna is ascribedto the same
artist. The resemblancein certainforms
is remarkable. Sir MartinConway points
out that the featuresof the Virgin are
practicallya reproductionof those of the
Christin the Berlinexample. Our panel,
however,withits richcrimsonsand golden
browns is more colorfulthan the other,
whichis indeed somewhatcold and dry in
effect.
Whetherit be ultimatelydecidedthat it
is by van Ouwater or not, our Madonna
and Child is undoubtedlya veryattractive
exampleofthe earlyDutch school in an al-
most faultlessstate of preservation. Its
date should be placed somewherein the
last quarter of the fifteenth century.The
mediaeval art of Flanderswas well on its
road to modernismwhen paintingin Hol-
land began. Dirk Bouts, the most impor-
tantfifteenth-century Dutchpainter,passed
his careerin Flanders. Our paintingshows
some of the traitsof this master,the most
prominentof which is a matter-of-fact
determinationto draw types from con-
temporarylife rather than from foreign
pictures or fromsome preconceivedideal
of beauty or expression. The Christchild
in our pictureis a strikingexampleof this
characteristic. The square-headed, stiff-
limbed little figurebears all the marks of
beingan accurateportraitof a Dutch baby.
The Madonna, though her expressionis
more idealized, is also distinctlyNether-
landish. The paintingof her richcostume
is derivedfromthe workof the Van Eycks
or theirpupils. The landscape3is founded
on the landscapes that appear in the back-
groundsof Italian pictures. It is a Swiss
view,one would say, of a mountainlake, a
and at its base a castlereachedby
highcliff,
a wooden causeway. Although various
influencesappear in the work,the artist's
personality is clearly expressed. He is
revealed in it as a skilfuland painstaking
artist of an earnest and straightforward
type of mind.
B. B.
3"The oldest painters,"says Van Mander,
treatinglandscapewas firstadopted in Haarlem."
176