610 THE ART OF CASTING BRONZE IN JAPAN. 



It is worthy of note liere tliat the Bronze age and tlie first period of 

 the Iron age are also characterized by two distinct forms of sepnlchral 

 monuments, the former by barrows, or simple mounds of earth, and the 

 latter by niegalithic dolmens and highly specialized forms of chambered 

 tumuli. There is no evidence whatever of a Copper age preceding that 

 of Bronze, but contemporaneous with the early Iron age, and up to 

 the sixth or seventh centuries A. D., we find copper in more extensive 

 use than bronze. Iron swords, trappings, and bits for horses, decorated 

 with thin sheets of copper, coated with gold, are found in abundance, 

 while objects of bronze are rare. 



THE BRONZE AGE. 



The castings which represent the early Bronze age in Japan consist 

 solely of swords and arrowheads, tlie wants of the people then being 

 evidently few and simple; and although objects for personal adornment 

 were in use, th^y were made exclusively of steatite, jasper, quartz, or 

 other stones. The swords are found in barrows or merely buried in 

 the ground, and never along with objects of iron ; the arrowheads, on the 

 other hand, occasionally occur also in dolmens, associated with iron 

 swords, and thus connect the Bronze with the Iron age. These bronze 

 swords are undonbtedly the most ancient castings in Japan. They are 

 simple two-edged weapons, resembling in form the short sword of the 

 ancient Greeks. In some examples the blade is cast in one piece with 

 the hilt, but in others with a tang, to which a hilt was subsequently 

 attached. The mold was of stone and was made in two pieces. Illus- 

 trations of a mold and sword are exhibited. This is the oldest mold 

 for casting bronze in existence in Japan. It was found by a Japanese 

 archa?ologist in use by some farmers as a hone for sharpening their 

 sickles. (I may say here that on my visit to Seoul, the capital of Korea, 

 I found stone molds in use for casting simple silver articles, the stone 

 being an indurated tuff.) 



I was unable to obtain any fragments or even scrapings of these 

 swords for analysis, as there are but few existing, and they are highly 

 prized, but a fragment of an arrowhead which I examined consisted 

 of copper and tin, and did not contain lead as an essential constituent, 

 and the swords are probably of the same alloy. 



EARLY IRON AGE (FROM ABOUT THE SECOND CENTURY B. C. TO 

 ABOUT THE SIXTH CENTURY A. D.). 



In my explorations and studies of the remains which occur in the 

 ancient Japanese dolmens and chambered tumuli I have always 

 observed a marked scarcity of castings of bronze. Circular mirrors, 

 small bells, and arrowheads occasionally are found, but they form an 

 insignificant part of the contents of a dolmen, the chief objects being 

 swords, arrow and spear heads, horse furniture, and other articles of 

 iron, many of which are plated with thin sheets of copper, coated gener- 



