618 THE ART OF CASTING BRONZE IN JAPAN. 



The other is a bell of the form known as " waniguchi/' crowned with 

 the figure of a tortoise encircled by the coils of a snake, kindly lent by 

 my friend Mr. Harding Smith. It also bears the name of its dedicator 

 and the date 1593. 



Several specimens of dedicatory bronzes of this time are to be found 

 not only in Buddhist temples but also in Shinto shrines. Two examples 

 of the latter may be mentioned, although they are notable rather for 

 the fame of their donors than for their artistic excellence; a gigantic 

 bell of sinular form to the last offered by Hideyoshi to the Shinto shrine 

 at Nachi (Kyushu) and a large mirror (3 feet diameter) dedicated to 

 the Tenjin Miya at Kitano (Kioto) by Kato Kiyomasa, oneof Hideyoshi^s 

 noted generals in the Korean camj)aign. 



I can not omit to show you on the screen a magnificent bronze in the 

 famous Cernuschi collection in Paris, which is attributed to this period. 

 It is supported on a pedestal of rich open work, and is decorated with 

 gourds and an heraldic representation of the leaf and flowers of the 

 Paulownia imperialis. 



Another splendid example of " cera perduta " casting of this period 

 is a group of egrets, standing upon an inverted lotus leaf, which has 

 been kindly lent by my friend Mr. Alfred Cock. 



SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AND FIRST HALF OF THE EiaHTEENTH. 



In 1603 Tokugawa lyeyasu, a man of remarkable ability, both as a 

 warrior and as a statesman, succeeded to the Shogunate, and by his 

 wisdom and foresight established on firm foundations the Japanese 

 system of feudalism, which, under the rule of his successors, gave 

 absolute peace to the country for more than two and a half centuries, 

 and resulted in an advance and develoiiment of the arts unparalleled 

 in any jjrevious age. 



During the supremacy of these Tokugawa Shoguns, the painter, the 

 lacquerer, the potter, and the founder were encouraged and stimulated 

 as they had never been before to bring their respective arts to the high- 

 est point of excellence; and it is in no small degree owing to the works 

 which they produced during this jieriod that Japan owes the promi- 

 nent position which she now so deservedly occupies in the world of art. 



The first great works of the bronze founders of the seventeenth 

 century were a colossal figure of the Buddhist divinity Eochaua, in 

 Kioto, to replace the wooden image destroyed by an earthquake in the 

 previous century, and a huge bell for its temple. 



The figure is said to have been 58i feet high, and from the records 

 regarding the first attempt to cast it, it would appear that it was cast 

 in situ and in segments, the mold being built up on the parts already 

 finished. It would thus, when completed, have been practically a 

 single ijiece of metal. This attempt was a failure, as when casting 

 the lower part of the head the wooden scaffolding was set on fire 

 by the operations and the image partly melted. It was successfully 

 completed in 1G14, but only forty-eight years afterwards, like its wooden 



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