1878.] 



The Magic Mirror of Japan. 



133 



Ou-tseu-hing adds that he has seen a mirror of this kind broken into 

 pieces, and that he has thus ascertained for himself the truth of this 

 explanation. 



In a recent interesting article published in No. 29 of the " Garten- 

 laube," Heft 8, 1877, by the well-known German popular writer whose 

 nom-de-jplume is Cams Sterne, doubt is thrown on the above explanation, 

 since Herr Sterne thinks the magic mirror he himself possesses is too 

 thin for any such inlaying to have been performed. In quoting the infor- 

 mation given by M. Julien, to which reference is made above, he inci- 

 dentally mentions that it is taken from the fifty-sixth volume of the 

 Chinese encyclopaedia called " Ke-chi-hing-youen" Herr Sterne adds 

 that these magic mirrors were known to the Chinese from the earliest 

 times, and that one of their writers spoke about them in the ninth 

 century of the Christian era. He remarks that the Roman writer 

 Aulus Gellius, who lived seventeen centuries ago, referred to mirrors 

 that sometimes reflected their backs and sometimes did not. From the 

 great antiquity of the Chinese magic mirrors Herr Sterne thinks it pro- 

 bable that the mirrors with secret signs and figures of imps on the back 

 which formed a portion of the stock-in-trade of the witches of the middle 

 ages were of Eastern manufacture. He further alludes to the account 

 given by the Italian historian Muratori of the magic mirror found 

 under the pillow of the Bishop of Verona, who was afterwards con- 

 demned to death by Martin della Scala, as well as to the one disco- 

 vered in the house of Cola da Rienzi, on the back of which was the 

 word " Fiorone." 



Neither in " Les Memoires concernant les Chinois par les Mis- 

 sionaires," nor in Duhalde's classical work on China, is there any 

 mention of the magic mirror. I understand, however, that a short 

 paper on the subject, by Professor Harting, appeared some years ago 

 in a Dutch periodical, the "Album der Naturer;" this I have not 

 seen : but Dr. Geerts, a Dutch gentleman resident in Japan, and who 

 has a most extensive acquaintance with the literature bearing on that 

 country, informs me no explanation of the phenomenon was contained 

 in that article. 



Japanese literature, as already mentioned, appears to be quite barren 

 ■of information regarding their own or the Chinese mirrors which 

 appear to reflect their backs. But in the shim-jpen-kamaJcura-shi, or 

 New Collection of Writings about Kamakura," it is mentioned that 

 in the temple KencJwji, situated in the ancient capital of the Sliogun,* 

 there is treasured up a wonderful old mirror, 3^ suns high and 3 suns 

 wide,f which, when looked at somewhat obliquely, shows the image of 



* Shogun, the military usurper of the throne of Japan, and recognized in modern 

 times prior to the revolution of 1869 as the rightful sovereign. He was sometimes 

 •erroneously called the Tycoon. 



f A sun is nearly one and one-fifth of an inch. 



VOL. XXVIII. L 



