印籠刻昆虫図螺鈿据文象嵌鞘打刀拵
Blade and Mounting for a Sword (Katana), C17th (blade); C19th (mounting)
Steel, wood, lacquer, mother-of-pearl, rayskin (same), thread, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), copper-silver alloy (shibuichi), gold, iron
This mounting features a scabbard with twenty-three striated sections. Eighteen of these are each finished in a different gold lacquer design, including geometric patterns, running water, chrysanthemums, and cherry blossoms, while the remaining five are adorned with various insects and a toad. Mother-of-pearl was used for the wings of certain insects and the eye of the toad. Made in the early Meiji period (1868–1912), the mounting displays the highest level of lacquer workmanship of the time. This style of scabbard originated at the turn of the eighteenth century, when the affluent Genroku period (1688–1704) gave rise to luxurious sword mountings.*
Taken from the exhibition
Samurai Splendor: Sword Fittings from Edo Japan
(March 2022 – Ongoing)
After almost a century and a half of near-constant civil war and political upheaval, Japan unified under a new ruling family, the Tokugawa, in the early 1600s. Their reign lasted for more than 250 years, in an era referred to as the Edo period, after the town of Edo (present-day Tokyo) that became the new capital of Japan. The Tokugawa regime brought economic growth, prolonged peace, and widespread enjoyment of the arts and culture. The administration also imposed strict class separation and rigid regulations for all. As a result, the ruling class—with the shogun as governing military official, the daimyo as local feudal lords, and the samurai as their retainers—had only a few ways to display personal taste in public. Fittings and accessories for their swords, which were an indispensable symbol of power and authority, became a critical means of self-expression and a focal point of artistic creation.
This installation explores the luxurious aspects of Edo-period sword fashion, a fascinating form of arms and armor rarely featured in exhibitions outside Japan. It presents a selection of exquisite sword mountings, fittings, and related objects, including maker’s sketchbooks—all drawn from The Met collection and many rarely or never exhibited before.
[*The Met]
In the Met
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was conceived in Paris by John Jay in Paris, 1866, as a "national institution and gallery of art" for the American people. The Union League Club in New York campaigned for funding, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened to the public in 1870, in the Dodworth Building 681 Fifth Avenue. Initially formed from donations by its founders, the Museum collection increased to the point that it outgrew the initial site, and then a consecutive one, moving to its current location (on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street) in 1880.
The initial museum building was designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, with extensions added from 1888 onwards - the Fifth Avenue facade, Grand Stairway, and Great Hall, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, opened 1902, and the Fifth Avenue wings by McKim, Mead & White in 1910. The last major development was the installation of glass at the sides and rear of the building, designed by Roch-Dinkeloo in 2011-12.
Taken in Manhattan
