Pair of Samurai Figures

Location: Japan

Materials: bronze, thick gilding, silver and shakudo

Dimensions: height 223 and 226 cm (overall), 99 and 104 cm (figures)

Accession Number: M 118

Other Notes:

A pair of large bronze figures of samurai warriors, each dressed in richly brocaded clothes and wearing full armour. One with a coiled-dragon motif in relief on the do (body armour), which also bears scattered aoi mon. The other armour with a shishi and brocade ball emblazoned on the front of the do amid persimmon mon. Each soldier armed with a tachi and aikuchi tanto and holding upright a naginata. Details picked out in thick gilding, silver, and shakudo. Each on a typical Miyao-style wood stand decorated in gold lacquer with ho-o amid foliate scrolls. The mon on the do repeated in the centre of each base.

Bibliography:

O. Impey, M. Fairley (eds.), Meiji No Takara: Treasures Of Imperial Japan: Metalwork Vol II, London 1995, cat. 109.
J. Earle, Splendors of Imperial Japan: Arts of the Meiji period from the Khalili Collection, London 2002, cat. 85, pp. 132–5.