National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

The Mirrors with Design of Marine Animals and Vines (Kaiju-budo-kyo) which are based on the motifs of a marine animal (a sea lion) and a grape arabesque pattern (Budo-karakusamon), were produced in large numbers between the seventh and eighth centuries, in the Chinese Tang Dynasty period. This mirror is one of the bronze mirrors representing the Tang Dynasty period. Not only were many such bronze mirrors imported to Japan at that time, but many imitations of such imported mirrors were produced (called Bosei-kyo).
This mirror has an animal-shaped knob in the center, which four pairs of lions surround on the background of a grape-vine arabesque design. Outside of the ridged double circle, the motifs of birds and beasts are designed counterclockwise on a background of palmette and grape-vine arabesque design, which is hemmed by a palmette band.
The design of the motifs and patterns of this mirror is typical of mirrors with a design of sea animals and vines in the early Tang Dynasty period, but its ground metal is yellow and seems to have been finished in a white-silver tin coat, which is different from the typical mirrors in the Tang period. In addition, the mirror surface, which usually would have been finished by polishing or grinding if it had been made in the Tang period, is not finished in that way and thus it seems to be different from the mirrors in the Tang period. Judging from this, it is likely that this mirror is not an original of the Tang period, but one made later by forming a mold of an original mirror of the Tang period, which is called Fumikaeshi-kyo in Japanese.