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

A large wriggling dragon is cast all over the back of this mirror shaped into a flower with eight petals. Like the mirrors with the design of marine animals and vines (Kaiju-budo-kyo) or the mirrors with the design of a harp player (Hakuga-dankin-kyo), this mirror is also typical of those from the Chinese Tang Dynasty period. The excellent composition of design as well as the vigorous and lively expression of patterns may prove the remarkable sense of formative arts in the flourishing times of the Tang Dynasty.
The pronounced patterns are excellently designed by the use of high quality nickel (a kind of bronze that looks white-silver because its tin content is rather high). There are some marks of adjustment in forming the mold left on the outer edges of the patterns in some spots. Judging from the state of those marks and the style of the protuberant parts that are rather rounded, this mirror is likely to be a ceroplastic one for which wax was used for the creation of the mold.
Relics like this mirror, which are thought to have been brought by Japanese envoys to Tang Dynasty China (Kentoshi) from mainland China, are valuable materials that imply the situation of active cultural exchange between China and Japan at that time.
As this mirror has excellent workmanship and is well-preserved, the mirror has a smooth convex surface with little rust still now, reflecting objects clearly.