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

　　A nyoi (‘As-You-Wish’ Scepter) is a ritual implement for formal occasions like a sermon, a lecture of the passages of sutras and a gathering of priests and acolytes with propriety. This forged bronze plate with gilding nyoi has a wide cloud shaped head that has a top of a ridge in the center. There are small and large arches on both sides of the ridge and the edges of the arches are engraved in spirals. The cloud shaped legs gradually become thinner as it is bent toward the back side and attached to a wooden shaft lacquered in black by a pronged fitting with a boar’s eyes shaped openwork. Bird feathers-like patterns are incised along the edge of the cloud shaped head and a pair of phoenixes facing each other in the center with composite Buddhist floral (hōsōge) patterns almost symmetrically arranged to cover the whole cloud shaped head. Between the flowers, three birds and a butterfly fly around and a mountains pattern creating flowers and leaves is added under the two phoenixes. Hōsōge patterns and a two phoenixes pattern are also engraved on the cloud shaped legs and hõsōge flowers and a pair of mandarin ducks is incised on the pronged fitting. A fine incised design (kebori) has been performed to decorate all the patterns and the patterns are gilt by gold leaves and the remaining parts are gilt by silver leaves to create a synergetic effect.