The San Francisco call., 1897-07-04

work done on it. Some of the figures on
the hilt and sheath represent Rakans, the
sanity apostles of Buddha. There is the
sea goddess riding upon the sea dragon.
She has taken away three of the seven
evil hearts of the dragon. and is bearing
them to her keeper of the dragons hearts.
One Of the best executed figures on the
scabbard is hat of Ben ton, the goddess of
love, who. unlike our Venus, is pure be-
ing. and bears in her hand lotus flowers,
which to the Japanese are EN- blems of
purity and immortality. AT the bottom
OF the scabbard there are some beautiful
lotus flowers and leaves. One of the fig
ures is Dipa, who was once so wicked that
his heart grew square, but, being con-
verted by the Rakans, it grew plump and
round again, and he is making an offering
of his altered heart.
The steel blade within this marvellous
scabbard is thing OF rare value like it's
covering. The armorers of old Japan
were exalted personages, and the making
of swords was a deeply studied art. The
steel in them is of finer tempe than that
of the famed Damascus ard Toledo blades.
A French writer says that the swords of
the modern French army are toys by COM
parison with the products of the old
Japanese armorers. They spent months
in making one blade, and even then they
selected one success out of many failures.
The blade was formed by laying several
fat pieces of steel together. These were
welded, draw out and doubled again and
again, until the finished blade finally con-
sisted OF four million layers of steel.
Many of the japanese ivory carvings
represent old legends. and the story of
Masamune, who was the greatest of all
their sword akers, is very cleverIy told
by the chisels of the artists. The myth is
that the fox is a supernatural animal, and
his wisdom is beyond the wisdom of man.
One day as Masamune was busy at his
anvil. a fox ran up and leapt upon his
head and disa ppeared through the old
mans skull as if he had burrowed hole
for himself. From that day forth Masa-
mune could temper blade with more
than mortal skill. This explanation OF
how the armorer acquired his art is illus
trated with the most daintily wrought
ivory image of the old man and little
fox entering his head.
This story is a sample of the deep mean
ing attached to great many OF the jap
anese ivories, which the thoughtless OBJ.
server would be apt to dismiss with
single glance as not worth studying.
The Japanese legends, proverbs. Jokes
and much OF their history is illustrated
in these daintily carved little statuets.
If they could all be traced and set down
in a book with mum ber CORES ponding to
a catalogue of the ivories it would make
a very interesting and instructive study.
Doubtless when the literature and folk
lore of the Japanese come to be better
known many of the curious carvings in
this big collection will, in addition 10
the interest aroused by the marvellous
ingenuity displayed in their cutting, have
another from the historical events, the
myths, the proverbs, the witticisms they
were intended to perpetuate.
Another valuable piece in this collec-
ton is large group, representing ven-
erable old man on horse, dragon ard
a man kneeing with shoe in his hand.
1t illustrates legend of how man be-
came Emperor by the lucky, or heroic.
recovery of great mans shoe. This
group is of most elaborate and beautiful
workmanship and is worth $1,000. 1t is a
specimen of an art that has practically
passed away, for the modern artists do
not now produce anything OF equal ex-