EDO PERIOD (18TH-19TH CENTURY), SIGNED MYOCHIN NOBUMASA

It is not clear why articulated animals and insects were first made in the workshops of armor makers in the early eighteenth century. The dragon model in the Tokyo National Museum made by Myochin Muneaki in 1713 is the earliest dated example. Typically, the artists of articulated figures made in this period were members of the Myochin school, prominent armor makers particulary skilled at forging and tempering steel. By the middle of the Edo period, Japan was at peace after centuries of civil war. The demand for arms significantly decreased, influencing many Myochin-school metalsmiths to turn to ornamental sword guards and arms, tea utensils and decorative objects in iron. Some of the articulated works may have evolved from ornaments intended for helmets and other accoutrements.

This is the second-largest known iron articulated dragon signed by a Myochin artist. For the longer one (135 cm) in the Tokyo National Museum, see Harada Kazutoshi, ed., Jizai okimono Articulated Iron Figures of Animals, vol. 11 of Rokusho, special issue (Kyoto: Maria Shobo, Ltd., 2010), pl. 1; for the dragon in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see pl. 7.