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

It is not clear why articulated animals and insects were first made in the workshops of armour makers in the early 18th 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 family, prominent armour makers particularly skilled at forging and tempering steel, whose activities are documented to the 16th century but probably extend further back. By the middle of the Edo period, Japan was at peace after centuries of civil war and the demand for arms significantly decreased. This in turn influenced many Myochin-school metalsmiths to turn their skills to the manufacture of ornamental sword guards and arms, tea utensils and decorative objects in iron, such as the present Jizai okimono. Some of the articulated objects produced may have evolved from ornaments originally intended for helmets and other accoutrements.

Another example signed by a Myochin artist can be found in the Tokyo National Museum (Harada Kazutoshi, ed., Jizai okimono Articulated Iron Figures of Animals, vol. 11 of Rokusho, special issue Kyoto: Maria Shobo, Ltd., 2010, pl. 1). There is a further smaller example, also signed by Myochin Nobumasa, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (M.37-1947; ibid, pl. 7).