Menuki

Here are eight pairs of gold menuki in the collection, each piece small enough to disappear in a closed hand. That is where they belong. Menuki sit on the grip of a Japanese sword, one on each side, beneath the wrapped silk or leather cord, and fall into the palm when the hand takes hold. Early on they covered the pegs that fix the blade in its hilt. Later they moved away from the pegs and kept only their place under the hand.

Two pairs show shishi, the guardian lions, once entwined and once among peonies. The others hold rain dragons, four doves, the shoulder guards of a suit of armor laid down without their wearer, horses at full gallop with no rider, monkeys riding in their place, and Hotei asleep on his bag.

Four pairs are solid gold, and most of the eight are carved fully in the round. Two carry a signature, Ishiguro Masayoshi and Yanagawa Naomitsu. Most of the others carry the name of a school rather than of a maker: the Kyo-kinko, the metalworkers of the capital, and the workshops of Mito.

From across a room, gold menuki are small bright points on a dark hilt. Close up, each one is a scene complete in itself.