Description

Antique Japanese shinto shrine mirror. The central motif has a turtle and two cranes beaks meeting in the center. The background has pine trees, paulownia, plum, and bamboo branches with a turtle walking along the shoreline. The characters under the heavens, are marked under the central turtle.
There is a large sixteen petalled chrysanthemum above the turtle. It is rare for a 16 petalled chrysanthemum to survive because after 1870 there was a law that banned the use of chrysanthemums which had previously only been used on objects for imperial rituals or shrines. This mirror would have been placed on a wooden stand at the entrance to an imperial shinto shrine or used during a ritual where the person entering would see their reflection.
It measures 4 5/8″ by 1/2″, bronze Edo Period (c1800).