Chapter VI
SCULPTURE ON SWORD-FURNITURE
Of the three fields in which Japanese art may justly claim to have shown original genius, namely, the art of genre painting with its correlated achievements in chromo-xylography, the field of netsuke carving, and the field of sculpture as employed for the decoration of weapons of war, it is probably correct to say that the most remarkable work is found in the last.
There is a common belief that the decoration of arms and armour did not reach a high grade of excellence until the twelfth century of the Christian era. Japanese traditions, on the contrary, allege that the inlaying of armour with gold and silver began in the fourth century, but there is nothing to support the assertion. The armour found in dolmens shows no trace of inlaying, or of any elaborate ornamentation, and it may be said that the contents of these peculiar tombs, which represent the burial-places of Japanese chieftains and sovereigns down to, probably, the fifth century of the Christian era, did not give much promise of the extraordinary skill afterwards attained. Nevertheless it is certain that the sculptor must have occupied himself diligently with the decoration of armour long before the Gem-pei wars of the twelfth century, for a suit of mail worn by Yoshitsune, the hero of that time, which is preserved
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