JAPAN
Beyond the reach of withering years,
Beyond the sound of falling tears,
To skies spring sunshine always fills
The music of our love notes thrills,
Through the linked branches of the pine."[1]
Reference may finally be made to a kozuka and a kōgai chiselled by Watanabe Hisamitsu, a prominent representative of the popular school. Here the designs correspond exactly with pictures by Kiyonaga or Utamaro. On the copper face of the kozuka, chiselled in relief, is the celebrated "lady of the green hall," Takao. She is magnificently apparelled, and gold, shakudo, silver, and shibuichi are used with the most refined skill to indicate the rich brocades and crêpes that she wears. On the kōgai the same courtesan is shown in gentle dalliance with the ascetic Daruma. The backs of the kozuka and kōgai alike are of shibuichi, carrying the following inscriptions:—
Buddha sells doctrine. The expounder sells Buddha. The priest sells the expounder. You sell your five feet of body to nurture the lusts of humanity. Green is the willow; crimson the flower; many-coloured the ways of the world."
"A thousand nights, a thousand eves,
The soft moon sails the lake above;
No trace of her caresses leaves,
In the cold depths no ray of love."
In this century the Hirata family—spoken of already as the first to employ vitrifiable enamels in the decoration of sword-mounts—had its greatest master in the person of Harunari. One of his pupils,
- ↑ The pine-tree is one of the emblems of longevity.
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