A fine, rare and small iron jizai (fully articulated) okimono of a dragon

By Myochin Kiyoharu, Edo Period, 18th/19th century

Footnotes

鉄自在置物　龍　明珍清春作　江戸時代（18世紀/19世紀）

Of all the categories of Edo-period artefacts eagerly collected outside Japan for the last century and a half, articulated animals have the least trace of documentary evidence concerning their origin and development. Even the Japanese word for them, jizai or jizai okimono, appears to be a post-Edo term. However despite the obscurity of their origins, these displays of Oriental dexterity perfectly matched a trend in Western Orientalist taste in the last quarter of the 19th century. In the West they were first highlighted in Le Japon Artistique of 1881 which reproduces in three different positions and describes in detail, an articulated frog. However, despite their creation in Japan a century earlier, these articulated animals were only brought back to the attention of a Japanese audience in October 1983, when several examples were displayed in the special exhibition Japanese Metalwork held at the Tokyo National Museum.

According to Harada Kazutoshi, Special Research Chair at the Tokyo National Museum, the earliest-known jizai okimono dates from 1713. It is not clear for what purpose they were made, or from where the complicated manufacturing techniques originated. However, as the demand for armour markedly diminished during the peaceful reign of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the Edo period, the famous Myochin Family, renowned for their excellent forging of iron armour, turned to the production of other forged iron materials such as tea ceremony kettles, boxes, sword guards and jizai okimono. Since the makers were working in concert with the government's policy of promoting industry, exporting decorative art and participating in Domestic and International Expositions, many of these jizai-okimono found their way to the West.

An exquisite example of a jizai okimono, this small but perfectly formed naturalistically-rendered dragon can move its body remarkably smoothly; the limbs and claws are also freely movable and the head and legs turn 180 degrees; it is therefore able to imitate the movements of their real-life counterparts.

Jizai okimono range in size and length from the smallest (measuring around 5cm) to the largest at approximately 188cm. Compare with an identical dragon of comparable workmanship, design, same size and signed by Miyochin Kiyoharu, in the British Museum, strongly suggesting that the dragon presented here could well be its pair. See another very similar finely crafted dragon by Myochin measuring 37.8cm long, illustrated by Harada Kazutoshi, Jizai Okimono - Articulated iron figures of animals, Maria Shobo Co., Ltd. Kyoto, January 2010, pp.34-35, no.6.