Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 7.djvu/94

RV 72 are afforded of a higher type of civilisation; for not only are the simple burial barrows of the first settlers replaced by megalithic dolmens and highly specialised forms of chambered tumuli, but also a decorative tendency is displayed in the application of thin sheets of copper, coated with gold, to the handles of swords and to the bits and trappings of horses. From the time when the Japanese learned the uses of iron, they abandoned bronze as a material for sword blades, though they continued to employ it for casting arrowheads. Spears with iron heads were now added to their weapons of war, and they began to cast bronze mirrors (kagami) and small bells (suzu). Mirrors had their origin abroad; they came either from China or Korea. The form of the imported specimens was a circular disc, with or without a handle, the face polished and quicksilvered, the back covered with decorative designs in relief, the character of which as well as the quality of the casting indicated a degree of artistic and technical skill beyond immediate attainment by the Japanese. But within a brief period these foreign models were rivalled and even surpassed by purely Japanese castings.

As for the bells of that early epoch, they are peculiar objects, without any exact counterpart in foreign countries, so far as is known. Hollow spheroids, with a slight cut in the lower part, they contained a piece of metal, or of some other hard substance, to serve as a tongue; and they were cast in groups of three or five round the rim of a metal plate, having a tang which served to attach it, as an ornamental appendage, to horse trappings, ceremonial robes, or hilts of swords, or to fasten it to a wooden staff which was carried in the hand and shaken so as