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Rh best swords date from the same time. The ornamental swordhilts, guards, etc., date only from the sixteenth century onwards. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were the most fruitful epoch for the production of small bronze objects, whose chief raison d'étre is ornament, such as clasps, paper-weights, small figures of animals, mouthpieces for pipes, and vases intend ed for dwelling-rooms,—not for Buddhist altars, as in earlier days. Damascening, or inlaying on metal, has been carried to great perfection, notably of late years, when designs in various metals and alloys on a basis of bronze or iron have been made to reproduce whole landscapes with the minuteness of a painting. Contemporary artists in silver are obtaining delightful results. Hitherto the gold and silver work of the Japanese had been less remarkable than their bronzes. In enamel—especially in what is known as cloisonné enamel—they are beyond all praise. (See also Articles on Things Japanese/Armour, Things Japanese/Cloisonné, Things Japanese/Mirrors, and Things Japanese/Swords.)

 Mikado. Though this is the name by which the whole outer world knows the sovereign of Japan, it is not that now used in Japan itself, except in poetry and on great occasions. The Japanese have got into the habit of calling their sovereign by such alien Chinese titles as Tenshi, "the Son of Heaven;" Ten-ō, or Tennō, "the Heavenly Emperor;" Shujō, "the Supreme Master." His designation in the official translations of modern public documents into English is "Emperor." It will be a pity if this entirely supersedes, in literary and colloquial European usage, the traditional title of "Mikado," which is at once ancient, sonorous, and distinctively Japanese.

The etymology of the word Mikado is not quite clear. Some—and theirs is the current opinion—trace it to mi, "august,"