mirror is preserved, each mirror is enclosed in a box standing on a stand, and covered with a cloth of silk. The mirror is itself wrapped in a brocade bag, which is never opened or renewed, but which, when nearly worn out, is enclosed in a new bag. Over the numerous wrappings is a cage of wood with gold ornaments, draped with a curtain of coarse silk. At festivals, when they open the shrines, all that can be seen is the boxes with the coverings over them. The mirror of old Japan is however a very different article from that known in modern Europe as a mirror. European mirrors are made, as everyone knows, of glass silvered at the back. Japanese mirrors are invariably made of metal, the bronze employed being a compound of copper and tin, with traces of antimony or lead.[1] The mirrors preserved in the temples are not all of the eight-pointed form. Some are simply circular, with a thick rim behind, and a central button perforated to receive a suspending cord; the front being quite plane. Others are oval, with feet, or with perforated handles at the upper part for suspension. In the houses square mirrors are very rarely met with, and these are mostly small. Those for the lady’s toilet table are usually circular, from four to five inches across, without handles, possessing a thick rim and a raised pattern on the back. Commonest of all are the hand-mirrors, which are usually circular, from three to eleven inches in diameter, with a metal handle covered with bamboo or with brocade. They are usually slightly convex on the front surface, which is brightly polished; while the back, which is for the most part unpolished, exhibits a fine raised pattern. Often the raised ornament consists of two distinct kinds. There is made in high relief, and polished bright so as to stand out from the background, a simple bold symbolic device, sometimes a Chinese character signifying “good-luck,” or “long-life,” sometimes a family crest, such as the imperial _kiri_ (or Paullonia leaves and flowers), or a circlet, or three feathers crossed, or the jagged peak of Fuji-yama, or the outline of a bird. Ornament of the second kind is in low relief, and, though often symbolic, consists of naturalistic representations of trees, flowers, storks, bamboos, and the like. A group comprising pine-trees, storks, and the hairy-tailed tortoise, all symbols of longevity or immortality, is a favourite one. Sometimes the ornament consists exclusively of one or other of these kinds; but more frequently both are present; the unpolished low-relief work forming an artistic background for the crest or the Chinese letters, which stand out polished. In passing it may be remarked that the Japanese make use of Chinese characters in addition to their own form of writing, just as we still use old English black-letters for ornamental or distinctive purposes.