January
31
/ 2014
An experiment conduced earlier this year on a replica of an ancient bronze mirror held at Kyoto’s National Museum revealed that the original may have been used as a so-called magic mirror to conjure up images of mountain wizards and divine beasts for sun-worshipping rituals. In a magic mirror, unevenness on the polished surface—too subtle to be detected by the naked eye—reproduces patterns on the back when light reflects off the front. The mirror, known as Himiko’s mirror, was unearthed from the Higashinomiya Tomb in Aichi, Japan, and belongs to the “sankakubuchi shinjukyo” (triangular-rimmed deity and beast mirror) category of mirrors. It is associated with Himiko, a shaman Queen who ruled the kingdom of Yamatai in the 3 rd century
