The russet-iron mythical beast with tiger head and fish body finely constructed of numerous hammered plates jointed inside the body; the mouth opens, the tongue moves, the fins open and spread and the body bends, the head applied with elaborate horns and spines and the eyes of shakudo embellished with gilt.

Literature: Kuo Hong-Sheng and Chang Yuan-Feng, chief eds. et al., Meiji no bi / Splendid Beauty: Illustrious Crafts of the Meiji Period (Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University Research Center for Conservation of Cultural Relics, 2013), pp. 354-359.  

Exhibited: Preparatory Office of the National Headquarters of Taiwan Traditional Arts, “Japan Arts of Meiji Period; Asia-Pacific Traditional Arts Festival Special Exhibition.” 2011.7.8-2012.1.8. cat. p. 111. 
“Meiji Kogei: Amazing Japanese Art,” , shown at the following venues: Tokyo University of the Arts Museum, 2016.9.7-10.30. Hosomi Museum, Kyoto, 2016.11.12-12.25. Kawagoe City Art Museum, 2017.4.22-6.11. cat. no. 4.

Note: The sculpture is in the form of a mythical beast derived from an ancient Indian sea creature said to have the body of a fish and the head of a tiger, the literal meaning of its name “shachi” in Japanese. Shachi were favored by Japanese samurai as symbols of defense against fire, for the tiger-fish is associated with water. Pairs of shachi were made as corner tiles or as crests on end tiles of temples, samurai dwellings and castle gates throughout the Edo period. An alternate reading of the creature as a dragon fish, with head, as here, of a whiskered dragon, may have originated from a Chinese legend of a carp that was transformed into a dragon after ascending a powerful waterfall. Such connotations of striving against impossible odds appealed to the samurai clientele for whom the Myochin school of metalsmiths first made them as display pieces (okimono). The overlapping plates of the fish body are related to the riveted plates of Japanese armor that provide strong protection as well as mobility.

Christie's. The Meiji Aesthetic: Selected Masterpieces from a Private Asian Collection, Hong Kong, 27 November 2018