A gilt-bronze egoro (long-handled ritual censer)


Kamakura period (1185-1333), 13th/14th centuryThe gilt-bronze censer with a long L-shaped handle decorated with scrolling vines on a nanako ground, weighted on the end with a bridge-post shaped counter balance, the circular ash cup cast with straight sides rising to an everted rim and set on a chrysanthemum-form base, the handle joint decorated with a nyoi head-shaped flourish decorated with scrolling vines and pierced with openwork, the hinged, domed cover pierced with clouds and stylized cranes and finished with a jewel-form finial 13 3/16in (33.5cm) long