The term "parlour bronzes" serves to designate objects for domestic use, as flower-vases, incense-burners and alcove ornaments. Bronze-casters began to turn their attention to these objects about the middle of the 17th century. The art of casting bronze reached its culmination in the hands of a group of great experts--Seimin, Toun, Masatune, Teijo, Somin, Keisai, Takusai, Gido, Zenryusai and Hotokusai--who flourished during the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th. Many brilliant specimens of these men's work survive, their general features being that the motives are naturalistic, that the quality of the metal is exceptionally fine, that in addition to beautifully clear casting obtained by highly skilled use of the _cera-perduta_ process, the chisel was employed to impart delicacy and finish to the design, and that modelling in high relief is most successfully introduced. But it is a mistake to assert, as many have asserted, that after the era of the above ten masters--the latest of whom, Somin, ceased to work in 1871--no bronzes comparable with theirs were cast. Between 1875 and 1879 some of the finest bronzes ever produced in Japan were turned out by a group of experts working under the business name of Sanseisha. Started by two brothers, Oshima Katsujiro (art-name Joun) and Oshima Yasutaro (art-name Shokaku), this association secured the services of a number of skilled chisellers of sword-furniture, who had lost their occupation by the abandonment of sword-wearing. Nothing could surpass the delicacy of the works executed at the Sanseisha's atelier in Tokyo, but unfortunately such productions were above the standard of the customers for whom they were intended. Foreign buyers, who alone stood in the market at that time, failed to distinguish the fine and costly bronzes of Joun, Shokaku and their colleagues from cheap imitations which soon began to compete with them, so that ultimately the Sanseisha had to be closed. This page in the modern history of Japan's bronzes needs little alteration to be true of her applied art in general. Foreign demand has shown so little discrimination that experts, finding it impossible to obtain adequate remuneration for first-class work, have been obliged to abandon the field altogether, or to lower their standard to the level of general appreciation, or by forgery to cater for the perverted taste which attaches unreasoning value to age. Joun has produced, and is thoroughly capable of producing, bronzes at least equal to the best of Seimin's masterpieces, yet he has often been induced to put Seimin's name on objects for the sake of attracting buyers who attach more value to cachet than to quality. If to the names of Joun and his brilliant pupil Ryuki we add those of Suzuki Chokichi, Okazaki Sessei, Hasegawa Kumazo, Kanaya Gorosaburo and Jomi Eisuke, we have a group of modern bronze-casters who unquestionably surpass the ten experts beginning with Seimin and ending with Somin. Okazaki Sessei has successfully achieved the casting of huge panels carrying designs in high relief; and whether there is question of patina or of workmanship, Jomi Eisuke has never been surpassed. Entry: A