Shah Cheragh and The Dazzling Dome of Mirrors.Peering Through Time: Early Mirrors in Mesoamerica - Elite Item and Divination Tool.Theoretically, it’s not hard to imagine that they were lined up to project a number of images.” Sometimes, dozens of mirrors are found from the same burial mound. Shoji Morishita, an associate professor of archaeology at Otemae University, said, “The finding could lead to reconsideration of the role of mirrors in ancient rituals.

Experimenting with the replica of the artifact proved that those images could be projected. It was noted that images of wizards and mythical beasts had been engraved on the back of the object. Returning to the magic mirror, Murakami studied the properties of the original Himiko mirror by creating a 3D printer to produce a replica from materials used in the originals, such as copper and tin powder. Young Himiko receiving her oracle mirror. While the existence of Queen Himiko and her kingdom of Yamatai have mostly been accepted, the exact location of this site is still ambiguous today. Called ‘Records of the Three Kingdoms’ and compiled around 290 AD, this text is regarded as one of the most reliable of the Chinese dynastic histories. Queen Himiko is not actually mentioned in Japanese sources - her story is only known through a Chinese historical text written in the late third century. Modern mirrors used in shrines mimic the sacred bronze mirrors of old - but without the magic. Secrets of the Four Gold Rings from the Tomb of the Griffin Warrior Revealed.What Wondrous Sights Have Been Seen in the Brilliant Hall of Mirrors at Lavish Golestan Palace?.Was it Love or Witchcraft? The Magical Practices of Chinese Empress Chen Jiao.The gift may seem strange by today’s standards, but at the time mirrors were valued presents and were used to create or cement political alliances. The mirror was found in the Higashinomiya tomb in Aichi, Japan and has been associated with the queen because some of the other mirrors found in the tomb have the date 239 inscribed on them – the year a Chinese emperor supposedly presented 100 bronze mirrors to the Queen’s emissary. This magic mirror is called Himiko’s mirror because stories say it was owned by Himiko, a shaman queen who ruled the kingdom of Yamatai in the 3rd century AD.

The original mirror in Kyoto National Museum, thought to be that of Himiko.

I believe they have something to do with sun worship.” The mirror examined in the study belongs in the “sankakubuchi shinjukyo” (triangular-rimmed deity and beast mirror) category of mirrors. Ryu Murakami, head of the museum’s curatorial board, said “Someone apparently noticed the phenomenon and intentionally shaped mirrors in this way. In Japan, magic mirrors were believed to help their users to conjure up images of divine beasts or wizards. So-called ‘magic mirrors’ have a slight unevenness to their surface – something the naked eye cannot note – which creates patterns on the back as light reflects off of the front. An experiment conducted on a replica bronze mirror in Kyoto’s National Museum shows that the original may be an example of an actual magic mirror that has been linked to a mysterious Japanese shaman queen. Magic mirrors are not just objects found in fairy tales.

Japanese magic mirror