Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

On the lower part of the front, in very flat incrustation of copper, is the reclining figure of Hotei (one of the Luck Gods), gazing and pointing up at the crescent moon (silver inlay); at his feet is a boy attendant, also in copper, with silver face and hands; Hotei's robe is richly inlaid with patterns in gold and silver; the back is plain except for the general surfacing of fine ishime (irregular pattern) adn the signature Jōi [Japanese text] and seal Nagaharu [Japanese text], which appear on the field, the seal being in gold wire inlay on a flush panel of gold-bordered copper.

This guard has been considerably knocked about and is obviously old; this, combined with the excellence of its style and the fact that Mr. F. V. Dickins stated that it was given to him by a daimiō to whom he had rendered a special service, encourages us to believe that we have here that very scarce commodity, a genuine Jōi guard. It was, at any rate, one of those selected by Mr. H. L. Joly for the Red Cross Loan Exhibition, London, 1916, and illustrated n the catalogue (Plate CXXXI, no. 605).