Saddle with design of carp ascending a waterfall

This saddle was owned by Tachibana Sadayoshi, the 5th lord of the Yanagawa domain. It is typical of the umiari suikan type of saddle, which is slimmer than the saddles for military use and has a pommel with a raised surface on its front and back. It is made of wood, using oak for the pommels and silk tree wood for the seat. The dynamic scene of a carp swimming up a waterfall is depicted with maki-e (sprinkled gold and silver powder) in an ingenious composition on the narrow raised pommels. It represents a metaphor for achievement and advancement in life, and derives from a Chinese legend about a carp, which succeeded in leaping a waterfall called Ryumon in the rapid stream of the Yellow River, and was transformed into a dragon.
This picture is said to have been taken from a drawing of Kano Tan-yu, one of the most well-regarded Japanese painters.