The Miyao Company of Yokohama, under its founder Miyao Eisuke, was a prolific producer of medium to large-scale patinated and gilded bronze ornamental sculptures. These works often depicted characters from Japanese legend and mythology and as such appealed both to the Japanese market, where the subject matter would be clearly understood, and the Western market where the sheer exoticism of the subject matter together with fine workmanship would appeal.

This large bronze figure depicts the legend wherein Benkei, the faithful retainer to Yoshitsune, the handsome 12th century Minamoto warrior, stole the Miidera Temple Bell - even though the bell weighed nearly half a ton. This is an excellent example of late nineteenth century casting and as such displays superb technical skills including the patination and decoration of copper-alloy in the traditions established earlier by the many schools of Japanese makers of sword-fittings, although in Miyao's works the details are invariably surface gilded rather than inlaid.