Important Cultural PropertyRitual Mountaineering Axe

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  • 金銅蛭巻柄入峯斧
  • 1 piece
  • Axe: iron Handle: wood Handle wrapped with bronze strip
  • Overall H 179.8; L(axe) 28.0, W(axe) 25.5
  • Nanbokucho to Muromachi period/14th century
  • Nara National Museum
  • 659(工124)

 While a ritual mountaineering axe used to be a practical tool for Yamabushi who used it to cut the branches and clear the brush in their path, it later became formalized and was also used as a piece of ritual implement. This axe comprises a handle and a blade in a plectrum shape, where the width is shortened in the center. The blade has a heart-shaped openwork design in the center that is rimmed with bronze and the rear part, which has a three-petal shape, also has a similar openwork. The handle is made of wood wrapped in a bronze sheet in spirals. Since Yamabushi, practitioners of Shugendo, practice asceticism in rugged areas such as the sacred mountains across the country, they carry gear required for range hill and dale. This axe displays the powerfulness of a practical tool through its restrained decoration. This is believed to have been handed down to Jinshoji Temple in Shiga Prefecture.

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