National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

Sets of metal bowls of this type were used in the imperial court as tableware or in temples as religious instruments. This one consists of eight nested bowls of the same shape differing slightly in size, made by casting an alloy of copper, tin and lead (called sahari or kyōdō). There are a variety of nested bowls also in the Shōsōin Treasures, including the set of ten nested bowls and others. The bodies of these pieces are deep and broad, connected to the foot gently without a clear border. The rim protrudes inwards slightly, while on the outer side there are engraved lines just under it. Such features are also seen in the bronze bowls excavated from the tumuli of the early seventh century. These pieces originally might not have been a set, as some of them are different from others in details such as thickness and the shape of the rim.