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

Made of cast bronze, this small temple bell has two dragon heads on its upper handle biting down on the domed crown. A sacred jewel is placed in the center at the top. The domed crown is divided into an inner and outer section by a rounded, raised line. The main body is divided into upper, middle, and lower horizontal fields as well as vertical fields. The bell has the three standard areas: an upper one for bosses (chi no ma), a central area often adorned with inscriptions (ike no ma), and a lower area (kusa no ma), but bosses were not cast in this example. The bottom rim does not project outward. Two eight-petal lotus flowers where the bell would have been struck are set in perpendicular alignment with the upper handle. Their centers are high, positioned almost in the middle of the bell’s main body. The bell’s design is vertically elongated, reflecting an earlier style than those at Myōshinji Temple in Kyoto and Kanzeonji Temple in Fukuoka Prefecture. One of the inscriptions on the vertical fields reveals the bell was made in Taijian 7 (575) during the Chen dynasty. The work is a valuable example from China’s Six Dynasties period that likely served as a model for future temple bells in Japan.