Bronze bell from a Shintō shrine
Japan
Edo period, dated in
accordance with AD 1652
The bell is inscribed with the name of the Hakujo Daimyōjin in Tajima Province ( present day Hyōgo Prefecture), the Shintō shrine to which it was dedicated, the name of the donor, Taira Ason Muneyoshi, and the shrine official Sekisama Daiyū. The bronze founders names, Izumi Saburō Saemon Fujiwara Kunitsugu and Endo Sōzaemon Fujiwara Masatsugu are also recorded.
Although the dedication is to a Shintō shrine, the bell would have been used in the Jinguji (shrine temple) which controlled each shrine during the Edo period (1600-1868)
This bell is almost identical in shape and decoration and in the form of the opposed dragons on the suspension loop to one in the Takuzutama shrine in the same province, made during the Kamakura period ( 1185-1333).
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