Treasure finds: Bronze bells and magical mirrors

Why were there so many bronze bells?

Bronze bells are calleddotakuin Japanese. At present over 430 bells have been discovered, mainly from the Kinki Region, of which about 40 were found in Tokushima Prefecture and 39 were found at one site alone atKamoiwakura, in Shimane prefecture (the largest number ever found). The Kamoiwakura bells were decorated with pictures of deer and dragonflies. They are thought to have been used in rites for worshipping the god that makes rice grow.

The Korean-type small-sized bell from the Korean continent probably inspired the typicaldotakuwith the characteristic shape found in Yayoi Japan. Small horse bells calledbatakuusually not longer than 10 cm, were discovered at Kasuga city (three) in Fukuoka prefecture, a site at Usa city (one) Oita prefecture. They are thought to have been imported from Korea.

Early bells were hung and jingled. Then their use was changed into bells that were no longer rung. As they got larger and larger and were sometimes more ornately decorated. They were likely used for public display, it is thought, during rice farming festivals in the Yayoi Period.

Many hoards of the bronze bells were buried under the ground. 14 bells of different sizes, along with seven halberds were found on a forested ridge at Sakuragaoka-cho above the city of Kobe.

While one theory has it that the bells may have been buried during emergencies such as during hostile attacks, since the bells are usually found isolated on hill terraces above fertile fields, they were most likely buried in some ritual ceremony to ensure a good harvest.

Thedotakumysteriously disappeared fairly suddenly … coinciding with the next era when people started to construct kofun.

Magical Mirrors

The Yayoi people began to import bronze mirrors from China from the Middle Yayoi period.

Collection of Kawasaki City Museum

Two bronze mirrors were discovered inside a wooden casket from the Hananotani burial mound in the Fukui region of Japan. One of them made in the latter half of the 1st century B.C. was 9.6 cm in diameter and was decorated with patterns associated with rulers of Yayoi Japan. The second made during a later period was 22 cm in diameter bearing images of Chinese mythical beasts. Similar mirrors have been found at the Kurozuka mound in Nara and at Ishizuka mound in Fukuoka prefecture.

The Chinese style mirror calledShinjukyo(“deity and beast mirror”) is decorated with deities and animals fro m Chinese mythology. They were frequently produced in China during the Han dynasty and during the 1st -6th centuries, but were also produced in the Lelang Chinese colony in Korea as well as in Japan. From the Records of Wei, the first historical reference to bronze mirrors is made that the Emperor presents to Queen Himiko of Wa “one hundred bronze mirrors” among other gifts. A well-known tomb from the Yoshinogari site in Saga Prefecture contained 33shinjukyobronze mirrors.

Bronze mirrors, like bronze bells may have been worn around the neck during religious ceremonies to reflect the sun’s rays and to indicate the wearer’s high status. To learn more about the origin and types of Japanese and other bronze mirrors in East Asia, clickhere.

Bronze weapons

Bronze swords with broad blades, iron and bronze tools and weapons were a huge improvement over the obsidian or bone implements previously used. Metal was more durable and the sharp edges produced for weapons and tools made cutting tasks easier. This meant people could clear their land and reap their harvests more efficiently.

Origin of bronze

Yayoi Japan imported bronze from Korea from the end of the Early Yayoi period to the beginning of the Middle Yayoi period. Korean bronze products consisted of swords, spearheads, halberds, mirrors and small bells.

模具从早期弥生时代已经被挖掘n Japan from Souza and Yoshinogari sites (in Saga prefecture), evidence that bronze tools were cast in Japan soon after imported bronze products began to arrive in Japan.

By middle Yayoi period, the Yayoi people were mostly making bronze tools and objects themselves. Moulds, mostly made of stone, from more than 60 sites have been recovered, and furnaces, moulds and bellow tuyeres were unearthed from pit-dwellings at the Yasunagata site. Large bronze bells were cast in major workshops in Yayoi Japan and then distributed over large areas – archaeologists have found bells cast from moulds at Higashinara (Osaka prefecture) but which have turned up further a field in Gahaishiyama (Kawagawa prefecture), Sakurazuka (osaka prefecture) and Kehi (Hyogo prefecture).

Lead isotope analysis gives scientists a very precise idea of where metal comes from, because the product can be matched to specimens in the mines. Experts have been able to know the following:

• Korean imported bronze weapons and mirrors came from present-day mines in Korea;
• Chinese imported mirrors used bronze material from northern China.
• The earliest bronze bells made in Japan used materials of Korean origin. Thereafter, bronze bells were cast locally using raw materials in the form of lead ingots from northern China to supplement recycled bronze material. Out of 53 made in Japan mirrors, two of the oldest bells were found to be made of recycled Korean bronze, 33 were made of Chinese bronze from the Former Han period and 18 were made of bronze from the Later Han period.

其他商品,被认为是著名的the Yayoi and therefore sought after and hoarded as status symbols were bronze weapons such as bronze swords, halberds, daggers and spearheads.

Yayoi bronze relics are concentrated in two regions: bronze weapons in north Kyushu and as far as the middle Inland Sea: and bronze bells in the eastern Inland Sea and as far east as the southern Tokai. The bronze objects overlap in the Inland Sea where both types of bronze objects can be found … indicating this was where the Tsukushi tribes of the south and the Kinki tribes of the east clashed.

Genetic affinities, although now remote, through population drift, suggest it might worth our while to examine possible common practices of bronze usage due to common ancestral lineages in ancient times. The population in Yunnan, like the population in Japan, share predominantly Y-DNA haplogroups D (with YAP+alleles) as well as O3 … suggesting they may have split from the same ancestral population in ancient times, possibly from the Di-Qiang tribe(seemtDNA polymorphisms in Yunnan nationalities in China), moving southwestward to Yunnan and northeastward to Japan respectively. Furthermore, that the original ancestors of the Yunnanese lineages that made the bells, may have come from a more northerly direction and Altaic source is plausible given that researchers believe “In the SEAS, there are 14 Tibeto-Burman–speaking populations with a recorded history of migration from northern China ∼3,000 years ago (Wang1994）.The three Altai-speaking populations in Yunnan (southwestern China) were recent immigrants from northern China, <1,000 years ago (Wang1994）.Source:Y-chromosome evidence of southern origin of the East-Asian specific haplogroup O3-M122)

Yunnan contains some of China’s richest deposits of copper, lead, and tin, and early phases of bronze metallurgy technology. By the mid-first millennium BC, however, the technology of bronze production had reached a very high level of sophistication, and bronzes played a crucial military, ritual, and social role in Dian society. It appears that a close, symbiotic relationship existed between Dian metallurgical craftsmen and their elite patrons. Present evidence suggests that possession of bronzes, and the control over the means to produce them, invested the Dian elite with the ability to acquire and maintain power and control over their own people and many of their neighbors. Among the Dian society, political and ritual developments brought about the rapid specialization of the metallurgical craft. Under the patronage of the Dian elite, metalworkers developed complicated methods of casting and joinery techniques to produce vibrant and detailed depictions of scenes of warfare, ritual, and other aspects of Dian life. Bronze uses of Yayoi bronzes appear to parallel Dian’s (see Robert E. Murowchick’s青铜公关的政治和宗教仪式的意义oduction and Use in Ancient Yunnan）.armo羌族保留庆典仪式”r” dance with weapons, and their women dancers still carry bronze bells that are sounded in time and rhythm to the male dancers’ drums. This folk dance is performed during the Qiang’s Zhuanshan Festival, when sorcerers call on the gods through a ceremonial drum dance. After the religious ceremony, people dance gaily to the sound of flutes, drums, and bells. Pieces of dough in the shape of the sun and half-moon are hung as offerings from an ox’s horns. Qiang women’s clothing items such as the collar, cuffs, sash, and shoes are often cross-stitched with circles, triangles, which are similar to that visible on some terracotta haniwa women’s clothing. For comparison, we take a look at how bronze and bronze bells were used in central China, particularly in Yunnan. Japanese bronze bells were almost certainly used in ritual or festive contexts, much like the context shown in the ancient mural below of tribal festivity in Yunnan, China.