REKIHAKU

No.121 A Witness to History

"The World of Dotaku"
(Ceremonial Bronze Bells)

left:A dotaku with a cord pattern made in six sections (kesadasuki-mon) produced with superb precision resulting in exact alignment.
Excavated in Ikoma, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture.
Height: 52.8 cm

right:A dotaku with a flowing water pattern that is thought to have been made in Kawachi plain and distributed widely.
Reportedly excavated from the bottom of Lake Biwa, Shiga Prefecture.
Height: 45.0 cm

Dotaku are ceremonial bells that date from the Yayoi Period. Their role was to generate sound and light to invite deities to a ceremonial site. The expensive raw materials from which they were made were obtained from overseas. Cast using sophisticated techniques, dotaku were the most valued festival accessory of all Yayoi Period craftwork. So far 470 dotaku have been discovered. An accurate estimate of the original number of dotaku would probably be over 2,000.

Unlike the recent discovery of 39 dotaku in Iwakura, Kamo-machi in Shimane Prefecture where they were dug up from the earth, some dotaku found in the past have circulated as ancient artworks whose sites of excavation remain unknown. The purchase of genuine dotaku by the National Museum of Japanese History has involved the selection of dotaku to form a basis for research and the fabrication of replicas. Here, we introduce several dotaku held in the museum's collection.

From bronze bells to dotaku In China, bronze bells made from pure copper appeared 3,900 years ago (at the end of Longshan Culture) and bronze products were disseminated 3,700 years ago (Xia Dynasty, Erlitou Culture). The world's oldest bronze bell is a small bell that is about 8 cm high and was tied to a person's hip. Then 3,500 years ago (Yin Dynasty), bells were attached to the necks of dogs and horses and horse-drawn carriages as well. Bronze bells were introduced to the Korean Peninsula during the 6th century BC. It would appear that celebrants tied bells to themselves to help the spirits of deities enter their bodies. In about the 4th century BC bronze bells were transported across the sea to Japan, where they appeared in the Kinki region as larger articles measuring 20 cm in height. Patterns were made on the handle as well as the body.

from the left: 2,400 years old. Site of excavation unknown. (replica) Height: 22.3 cm 2,400 years old. Excavated in Habsong-ri, Buyeo, Korea. (replica) Height: 15.9 cm 3,500 years old. Yin ruins, China. Height: 9.1 cm 3,700 years old. Erlitou, China. (replica) Height: 8.4 cm 3,900 years old. Taosi, China. (replica) Height: 2.6 cm

Long ago, dotaku were made using casts made from stone. The hardness and robustness of these stone casts meant that a number of dotaku could be made from a single cast. Settsu and Kawachi were centers of production in the Kinki region and it was from these centers that dotaku were distributed amid competition from groups throughout the country.

Dotaku had not been made in Japan very long before there was a change to using clay casts for their manufacture. Shapes and patterns were engraved while the clay was still moist and flexible, thus making it possible to produce even more exquisite dotaku. It was easy to make large dotaku measuring more than 50 cm in height using clay casts.

In China, bells like Japanese dotaku that are suspended by a handle and produce a noise by swinging a clapper inside are called "suzu (rei)", while bells that are held by a handle and rung by swinging the bell itself are called "taku". Consequently, it would be more correct to call Japanese dotaku "dorei" (bronze bells). In China, bronze bells were attached to people, dogs that led people, horses that pulled military wagons carrying people, and containers. By using metal to create sounds and light, their role was to ward off evil and to invite deities to protect people.

left:Method for using dotaku
The bell is hung by tying a cord to the handle and sound is produced when the rod suspended inside (clapper), which was made of bronze or stone, for example, comes into contact with the raised bands inside.

middle:This is the oldest example (replica) of a flowing water patterned dotaku that is the predecessor of dotaku reportedly excavated from the bottom of Lake Biwa.
Excavated in Shinjo, Shiga Prefecture. Height: 42.7 cm

right:A dotaku made from the same cast as the one reportedly excavated from the bottom of Lake Biwa. (replica)
Excavated in Hiroishi, Aichi Prefecture. Height: 46.0 cm

Japanese dotaku were large in size and were patterned from the very beginning. It is clear that these dotaku were rung from the traces of wear on the raised bands where the clappers struck. They were not accessories buried with the dead, as it was common for them to be buried on slopes in remote places. Dotaku were not associated with the human body, but were probably rung at festival sites to invite deities.

The main figures drawn on dotaku are those of deer, herons, cranes and people. Through the study of their habitats, ancient Japanese documents and examples of folk customs, we may conclude that deer represented spirits of the land, herons and cranes spirits of rice, and people their ancestors, whereby dotaku were ceremonial accessories used to invite the deities that were the most important for rice cultivation at that time, which were the spirits of the land, rice and ancestors.

left:Three boars, four deer. Drawings on the handle of the same dotaku as that shown on the right and lower right of this page.

right:The main figures drawn on this dotaku are deer, herons and people. This is a rare example of drawings of boar and deer on both sides of the handle. There are eight deer.

left:On this dotaku, thin lines are used to depict a fine pattern of horizontal and vertical bands and the overlaying of bold lines clearly represents bondage. Site of excavation unknown.
Height: 39.5 cm

right:Dotaku with drawings of boar and deer on the handle. (Site of excavation unknown.)
Height: 31.9 cm

Dotaku, which are representative of bronze items from the Kinki and Tokai regions, later became larger in size. However, the narrower raised bands inside Kinki dotaku and the absence of traces of wear tells us that dotaku of a more recent period were not rung. Dotaku were most likely symbols of the regional power of Kinki and Tokai. When the enlarging of dotaku reached its peak at the end of the 2nd century the production of dotaku suddenly ceased, at which point Japan entered the age of Himiko.

right:Although this dotaku is larger, it does not have raised bands inside. Dotaku from Hatada, Tokushima Prefecture. Height: 54.2 cm
left:A dotaku in the Kinki style that is even larger. Dotaku from Mukasa, Fukui Prefecture. Height: 66.8 cm

Hideji Harunari
(Archaeology Department, National Museum of Japanese History)