Bells used in Esoteric Buddhist rituals often had handles shaped like vajra (thunderbolt) ritual tools with five prongs. This one, however, is equipped with a handle that represents a pagoda formed of the five elements of the cosmos. Earth, at the base, is a square; water a sphere; fire a pyramid; wind a half-moon; and air, at the peak, a jewel.
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塔鈴・金剛盤
Title:Bell with Pagoda-Shaped Handle (Tōrei) and Three-Footed Stand (Kongōban)
Period:Kamakura period (1185–1333)
Date:13th century
Culture:Japan
Medium:Gilt bronze
Dimensions:H. 7 5/8 in. (19.4 cm); Diam. 3 1/8 in. (7.92 cm)
Classification:Metalwork
Credit Line:The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard, and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick, and Louis V. Bell Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and The Annenberg Fund Inc. Gift, 1975
Accession Number:1975.268.170
[ Harry G. C. Packard American, Tokyo, until 1975; donated and sold to MMA].
Katonah Museum of Art. "Object as Insight: Japanese Buddhist Art and Ritual," January 14, 1996–March 17, 1996.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Object as Insight: Japanese Buddhist Art and Ritual," April 19, 1996–June 30, 1996.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Enlightening Pursuits," February 28–August 5, 2001.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Birds, Flowers, and Buddhist Paradise Imagery in Japanese Art," February 14–June 13, 2004.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Mighty Kano School: Orthodoxy and Iconoclasm," December 18, 2004–June 5, 2005.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Animals, Birds, Insects, and Marine Life in Japanese Art," June 26–November 30, 2008.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Mandalas: Emanations and Avatars," June 18–November 30, 2009.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: The Mary Griggs Burke Collection," October 20, 2015–May 14, 2017.
New York. Asia Society Museum. "Kamakura: Realism and Spirituality in the Sculpture of Japan," February 9, 2016–May 8, 2016.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Anxiety and Hope in Japanese Art," April 8, 2023–July 14, 2024.
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The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world.
