Cleveland Museum of Art
Five-pronged Vajra Bell (Gokorei)
- Date
- early 1300s
- Medium
- gilt bronze
- Culture
- Japan, Kamakura period (1185–1333)
- Department
- Japanese Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
The five prongs of this bell symbolize the Buddhist “Five Perfections”—generosity, morality, patience, perseverance, and concentration. The mouth of the bell symbolizes the “Sixth Perfection” of wisdom. The bell was used in Japanese Esoteric Buddhist rituals along with vajra pestles, or kongōsho. Vajras are symbolic weapons, representing the properties of a diamond (indestructibility) and a thunderbolt (irresistible force), still used in Buddhist ceremonies today.
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