Yoshinogari Keitai-Guide
This bronze bell was excavated from the Yoshinogari ruins and restored. Bronze bells were one of the implements used in festivals in the Yayoi period, and many were found buried in the ground. It is interesting to note that the bronze bells were found on their own, not alongside houses or graves. At first they seemed to produce their sound in the manner of chimes, and a clapper was found hanging inside one of them to produce a sound. Thereafter, they gradually became bigger, and in the latter part of the era, the biggest one reached a size of 135 centimeters. The bigger bells were probably not meant just to be heard, but were used as implements to be seen at festivals. Bronze bells were centered in the Kinki region, stretched east to the Tokai region, and west to the Chugoku region. None had been excavated in the Kyushu region. The bronze bell from the Yoshinogari ruins is the first to have been unearthed there.
(C)YOSHINOGARIHISTORICAL PARK