Sharin-seki

4th-century sharin-seki, carved from green tuff (21.6 by 19.4 by 2.9 centimetres (8.5 in × 7.6 in × 1.1 in))
(Metropolitan Museum of Art)[1][2]

Sharin-seki (車輪石), sometimes translated literally as "carriage-wheel stones"[2] or alternatively as "wheel-shaped stones",[3] are a type of archaeological artefact known from early- to mid-Kofun period Japan.

Overview

Sharin-seki take the form of a stone bracelet[3] with radial fluting.[1] They have been known as such since the Edo period,[4] due to their resemblance to a spoked wheel.[5] Their development has been traced back to the shell bracelets and/or armlets that originated in the Yayoi period,[6][7] those of the Strombidae family from the seas to the south, around Amami Ōshima and the Ryūkyūs beyond, being particularly prized.[8] Often made of jasper,[7] they imitate shells such as those of Scutellastra optima, a limpet in the Patellidae family.[9] Like shell "bracelets", bracelet-shaped stones may have been worn instead as pendants,[7] although it is also possible these talismanic[1] objects served primarily as grave goods.[10] Similarities with Chinese jade bi may suggest continental influence, with glass bi known from northern Kyūshū.[7]

Alongside kuwagata-ishi ("hoe-shaped stones") and ishi-kushiro [Wikidata] ("stone bracelets"), sharin-seki are one of the three types of bracelet-shaped stone artefact known in large numbers from kofun of the early- to mid-Kofun period.[6] Associating these objects with priests involved in kami-worship, archaeologist Shiraishi Taichirō [ja] suggests that, in burials where large numbers are found, where accompanied with little in the way of weapons and armour, these relate to "magical-religious" leaders, likely women, whereas where found alongside weaponry and armour in significant quantities, we are dealing with chieftains with "priest-like power".[6] Their absence from later burials may relate to the increasing cultural influence of contemporary China and the arrival of Buddhism.[1]

National Treasures

A series of nineteen fourth-century jasper sharin-seki from Tōdaijiyama Kofun [ja] in Tenri, Nara Prefecture, is among the assemblage of objects (including the Tōdaijiyama Sword) from the tumulus designated a National Treasure in 2017 and now at Tokyo National Museum.[11][12]

See also

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References

  1. ^ a b c d "Carriage-wheel stone bracelet (sharinseki)". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  2. ^ a b Mizoguchi, Kōji (2013). The Archaeology of Japan: From the Earliest Rice Farming Villages to the Rise of the State. Cambridge University Press. p. cover. ISBN 978-0-521-88490-7.
  3. ^ a b "kushiro 釧". Japanese Architecture and Art Net Users System. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  4. ^ 車輪石 [Sharin-seki] (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  5. ^ 腕輪形石製品 [Bracelet-shaped Stone Artefacts] (in Japanese). Kobe Archeology Center [ja]. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  6. ^ a b c Shiraishi, Taichirō [in Japanese] (31 October 2003). 考古学からみた聖俗二重首長制 [An Archaeological View of the Dual System of Religious and Secular Chieftainship]. Bulletin of the National Museum of Japanese History (in Japanese). 108: 93–118.
  7. ^ a b c d Harada, Yoshito [in Japanese]. "Sharin-seki and Kuwagata-ishi" (PDF). University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo. pp. 6–7. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  8. ^ 鍬形石 [Kuwagata-ishi] (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  9. ^ 車輪石 [Sharin-seki] (in Japanese). Kyushu National Museum. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  10. ^ 車輪石 [Sharin-seki] (in Japanese). Kokugakuin University. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  11. ^ 車輪石 [Wheel-shaped jasper] (in Japanese). National Institutes for Cultural Heritage. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  12. ^ 奈良県東大寺山古墳出土品 [Excavated Artefacts from Tōdaijiyama Kofun, Nara Prefecture] (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  13. ^ Pilsbry, Henry Augustus (1927). "Patella stellæformis optima n. subsp". The Nautilus. 40 (4): 138–9.

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