Hello! It is the blog How Unique Japan, which always televises some Japanese uniqueness!
This time, I want to touch on the bell in the Japanese temples. The size is Gigantic. Please look at the picture below.
What are the bells?
Some of you might imagine the bell similar to a church. However, it is made of bronze and belongs to Buddhism, called Bonsyou.
The origin was from temples in India, the birthplace of the religion over 2500 years ago, working as a musical instrument (It was small). The ancient people believed such a percussion instrument would make a holy sound to purify bad things.
As Buddhism gradually became famous throughout Asian countries, Japan also imported the religion and bell. It was around 538 AC. (Nevertheless, it does not ensure whether Buddhism and the bell came simultaneously.) Do you think Buddhism is from Japan? No, It is not. Our original religion is Shinto.
In the next section, we can see how they work in Japan.
Its duty in Japan
Surprisingly, the purpose of ringing the bell has not changed a lot since it was born in India. It is to purify and tell the TIME, daily and seasonally.
After the religion settled in Japan, the bell acted as a time signal (around the Edo era 1603 – 1868).
In the era, there was a rule that a monk (of the temple) hit the bell every morning and evening. It is called Ake Mutsutsu (six times in the morning) and Kure Mutsutsu (six times in the evening).
The citizens measured the time passing with the sound. The time is around 6 am and 6 pm.
Moreover, we Japanese have a big event concerned with the bell. It is Zyoya – no – Kane (Kane means bell in Japanese.)
The event, Zyoya no Kane
That event is on the last day of each year, 31st December. Japanese usually go to the temples to pray for good luck, health, or success for the next year. We Japanese call the last day Oomisoka. At the same time, the monk has a significant duty to those visitors, called Zyoya no Kane.
It is to hit the bell to purify the soul/heart of customers. However, the hitting times are surprising. It would be ONE HUNDRED EIGHT TIMES!!
The numbers connect to the religion Buddhism. In the recture, humans have 108th bad/earthly desires. So, it is why the monk hit the bell with such huge numbers, purifying our soul to be like a white canvas and accept the new year.
Indeed. This event has a long history. In a historical theory, it already existed around the Kamakura era (1180 – 1336).
To close
They are the tips of the bell in temples. So, it is not yet. As you can imagine, there are enormous numbers of temples around Japan. Some of them have a different design. If you could visit Japanese temples, please focus on what the bells have on.
This blog also has a page about the Japanese lifestyle. If you are interested in more unique information, please visit the front page of my blog.
These are all for this topic – the temple bell in Japan. Thank you so much for reading this article!
SEE YOU FOR THE NEXT UNIQUENESS!