Maruyama Mouns

The Yayoi Forest History Park

It is said that the bronze handbells, hanging from ropes, were used in festivals.

Wooden poles called zetsu were suspended inside the bells to make noise. The unearthed 24 bells have different sizes and patterns, indicating that over time they changed from percussion instruments to ornaments. The bells were used at thanksgiving festivals to the gods before and after a harvest. The ancient people of the Yayoi period, equipped with only crude instruments, prayed to the gods for a good harvest. The high-pitch sound of this bell, in an age when metals were very scarce, must have sounded very strange to the people of the Yayoi age. There are carvings of people plowing the fields with wooden pestles and old houses built on stilts etched on the metal surface. These etchings indicate that the bell was used to convey to the gods the wishes of the people. From the fact that the bells were found one on top of the other rather than in cemeteries, we infer that after playing their role the bells were buried in the common ground of the village. Many sets of bells were discovered from these holes.