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)

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

Overview

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

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. 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". Their absence from later burials may relate to the increasing cultural influence of contemporary China and the arrival of Buddhism.

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.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Carriage-wheel stone bracelet (sharinseki)". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  2. 1 2 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. 1 2 "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. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 3 4 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.