PROBABLY ASUKA PERIOD (7TH CENTURY)

According to a copy of handwritten note dated 1874, this bell is from Asuka period and a similar bell is known to exist in the collection of Horyuji Temple, Nara. For the similar bells in the collection of Horyuji Temple, see Catalogue of Art Treasures of Ten Great Temples of Nara, volume eleven - The Horyuji Temple Part XI (Tokyo: Otsuka Kogeisha, 1933), pl. 22.