A spiked temple bell & a rockin temple bell
An oddly-shaped bell at a temple in Nagoya:
The bell was designed some 45 years ago by famous Showa period artist Taro Okamoto. The spikes coming out of the bell are meant to represent human hands launching into space.
If you want to see this bell, here’s a map showing the location of the temple:
View Larger Map
While we’re on the topic of unique temple bells, here’s a clip of a bell at a temple in the town of Shinano, Nagano prefecture:
The bell is actually a rock. The temple used to have a real metal bell, but it was taken and melted down by the government in 1942 because of wartime material shortages. During the war, a rock was hung in place of the bell. The owners of the temple have decided not to replace it with a real bell, as they now consider the rock to be a sort of memorial. When there are no more wars in the world, the temple will remove the rock and put a new bell in its place.
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It looks like some kind of phallic symbol or giant sex aid.
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Okamoto Taro wrote many good books especially encouraging for the young generation of that era . One of his core interest was ancient Jomon period and his attempt to relate it to modern Japan. This bell must be one of his ambitious attempts.
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How interesting. Thanks for that info.
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They’ll have to find a replacement rock before they ever have to find a metal bell.
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