Bowl with Lid

  • Kogagun, Shiga pref.
  • Kamakura period
  • 13c
  • Gilt bronze
  • H-20 D-25
Catalogue Entry

Kamakura period, 13th century
Gilt bronze
Height, 20.0cm; mouth diameter, 25.0cm

This cast bronze bowl is covered completely with rust, and plate gold gilding can be confirmed beneath that rust. The lid has a gently rising curved shape with a large jewel-shaped knob attached to the top of the lid. The outer edge of the area around the knob is banded by a raised border, and the outer edge of the entire lid also has a raised band. The body is a gently swelling form that expands toward its mouth, with a low foot attached at its base, a protruding band near the top of this foot, and another protruding band near the mouth edge. The lid seats well into the mouth of the body, thanks to an inner-lid lip cast near the edge of the interior of the lid. After casting, the form of the body of the lid was finished on a wheel, and its large, thickly cast shape means that the overall form is quite heavy.

This shape of bowl was frequently used for food and drink offerings, and given that it is thought that this bowl was excavated, there is also the possibility that this covered bowl was placed in a tomb as an ossuary.
The low, rounded knob on the top of the lid and the form of the raised bands around both body and lid indicate a date of production in the latter half of the Kamakura period.
This bowl is said to have been excavated in Koga-gun, Shiga prefecture, but detailed information is not available. SS