Kushiro

A bracelet. Shell bracelets have been used in Japan since the Jomon period, and are called shell bracelets. The word "kushi" has been used since the Yayoi period, especially for relics from the Kofun period. In the Yayoi period, there were glass bracelets and bronze bracelets. Bronze bracelets can be cast products that are modeled after the cross-section of a conch shell with a protrusion on one side, or simple shapes made by bending a thin copper plate, as seen in products excavated from the Toro ruins in Shizuoka City. It is known that stone bracelets were used from the early to middle Kofun period, and after that metal bracelets and bracelets with glass beads strung together by Haniwa figures were used. In Japan, there are many bronze products, but in the southern part of the Korean peninsula, there are many silver or gold bracelets, which are flat on the inside and decorated with bellows-like notches on the outside. However, there are also ancient tombs in Japan where gold and silver bracelets have been excavated, such as Niizawa Senzuka Tomb No. 126 in Nara Prefecture. Suzukushiro, a bronze bracelet with several small bells attached to the rim, is an original Japanese invention that saw the Japanese decorate the rims of mirrors and crowns with bells, and the small bells are cast with pebbles inside.

[Murai Takeo]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

腕輪のこと。日本では縄文時代から貝製の腕輪が用いられているが、これらは貝輪の名でよばれ、弥生(やよい)時代以降、とくに古墳時代の遺物について釧の語が使われている。弥生時代にはガラス釧や銅釧があり、銅釧は巻き貝を縦断した形をそのまま模して一方に突起がつけられた鋳造品と、静岡市登呂(とろ)遺跡出土品にみられるように薄い銅板を曲げた簡素な形とがある。古墳時代では前期から中期にかけては石釧が、それ以後は金属製の釧や、埴輪(はにわ)人物によってガラス玉などを連ねた釧なども用いられたことが知られている。日本では銅製品が多いが、朝鮮半島南部では銀製や金製の釧が多く、それらは内面は平らで、外側に蛇腹状の刻み目を飾っている。しかし日本でも奈良県新沢千塚(にいざわせんづか)126号墳のように金や銀の釧を出土した古墳もある。銅釧の周縁に数個の小鈴をつけた鈴釧(すずくしろ)は、鏡の縁や冠などにまで鈴を飾った日本人の独創であり、小鈴の中には小石を入れて鋳造してある。

［村井嵓雄］

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