Illustrated Japanese Culture
風鈴
A fūrin is a wind chime. In the familiar bell-shaped version, a hanging strip catches the breeze and moves a clapper against the bell. Glass, iron, brass and porcelain examples belong to different local crafts.
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Wind moves the strip; the cord carries the movement to the clapper.
A common Japanese wind bell hangs with its opening downward. A clapper, called the zetsu, hangs inside; below it, a cord carries a narrow tanzaku strip. Wind moves the strip, which pulls the clapper into the bell. In Edo glass bells, the clapper is a slender glass tube.
The bell’s material, shape and thickness help determine its sound. The point of contact matters too: the uneven lower rim of an Edo glass bell produces variation as the clapper moves. Handmade bells of the same design can sound different. Their colour does not set the pitch.
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Cast-metal fūtaku hung from temple eaves long before glass household bells became common. A fragment from Kazusa Kokubunji is dated to the mid-eighth through mid-ninth century. It belonged to a bell with an internal striker and a windcatcher.
Medieval texts mention wind bells, including references from the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. Glassmaking accounts place the transfer of glass-bell techniques from Nagasaki toward Edo in the eighteenth century.
During the 1830s, Edo dealers sold glass wind bells and street vendors carried them for sale. Once costly objects, glass bells became more widely available during the later Edo period. A 1905 illustrated account of late-Edo life depicts a wind-bell seller carrying his stock on a pole.
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The maker first forms a small bubble, then adds glass for the bell’s body. A suspension hole is made while the glass is workable, and the body is blown to shape. After cooling, the small mouth bubble is removed, leaving the characteristic uneven opening.
Edo glass bells are decorated on the inner surface. Details must be laid down in the order that will look right through the glass: a goldfish’s eye, for example, goes on before the colour of its body. Red was once especially common; today the motifs are much broader.
The Shinohara workshop began in 1915. In the mid-twentieth century, Yoshiharu Shinohara adopted the name Edo fūrin for its glass bells. The technique is older than the name, and the bells continue to be blown and painted by hand.
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Nanbu iron wind bells are part of the region’s iron-casting craft. Each summer, bells hang at Mizusawa Station; their sound was selected for Japan’s “100 Soundscapes” list.
Takaoka makers cast brass bells and finish their surfaces by hand. Nousaku’s KORO-RIN model uses a walnut clapper inside a brass body. The striking piece and the bell need not be made of the same material.
Arita makers produce porcelain wind bells. Ninomiya Kanzan’s example shown here has blue spiral decoration. Its form and the way the clapper strikes it help determine the sound.
Himeji’s Myōchin hibashi chimes use suspended metal rods resembling fire chopsticks. The rods strike one another. They adapt a metalworking craft to a different mechanism from the shell-and-clapper design.
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Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine began its Enmusubi Fūrin event in 2014. Its summer display combines Edo glass bells with wooden wish tablets.
A breeze near an eave or window can set a bell moving; stands also allow indoor display. Bring delicate bells inside during strong wind or rain, and keep paper strips dry. Consider when and where the sound will carry to neighbours.
It catches wind and transfers movement through the cord to the clapper.
A slender glass tube.
Their form, thickness and contact points can differ.
Wind-sounded metal bells were hung from temple eaves centuries before the Edo glass trade.
It is freely blown without a mould; removing a small mouth bubble leaves an uneven lower opening.
The image is viewed through the glass, so details such as an eye must go down before the body colour behind them.
No. Myōchin hibashi chimes ring when suspended metal rods strike one another.
In 2014.
A suitable breeze, protection from rain and strong wind, and consideration for people who will hear it.