Images from The Beede Gallery

NMM 5561. Kin (bowl gong), Japan, ca. 1870. Hammered-bronze bowl gong. Red-lacquered wooden stand with bronze plaque fittings and blue cushion. Gongs such as this, with openings oriented upward, are played in tandem with the temple block, or mokugyo. Rim is struck with a wooden mallet wrapped in leather to punctuate Zen Buddhist temple music. In geza, the off-stage music of the kabuki theater tradition in Japan, the kin evokes temple scenes. Four feet tall. Purchase funds gift of Margaret Ann and Hubert Everist, Sioux City, Iowa, 1993.

Messages of good will are sometimes inscribed on the rims of Japanese bowl gongs.

Side View	Bottom View
Interior View	Close-up of Interior Hammer Marks

Outer Edge of Rim	Inner Edge of Rim

[Recent Acquisitions], The Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter, Vol. 21, No. 2 (January 1994), p. 5.

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