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Bell of Benkei (Benkei no kane 弁慶鐘) Keller, Matthew P.

Description

According to legend, this bell originally hung in an India monastery the Buddha visited. It came to be in the possession of the Dragon King who presented it to the temple of Miidera. In the late twelfth century, when Hieizan and Miidera were in conflict, the monk Benkei stole the bell from Miidera. However, whenever the bell was struck it sung out that it wished to return to its original temple. Benkei became angry with the bell and eventually returned it. Now it is said that the surface of the bell sweats whenever Miidera is in danger. A variant of this story can be found in WIlliam E. Griffis, Fairy Tales of Old Japan (London: Harrap & Co., 1911) 42-48.

Item Metadata

Title
Bell of Benkei (Benkei no kane 弁慶鐘)
Creator
Keller, Matthew P.
Contributor
From the Ground Up: Buddhism & East Asian Religions (FROGBEAR Project)
Date Issued
2017-06-02
Description
According to legend, this bell originally hung in an India monastery the Buddha visited. It came to be in the possession of the Dragon King who presented it to the temple of Miidera. In the late twelfth century, when Hieizan and Miidera were in conflict, the monk Benkei stole the bell from Miidera. However, whenever the bell was struck it sung out that it wished to return to its original temple. Benkei became angry with the bell and eventually returned it. Now it is said that the surface of the bell sweats whenever Miidera is in danger. A variant of this story can be found in WIlliam E. Griffis, Fairy Tales of Old Japan (London: Harrap & Co., 1911) 42-48.
Subject
Miidera; Benkei
Geographic Location
Ōtsu-shi (Japan); 35.013; 135.852
Type
Still Image
Language
jpn
Notes
Author Affiliation: University of Southern California
Series
Cluster 2.2: "Secondary" Producers, "Primary" Roles
Date Available
2018-01-22
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0363119
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/64441
Affiliation
Non UBC
Peer Review Status
Unreviewed
Scholarly Level
Graduate
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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Rights

Attribution 4.0 International