Buddhist Ritual Bell with Five-Pronged Vajra Handle (Gokorei)

This gilt copper five-pronged vajra bell has a unique construction with sixteen faceted planes (kiriko) incorporating kimoku (circles that represent Buddha's heart) forming the upper and lower center of the grip.
Goshōrai mokuroku (List of Sacred Objects Brought to Japan) mentions items the founder of the esoteric Shingon Buddhist sect, Kūkai (774–835, posthumously known as Kōbō Daishi), brought back when he returned to Japan in 806, noting numerous sutras, mandalas, portraits of previous masters, and ritual manuals, as well as the existence of esoteric Buddhist ritual implements made by the Chinese casting masters Yang Zhongxin (n.d.) and Zhao Wu (n.d.). One set of implements passed down at Tō-ji temple in Kyoto as having been brought by Kūkai consists of a five-pronged vajra, a five-pronged vajra bell, and their kongōban tray. These are among the esoteric implements used even today in the Latter Seven-Day rite (J. goshichinichi no mishiho) that takes place the second week of the New Year. In later centuries, the ritual utensils that Kūkai brought back were used as models for the production of similar pieces known as “Kūkai’s Imported Esoteric Buddhist Implements.”
That this vajra bell was influenced in some way by Kūkai’s implements is clear from the similarity between its faceted planes incorporating “kimoku” with the design of the five-pronged vajra brought by Kūkai. The Kūkai vajra bell, on the other hand, differs from this one in having large double concentric circles for “kimoku” and in having no cloud–shaped protrusions along the prongs. Even in China, although five–pronged vajras with “kimoku” in faceted planes have been discovered, so far there is no report of a five–pronged vajra bell of the same style.
Consequently, the piece raises the vital question as to whether it was made in Japan inspired by the five–pronged vajra among Kūkai’s imported implements, or whether originally a vajra bell with faceted planes incorporating “kimoku” actually existed among the implements Kūkai brought back.