Abstract
Abstract
In the study of pendant-bearing gold earrings, it has not been possible thus far to trace the origins of the technology, nor the changes over time in the techniques of manufacture, due to the variety found in the decorative links on the chains, and to other differences in decoration between individual examples. For this reason, nearly all pendant-bearing earrings have been regarded by some as imports, or in reverse fashion, based on their relations to gilt bronze items such as visored helmets, belt ornaments, crowns, etc., nearly all of these items have been seen by others as domestic products.
The present contribution clarifies the existence of two types of link chain used in early examples of these earrings, indicating a difference in the tools used for their manufacture. A chronological difference is observed between these two types, with a transition ascertained from Type A to Type B. Further, types are specified for the pendants suspended from these chains, and a change is demonstrated from smaller to larger types of leaf-shaped pendants in conjunction with the transition from one type of link chain to the other.
Further, in the manufacture of both the smaller and larger leaf-shaped pendants, the use of a single pattern is posited, with changes executed in the decoration of the pendant and the type of decorative links used to join it with the chain, in order to make each pendant-bearing earring appear to be a uniquely decorated item. From this use of a single pattern, a single line of artisans and workshops is presumed, and it is felt that the earliest domestic production of these earrings was conducted by this artisanal line in concentrated fashion, rather than being carried out in various regions. Moreover, from the productive techniques used for the link chain and from the shape of the ornamental pendant, this line can be traced to the area lying west of the Naktong-gang river on the Korean peninsula. But from the differences in length of the chain, and from the smooth transition from smaller to larger leaf-shaped pendants, it is thought that these items were made in Japan by a line of immigrant artisans who came from that region, rather than being made there and exported to Japan.
It is also thought, based among other factors on the distribution of the earliest examples of pendant-bearing earrings, that these items were produced in workshops maintained by the central polity in the Kinai region, and bestowed upon chiefs and locally powerful persons in the various regions.
