Sharin-seki

Sharin-seki take the form of a stone bracelet^[3] with radial fluting.^[1] They have been known as such since the Edo period,^[4] due to their resemblance to a spoked wheel.^[5] Their development has been traced back to the shell bracelets and/or armlets that originated in the Yayoi period,^[6][7] those of the Strombidae family from the seas to the south, around Amami Ōshima and the Ryūkyūs beyond, being particularly prized.^[8] Often made of jasper,^[7] they imitate shells such as those of Scutellastra optima, a limpet in the Patellidae family.^[9] Like shell "bracelets", bracelet-shaped stones may have been worn instead as pendants,^[7] although it is also possible these talismanic^[1] objects served primarily as grave goods.^[10] Similarities with Chinese jade bi may suggest continental influence, with glass bi known from northern Kyūshū.^[7]

Alongside kuwagata-ishi ("hoe-shaped stones") and ishi-kushiro [Wikidata] ("stone bracelets"), sharin-seki are one of the three types of bracelet-shaped stone artefact known in large numbers from kofun of the early- to mid-Kofun period.^[6] Associating these objects with priests involved in kami-worship, archaeologist Shiraishi Taichirō [ja] suggests that, in burials where large numbers are found, where accompanied with little in the way of weapons and armour, these relate to "magical-religious" leaders, likely women, whereas where found alongside weaponry and armour in significant quantities, we are dealing with chieftains with "priest-like power".^[6] Their absence from later burials may relate to the increasing cultural influence of contemporary China and the arrival of Buddhism.^[1]

A series of nineteen fourth-century jasper sharin-seki from Tōdaijiyama Kofun [ja] in Tenri, Nara Prefecture, is among the assemblage of objects (including the Tōdaijiyama Sword) from the tumulus designated a National Treasure in 2017 and now at Tokyo National Museum.^[11][12]

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  Shell bracelets from Denzayama Kofun [ja], Kumamoto Prefecture
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  Shell bracelets from Shōrinzan Kofun [ja], Shizuoka Prefecture
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  Scutellastra optima (Pilsbry, 1927), type locality: Yakushima^[13](Naturalis Biodiversity Center)
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  Han jade bi (Shanxi Museum)
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  Sharin-seki (NT) from Tōdaijiyama Kofun [ja], Nara Prefecture
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  Kuwagata-ishi, sharin-seki, and ishi-kushiro from Kajiya Kofun [ja], Kyoto Prefecture
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  c. 4th-century radially-grooved ishi-kushiro
  (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
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  Bronze kushiro from Shibagahara Kofun, Kyoto Prefecture
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  Back of the 4th-century sharin-seki above (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sharin-seki.

• List of National Treasures of Japan (archaeological materials)
• Kofun system