Rafter finial in the shape of a dragon’s head and wind chime
This finial in the shape of a dragon’s head would originally have been attached to a corner rafter of a royal hall or a Buddhist temple building.The beast’s bulging eyes, flaring nostrils, and elaborate scales convey the fierceness and invincibility of this auspicious creature. The small holes at the sides of the neck were probably used to secure the heavy object to the roof. The bell, which functioned as a wind chime, once had a metal-plate clapper inside. The bell would have been suspended from the loop at the mouth of the dragon by a hook. The decorative panels on the lower halves of both faces of the bell feature a swastika (an ancient symbol associated with the Buddha) within a lotus-flower platform. A nearly identical set of a dragon’s head and wind chime, the only other comparable extant example, is in the collection of the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul.
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