This charming dorei (土鈴) clay bell comes from Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku Shrine (銭洗弁財天宇賀福神社) in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, one of the city’s best-known shrines associated with prosperity, good fortune, and the purification of money.
Finished in a vivid auspicious red, the bell is decorated with a white rabbit (卯 / U) beneath a golden moon, together with pine motifs and delicate red-and-gold details. The character 卯 identifies the Rabbit of the Japanese zodiac, making this piece especially suitable as a New Year charm or a keepsake for someone born in the Year of the Rabbit. The braided red-and-white cord further reinforces its celebratory and lucky character.
Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku Shrine is especially famous for its spring water, where visitors traditionally wash coins and banknotes in the belief that money purified there will return multiplied. The shrine is dedicated to Ugafukujin and is closely associated with Benzaiten, the deity of fortune, prosperity, music, and flowing water.
As a zodiac animal, the rabbit is associated in Japan with gentleness, vitality, fertility, progress, and good fortune. Its familiar connection with the moon also appears here in the yellow lunar disc, creating a particularly poetic composition.
The reverse bears the shrine mark and inscription, confirming its origin as a regional devotional souvenir from Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku Shrine.
Size: 7 x 4 x 8cm
