Kofun Period Japanese Gold-Sheathed Copper Earring (Jikan)

East Asia, Japan, Kofun period. An earring formed as a gently oval hoop, very nearly closed, its two flat-cut terminals stopping just short of each other. A solid core of leaded copper is sheathed in hammered high-karat gold, tested at about 90.7 percent purity (roughly 21.8 karat). The rod is round in section and thick for its size, so the ring feels weighty and compact in the hand. Its buttery surface is soft and evenly worn, and the open terminals show the copper heart beneath the gold skin. Penannular rings like this one were made during the age of great earthen burial mounds that gives the Kofun period its name. They were likely worn in life before going into the tomb with their owners. Whether the narrow gap clipped onto the lobe or passed through a piercing is still debated. Japanese archaeologists call these ornaments jikan. They are among the most common goods placed in Kofun burials, so common that no complete count exists. They spread in the 6th and 7th centuries, when clusters of chambered tombs let a wider circle of local elites be buried in finery, perhaps men and women alike. Gold stayed scarce and imported throughout the period. The technique of covering base metal in gold reached the archipelago from the Korean peninsula around the 5th century, and Japan did not mine its own gold until the famous find in Mutsu Province in 749. Gold over copper was less a shortcut than a refined answer to that scarcity. A related Kofun period earring resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (12.37.18). Item # 205730

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