Japanese Esoteric Buddhist Ritual Implement from the 19th-20th Century - Vajra (Single-Pronged). Inlaid with Two-Tone Drolong Beads (Length 14.9 cm)

Acquired from an overseas collector. The collector stated it is from the Edo period (1603-1867 AD, early 17th-19th century). This roughly corresponds to the late Ming Dynasty to mid-Qing Dynasty in Chinese imperial history. Vajras from the Edo period are generally 150-420 years old. However, based on my many years of experience with artifacts, I will conservatively estimate its age slightly lower, placing it in the early 19th-20th century. A religious artifact with a hundred years of history is a more appropriate description. Made of brass alloy. Hand-carved and finished. A special Vajrayana ritual implement with visible signs of age and use. Length: 14.9 cm. This is a larger-sized Vajra. Japanese Esoteric Buddhist ritual implements often feature four rings in the middle section of the Vajra. These four rings represent the four eyes of Vairocana Buddha, subduing all demonic obstacles... On this Vajra, two of the four rings have circular grooves. These grooves likely once held precious gems or sacred objects. However, they have been removed... The previous seller believed this Vajra, with its specially carved grooves for inlay, was very precious.... Thus, they set a very high price, equivalent to about NT$10,000. At that price, I was truly taken aback at the time... I couldn't bring myself to buy it... But in the end, I still brought it home... I searched for many minerals and gemstones, but none matched, or when paired, looked extremely unnatural... Then I found hundreds of Drolong beads for pairing... Ultimately, only two were found that could fit the inlay. One is made of a silver-tin alloy. The other is made of a copper alloy. The colors thus became two-toned. A combination of two types of sacred religious objects.... It must be very powerful! **************************** Currently, Vajra ritual implements being cast on the market, new and exquisite ones, have a market price of around NT$3,200-4,000. Mass-produced items from mainland China are even cheaper, costing around NT$600. Some new Vajra ritual implements are cast from molds made of over century-old ritual implements. The external appearance is not significantly different. Collectors new to Tibetan old ritual implements, without accumulated experience, find it difficult to discern the differences between new and old. Currently, most collectors in Taiwan focus on Tibetan old ritual implements. There are very few collectors of Japanese Esoteric Buddhist ritual implements, and the supply of old Japanese Esoteric Buddhist ritual implements is even rarer... Therefore, old Japanese Esoteric Buddhist ritual implements are difficult to promote in Taiwan.... ********************************** Regarding the energetic resonance of ritual implements, I do not have a sensitive constitution. Whether it's ancient Tibetan Phurba or Vajra ritual implements... or even Japanese Esoteric Buddhist single-prong, three-prong, or five-prong Vajras... I feel nothing. However, this year, while acquiring a large number of Tibetan Vajras, I also obtained a few Japanese Vajras. One evening, while handling a single-prong Vajra, I placed it under my pillow before sleeping. Unexpectedly, that night I dreamt of a fire puja ceremony, smelling the scent of pine resin burning. As I've often burned broken amber and beeswax prayer beads for friends in recent years to let them experience the scent of genuine beeswax and amber when burned... In the dream, I specifically focused on the smell... three times in a row... Thus, I confirmed in my dream that it was indeed the scent of burning pine resin or similar resins... When I woke up at dawn... in over 30 years... having touched countless ritual implements... I've always been dull and unresponsive... Yet, through this single-prong Vajra, I received a dream experience.... A fellow antique dealer from the south once said: The spiritual power of Japanese practitioners surpasses that of Tibetans. Do not underestimate Japanese ritual implements... On December 7, 2024, a Taoist brother who has long practiced spiritual meditation visited. He sensed the energy of several ritual implements I had. Whether they were old Tibetan (11th-18th century) or Japanese Vajras.... Upon holding them, he could not stop yawning, unable to stop, exclaiming how powerful the energy was... Then he looked at me with disbelief... asking if I felt nothing when touching these ritual implements??? After sensing them, he took photos to show his master. After I explained the age and acquisition price of each ritual implement... The next morning, he sheepishly requested me to part with three Japanese Esoteric Buddhist ritual implements (single-prong, three-prong, and five-prong Vajras) to him. Because the energetic resonance of Japanese ritual implements is almost as powerful as that of Tibetan ritual implements... But the price difference is enormous... Similar to the price difference between Tibetan Dzi beads and Central Asian beads... He likely calculated that he could afford Japanese ritual implements, given the price.... On December 19, 2024, he specially traveled north to see me and told me that the night he brought these Japanese ritual implements home, he placed two of them by his bedside table. That night, he dreamt of two divine dragons, one large and one small, appearing within the Vajras. He has practiced sensing energies for many years, and this time he was truly greatly surprised... ********************************** On December 18, 2024, I made an offering to Master Ugyen Rinpoche at the dharma center. I inquired if there were any practices in Tibetan Buddhism that utilize the three-prong Vajra. The Master said that only householder yogis engage in contemplation. It is purely a practice of visualization, imagining a three-prong Vajra in one's mouth... In reality, the ritual implement itself is not used. 16000-114.07.01