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The ceremony for the first striking of the
Peace Bell took place on September 20, 1946,
upon comoletion of the bell. A world map
with no national boundaries sym-bolizing
"One World" is engraved on the
surface of the bell which is about 1meter
in biameter, 1.5-meters long and 1,200 kilograms
in weight. This is the work of masahiko Katori
who is known as master bell-maker. The wooden
bell hammer was made from a 90-year-old pine
tree contributed by Yachiyo-cho, Taakta County,
Hiroshima Prefecture. The concrete belfry
in the shape of a bome, expressing the universe,
with four pillars supporting the root, is
surrounded by a pond, 2-meters wide and 80-centimeters
beeo, in which the "Oga" iotus,
a yellow flowering lotus, is planted. This bell was built with offerings from all over Hiroshima Prefecture collected by a group led by Kengyo Nishimura, a Buddhist scholar. Visitors are encouraged to toll the bell freely. |
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