Dora Gongs
Dora are small gongs used mainly in tea ceremony (chanoyu). The tea host rings a dora to signal participants that it is time to enter the tea room, and the deep, long-lasting reverberations are intended to set an appropriately meditative tone for the gathering. The gongs produce this resonant sound thanks to their constituent alloy— a precise mixture of copper, tin, lead, and silver called sahari.
Dora are cast by hand using a lost-wax technique. The artisan makes a new casting mold for each one, since the mold must be broken to extract the cooled metal inside. The artisan finishes the piece with polishing and sometimes hammering. The size and thickness of the gong, as well as any ornamentation, influence its pitch and timbre, and anticipating these effects requires expert skill. The completed dora is hung in a wooden frame called a dorakake.
The craft of making dora was designated an Important Intangible Cultural Heritage in 1955. Kanazawa native Uozumi Iraku III (1937–) became a Holder of Important Intangible Cultural Heritage for the dora-making technique in 2002. He learned the craft from his grandfather, Uozumi Iraku I (1886–1964), who had been designated a holder in 1955 for his skill in making dora.