Honjo | Suzu

Her retirement marked the end of a significant chapter in the industry, as she was considered a defining actress of the late 2010s and early 2020s. She is credited with maintaining a high standard of performance and professionalism throughout her five-year career.

Japan’s summer aesthetic is incomplete without the furin —a small glass or metal bell whose clapper strikes the inner wall, producing a sound believed to cool the body psychosomatically. Among metal furin, the occupies a legendary status. Produced primarily in the Honjo ward of Edo (modern-day Sumida and Taitō wards), these bells were not merely decorative but functional spiritual tools. The name later gained notoriety outside craft circles due to its adoption by a 21st-century adult film actress, sparking debates about cultural appropriation, trademark erosion, and the preservation of intangible heritage. This paper argues that understanding Honjo suzu requires separating the artisan object from the celebrity persona while acknowledging how modern media resurrects or obscures historical terms. honjo suzu

The Honjo Suizao has had a complex ownership history, with the screens changing hands multiple times throughout the centuries. During the 19th century, the screens were part of a collection owned by the Meiji Emperor, but they were eventually confiscated by the Japanese government in 1895, after a series of controversies surrounding their ownership and provenance. In the early 20th century, the screens were transferred to the Tokyo National Museum, where they remain to this day. Her retirement marked the end of a significant

Honjo was a bustling shitamachi (low city) district, home to merchants, artisans, and fire brigades. During the Kyōhō era (1716–1736), foundries in Honjo began specializing in small bronze bells. Unlike the more common glass furin (imported from Nagasaki via Dutch traders), Honjo suzu were cast using a proprietary alloy of copper, tin, and trace amounts of silver, giving them a sustained, crystalline ring that decayed slowly—a property described in period texts as nokoru hibiki (lingering echo). Among metal furin, the occupies a legendary status

After 1868, rapid Westernization led to a decline in traditional foundry arts. The Great Kantō Earthquake (1923) destroyed most remaining Honjo workshops, and by 1945, the bombing of Tokyo obliterated virtually all pre-Meiji Honjo suzu. As of 2023, only seven authenticated Edo-period Honjo suzu exist in museum collections worldwide (three in Tokyo, two in Kyoto, one in London’s V&A, and one in Boston’s MFA).