Yin-Yang Bars

Between 1993 and 2000, the Japanese company Ishifuku manufactured these pairs of cast gold bars in a special shape, that of the yin-yang symbol. Two of these bars, each weighing 300 grams, are held in the Goldkammer’s Rothschild Collection. The Taoist concept of yin and yang describes the harmony of opposites. The earliest evidence of the symbol’s use can be found on oracle bones dating from the sixteenth to the eleventh centuries BCE, on which it means “shady place,” on one hand, and “sunny hill,” on the other hand. Today, yin and yang are most frequently encountered in the form of the taijitu, in which the black yin (dark, soft, cold, female, passive, rest) stands in opposition to the white yang (light, hard, hot, male, active, movement).

Weight 600 grams

Text © Goldkammer