Recreational research into Feudal Japan
Resource: the Rijksmuseum
I recently discovered that the Rijksmuseum, the Dutch national museum, has their collection searchable online with freely-usable images. They’ve got some cool stuff. Here are some highlights, focused on Japanese heraldry.
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These details from “Arrival of a Portuguese ship”, c. 1600, show mon used on noren (fabric dividers). Of particular interest is the double bird mon that is reduced to a single bird on the smaller noren, showing a notable type of variation, and also the differences of background color between the large and small noren.
This box, from 1600-1650, shows wood sorrel and chrysanthemum mon with a “seven treasures” background pattern. The use of mother-of-pearl creates an interesting three-color effect, with two colors for the mon and one for the background.
These fabric fragments, from 1573–1591, 1575–1600, and 1644–1648, respectively, show how mon designs could be used in embroidery.
And finally, this heraldic helmet with enormous gold ears is from 1575–1600.
I’m definitely a fan of museums making their collections widely available like this, having used the online collection from the Met extensively for context in my O-umajirushi translation. Enjoy the collection!
Comments are closed.
September 28, 2016 - 1:27 am
You wanted to say “enormous gold rabbit ears”, but they are not of course those, so the mystery is what these shapes mean culturally.
September 28, 2016 - 10:07 am
Yes, “enormous gold ears” is not canonical. The Dutch description translates to “helmet in the shape of a court hat”, which I think describes the part excluding the “ears”. If I had to guess, I might expect that the “ears” represent rays of sun, because it’s similar to a subset of a sashimono that Stephen Turnbull calls “rays of sun”, but I don’t properly know.