Basket, hakego

Museum number:

9-22973

Permalink:

ark:/21549/hm21090022973

Alternate number:

Matatabi 2 (original number, Collector's number)

Accession number:

Acc.4789

Description:

A woven basket worn on the back.

Donor:

Dai Williams, Estate of Karin Nelson, and Karin Nelson

Collection place:

Tadami, Minamiaizu District, Fukushima Prefecture

Culture or time period:

Japanese

Maker or artist:

Toshie Meguro

Collector:

Dai Williams

Collection date:

October 5, 1997

Materials:

Bark (plant material) (weavers) and Linden (wood) (carrying cord)

Object type:

ethnography

Object class:

Baskets (containers)

Function:

1.2 Gathering

Accession date:

March 20, 2012

Department:

Asia (except western Russia)

Dimensions:

whole— thickness 0.85 centimeters, whole— depth 22 centimeters, whole— height 39 centimeters, whole— circumference 105 centimeters, whole— width 37 centimeters, whole— thickness 0.85 centimeters, whole— diameter 3 centimeters, whole— circumference 120 centimeters, and whole— weight 727 grams

Comment:

Worn on the back to collect wild mulberry leaves in the mountains, which were then fed to silkworms. Almost every farmhouse in this region raised silkworms until the end of World War II. Typically in other parts of Japan such baskets would have been made with bamboo, but in the mountains where bamboo does not grow well matatabi is substituted.

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