1898.79.4

Collection type

Object

Description

Kite in form of bird with painted details. Framed.

Geographical reference

China

Asia > Eastern Asia > China

Japan

Asia > Eastern Asia > Japan

Person

Field collector John B. Rentiers of Nagasaki

Field collector Alfred Comyn Lyall

PRM source Edward Burnett Tylor

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1898

Date collected

By 1898

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1898, uncertain Purchased: 1899, uncertain Found unentered: 1987

Materials and processes

Material Bamboo Plant, Material Paper Plant, Material Metal, Process Painted

Dimensions

Depth: max 55 mm frame, Length: max 950 mm frame, Width: max 455 mm frame

Object numbers

Accession number: 1898.79.4

Research and responses

It is possible that this is one of the kites collected for E.B. Tylor by Leonard Arthur Lyall. There are two letters in the PRM manuscripts collection from Leonard Lyall, Customs House, Shanghai, to E.B. Tylor (Tylor ms., L5). In the first, dated 21 February 1898, Lyall reports that he is sending Tylor some Chinese kites: 'I am now sending you a few specimens of Chinese kites, which I hope will arrive safely + prove what you wished for. The only other common shape is a centipede, formed by a series of squares with a string running through them perpendicularly. These are too bulky to be easily sent.’ Tylor owes him 8 shillings for the kites. ‘It seems hardly worth remitting so small a sum, but as you ask I tell you the amount. Can I at any future time be of any service to you, I hope you will make use of me.' In the second letter, dated 6 May 1899, Lyall reports sending Tylor some fighting kites from Japan, which were acquired for Lyall by Mr Reutiers (there is a letter from Reutiers enclosed). It is clear from the letters that both sets of kites were specifically requested by Tylor. I cannot find the kites on the database, but it seems likely that Tylor passed them on to the PRM because there is a note amongst Balfour's uncatalogued manuscripts (HB's cabinet of loose notes, drawer marked 'games') stating ‘Two fighting kites from Nagasaki come through Mr Leonard Lyall Shanghai. EBT has the letter + will hand it over to the Pitt Rivers Museum when answered. Aug 19 99’. The location of the Japanese kites is unclear, but this kite may be one of the Chinese kites Lyall sent, since it was purchased in 1898 (see also 1898.79.1-.3 and 1898.79.5) (FL 11-11-05)

Note that there are several Indian kites given by Alfred Lyall, maybe these kites were in fact from him? [AP 05/04/2013]

However these objects are then said by Lyall to be from Japan so may not be from him at all:

Lyall L5

Shanghai

Custom House

21. Feb 98

Dear Dr Tylor

You must not think that because I have not answered it I was not much pleased to receive your letter of last February, with the pamphlet on games. But I could not find out anything about the game & I should imagine that your correspondence is too large for you to appreciate letters about nothing. I am now sending you a few specimens of Chinese kites, which I hope will arrive safely & prove what you wished for. The only other common shape is a centipede, formed of a series of squares with a string running through them perpendicularly. These are too bulky to be easily sent.

The cost of the books was $1, that of the kites & packing $3 (I am afraid I was shockingly swindled over this purchase). So you owe me 8 shillings to which must be added the postage on the kites, which you can learn from the stamps. Should there by any Chinese stamps on the parcel they need not be counted.

It seems hardly worth remitting so small a sum, but as you ask I tell you the amount. Can I at any future time be of any service to you, I hope you will make use of me. With kind regards to Mrs Tylor

Believe me

Yours truly

L.A. Lyall

----------------

Lyall L6

Custom House

Shanghai

6 May '99

Dear Dr Tylor

I am at last sending you the kites you asked for. The delay has been caused by the fact that they can only be bought in the spring. I enclose B/L [?] but the P&O will send the boxes on to Oxford. The freight by rail you will have to pay.

Fighting kites are not used here, nor, as far as I know, any where else in China--fighting of any kind not being to the taste of the Chinese. I procured them from Japan, & hope they are what you want. I have not opened the box myself. I send your Rentiers letter on the subject [1]

I could not hear of any Kite flying being done in connection with Buddhism.

I also enclose a fu or charm. Which I think may interest you. It was placarded on all the doors of a village at Chinese New Year. & emanated from the temple named on it. I have not been able to collect much information about it; but L.C. Hopkins, whom you may know, tells me that the original may have been written by Chang T'ien Shih, the Taoist Pope. Who lives in Kiangu Anyhow the charms written by him are the most efficacious & can in all cases be relied on: whereas the efficacy of other men's charms depends on the writer's blood & chi'i [Chinese script] & mê [Chinese script] being in good condition! He gives me these words in Chinese & you will find better translators in Oxford than I can pretend to be. Both his writer & mine suggest that the charm is made up of the following characters written one on the top of the other [Chinese script] "to order the malign to return into the right way" Watters would, I think, be more likely to know about such matters than anyone else.

Yours sincerely

Leonard A. Lyall

Can I obtain anything else for you I shall be glad to do my best

[Note by Tylor: This letter is sent on by Leonard A. Lyall Custom House Shanghai]

H.M. Consulate

Nagasaki

March 20 99

Dear Lyall

I return herewith Dr Tylor's letter enclosed in yours of the 24th inst. and in accordance with your request I am sending you by the N.Y.K. "Our marn' [?] leaving today 2 fighting kites with 1/2th of twine each & 2 cutters, 1 of wire the other of string covered with glass dust. Both kinds are used, but [insert] to use [end insert] the wire is, apparently, playing it rather low down on one's adversary. The cutting string, or wire, is of course fastened immediately to the kite, & then the twine onto the cutter.

No special winders are used, a bit of board or handful of straw: but, in fighting, a wide box is, I am told, generally used, & the string coiled into it as drawn in. It can thus be more easily manipulated then by means of a winder. The outlay does not amount to much

Twine Yen 1

2 Kites .30

Glass string .15

box .75

--------

2 Yen 20 sen

Freight 1

----------------

3 yen 20 sen

The cutting string is sold by the 100 fathoms, nominally, the length being actually only about 12. Sometimes 4 or 5 times this length is used in large fighting kites, but I thought the ordinary length would be plenty for you, as it's only as a specimen & not for use. Same with the twine.

In sending this at Nagasaki you came to the right place, for Kite fighting is practised more here than anywhere in Japan. You came at the right time too, for on several days in the old 3rd month there are great contests [insert] on the hills around Nagasaki [end insert] after that kites are hardly to be bought till the following Spring

I enclose B/L [bill of lading] for the box

Yours truly

John B Rentiers [AP 04/04/2013]

Note that there are only 5 kites from China (that is, if they are those, from Lyall) the other kites are from India, presumably from another collector [AP 04/04/2013]

Search terms: Toy and Game, Figure, Kite, Bird Figure