Carapace of a crab, painted with a demon face and inscribed on the inside, with a loop of multi-stranded plant fibre at the top. [El.B 18/11/2013]

Collection type: Object
Description: Carapace of a crab, painted with a demon face and inscribed on the inside, with a loop of multi-stranded plant fibre at the top. [El.B 18/11/2013]
Geographical reference: Japan
Asia > Eastern Asia > Japan; Honshū Kansai Kyoto
Cultural groups: Japanese
Person: Field collector Walter Leo Hildburgh; PRM source Wellcome Institute; PRM source Wellcome Historical Medical Museum
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1916
Date collected: by 1916
Acquisition information: Loaned: 1985
Materials and processes: Material Crustacean-Shell Animal, Material Pigment, Material Plant Fibre, Process Painted, Process Inscribed
Dimensions: Width: max 120 mm, Length: max 135 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1985.53.649 Other numbers: R 13088/ 1936 07 12
Research and responses: The inscription on this object was transcribed and translated by Fusa McLynn who volunteered at the Museum in 2013 as: A Chinese character on the right can be read “ga”, and two hiragana on the left reads “i su”, but the meaning of them unknown. [FB 11/03/2015]
Associated publications: Illustrated in colour in the pamphlet accompanying the Reading Room displays at the Welcome Collection with the caption “Crab carapace Natural materials Japan RRa0235/1985.53.649 Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. This painted crab shell was once hung above a doorway to protect a child.” [FB 15/8/2016]