Woven mat without design, "toma"
date: label: Accession Date
content: 16 Jun 2005
name: label: Donor Name
content: National Museum of Natural History
notes: label: Notes
content: Mat made of reeds twined together with cotton (?) string. Mostly undecorated, but strips of red and black cloth are woven into the mat to make stripes at the ends. According to Chisato Dubreuil, on the floors of traditional houses ("chise"), reed mats were sandwiched between a bottom layer of loose grass, and then a top layer of cattails. This system allowed heat from the fireplace to spread throughout the floor. They were also used on the walls for insulation. Made for the 1999 NMNH exhibit "Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People", using the traditional Ainu standing loom, "itese-ni".
label: Record Last Modified
content: 1 Dec 2014
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Japan, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Ainu
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2026093
label: USNM Number
content: E430729-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Mat
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 217 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 80 cm