Sickle (Kama)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 9 Mar 1859
name: label: Donor Name
content: Emperor Of Japan
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "*THOUGH ORIGINALLY CALLED A HAND SCYTHE LIKE PREVIOUS NO., LATER WAS CALLED THE ABOVE [Bill Hook], PROBABLY BECAUSE THE BLADE WAS SHORT AND RELATIVELY BROAD. THIS BLADE IS INSERTED, THROUGH AN IRON FERRULE, TO THE SHORT STRAIGHT WOODEN HANDLE. ON THE BLADE IS STAMPED IN A MARK IN JAPANESE SCRIPT. JAN. 1969 LOAN TO JAPAN SOCIETY N.Y.C."
label: Notes
content: See Chang-Su Houchins. 1995. Artifacts of Diplomacy: Smithsonian Collections from Commodore Matthew Perry's Japan Expedition (1853-1854). Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, Number 37. P 126. Houchins identifies this as a type of hand sickle known as a bill hook.
label: Notes
content: Dr. James Morrow discusses the use of a bill hook in rice harvesting in China on p. 73 of Morrow, James, and Allan B. Cole. 1947. A Scientist with Perry in Japan : the Journal of Dr. James Morrow. Edited by Allan B. Cole. Chapel Hill: the University of North Carolina Press. "In cutting the rice they often use a bill hook grass-knife, such as is employed in cutting grass and straw from the hill sides for fuel."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 6 Dec 2018
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Japan, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Japanese
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 199043
label: USNM Number
content: E387-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Sickle