Spade Blade
date: label: Accession Date
content: 9 Mar 1859
name: label: Donor Name
content: Emperor Of Japan
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "SLIGHTLY CONVEX-EDGED RECTANGULAR IRON BLADE WITH A ONE THIRD LENGTH "U" SHAPED CUT IN THE BACK WHICH IS SPLIT AT THE EDGES FOR INSERTION OF A WOODEN HANDLE (NOT PRESENT). SAME FORM AS CAT. NO. 378."
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. 124.
label: Notes
content: Chang-su Houchins identifies this object as a ploughshare, however it is almost identical in form to E378, a spade blade, and very different from E380, a ploughshare. (It is similar to hoe blade of hoe E375 also). It has been decided to identify it as a spade blade for now, based on its original catalogue identification. Per James Morrow - see 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, p. 221 and p. 233 - Morrow acquired for the Perry expedition one wooden spade and two extra new blades near Canton (Guangzhou), China, and a spade in Shimoda, Japan. He probably also received additional informal gifts. See also E288, a shovel blade. On p. 139 Morrow discusses Japanese tools, and mentions both spades and shovels: "They have ... a very good spade of wood, shod with iron like their heavy digging hoe, - and an indifferent shovel."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 30 Jul 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Japan, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
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: E379-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Spade
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 26 cm
label: Width
content: 14.1 cm