Imperial Court Robe (k'o ssu)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 16 Dec 1955
name: label: Donor Name
content: Gen. Alvord V. Anderson
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Straight line vertical tailoring, full length tapering sleeves, flaring at cuff, vertical seam, center back, dark blue satin, lined w/ light blue satin, heavily embroidered in metallic gold thread w/ the 5-clawed imperial dragon, 9 in number, and w/ other symbolic figures and conventional designs: patter of clouds symbolizing Heaven, inclined diagonal panels symbolizing the sea, topped w/ crescent shape figures symbolizing waves and spray, and spaced angular figures representing mountains all form a deep border at the bottom of the robe and symbolize the sea and Earth, convention symbols also embroidered are: bat with swastika, bamboo tube and rods, gourds, fan, flower basket, yin-yang, 5 spherical gold buttons, chased."
label: Notes
content: "It should be noted that there were also symbols of longevity found on this object, however these may have been interpreted as the aforementioned "yin-yang" during the original examination; The dark blue color of the robe indicates that this would have most likely been worn by lower princes, noblemen, or high-ranking officials." Stephanie Beaumont; See attached multimedia pdf in accession file, 202518.
label: Notes
content: "Bat: Called bianfu in Chinese, the second character, fu, is a homophone for good fortune (also pronounced fu); it also symbolized longevity and happiness. Red bats mean "widespread good fortune" and five bats are a wish for the Five Blessings: longevity, wealth, good health, virtue, and a peaceful death. Bats and the swastika mean "ten thousand-fold wishes for good fortune and happiness."" - source of above information on bats and swastikas is "Rank and Style: Power Dressing in Imperial China", 2008 online exhibit of the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California, https://web.archive.org/web/20160624035350/http://www.pacificasiamuseum.org/rankandstyle/html/symbols.stm. Also, in China the Buddhist swastika (called the Wan symbol) was seen as a symbol of plurality, eternity, abundance, prosperity and long life.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 13 Aug 2019
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Beijing (Peking), Summer Palace, China, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Manchu
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 202518
label: USNM Number
content: E393347-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Robe