God's window mat, "chitarpe"
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 dried reeds twined together with cotton string. Strips of red and black cloth are woven in as supplementary wefts to make zig-zag and diamond pattern. String attached to one end (for hanging?) According to Chisato Dubreuil, this is used to cover the east window, called god's window ("kamuy-puyar"), which was reserved as an entrance and exit to the house for gods. Humans only looked through this window during ceremonies and other special occasions. Made for the 1999 NMNH exhibit "Ainu: Spirit of a Northern People", using 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: E430747-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Mat
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 123 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 82.5 cm