Fireman’s Jacket (Hikeshi-banten) with Chinese Warrior
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.The interior of this thickly layered, quilted cotton jacket is decorated with the image of Rōrihakucho Chō Jun (Chinese: Zhang Shun), a character revered in nineteenth-century Japan for his courage. Chō Jun, one of the 108 heroes of the Water Margin, a novel translated from Chinese (Shui hu zhuan) into Japanese (Suikoden) during the second half of the Edo period, was the subject of works by celebrated print artists, predominantly Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798–1861). This composition is based on a print by Kuniyoshi published in 1827–30. The righteous rebel is shown clenching a sword between his teeth as his characteristically pale, muscular, and tattooed body forcefully emerges from a destroyed water gate. He faces down the enemy soldiers who anticipate his arrival and who will slay him in an attack of arrows
Artwork Details
- 紺木綿地浪里白條張順模様火消袢纏
- Title: Fireman’s Jacket (Hikeshi-banten) with Chinese Warrior
- Period: Edo period (1615–1868)
- Date: mid-19th century
- Culture: Japan
- Medium: Quilted cotton with tube-drawn paste-resist dyeing (tsutsugaki) with hand-painted details
- Dimensions: 49 1/4 × 47 in. (125.1 × 119.4 cm)
- Classification: Costumes
- Credit Line: Lent by John C. Weber Collection
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art