Festival coat with dragon
Meiji period (1868–1912)
Not on view
A tiger accompanies the bold dragon on this jacket. The dragon appears in the clouds above waves, and the tiger gambols among sprigs of bamboo; both associations originated in China. The front of the jacket features pine, plum blossoms, and bamboo, plants that occur together in the Chinese tradition as the auspicious "three friends in winter" because they bloom or remain green even in the cold. It is thought that a similar jacket may have been worn for a festival or regional theatrical performance in the San'in district located on the Japan Sea side of the main Japanese island of Honshu.
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