Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Battle Surcoat (Jinbaori) with Fan
Not on view
The most suitable material for a durable, visibly striking, and warm battle surcoat was wool, which in the seventeenth century could not be produced in Japan and had to be imported from Portugal and the Netherlands. It arrived pre-dyed, most popularly in a deep scarlet derived from cochineal. This surcoat has an elongated shape and a decorative epaulet-like strip called a “sword support” (tachi-uke) sewn to the upper shoulder. The position of the shoulder piece indicates that this example is an early jinbaori, but the use of mid-eighteenth-century European silk reveals the piece to be a replacement, possibly to conceal use. At the center of the back is a cut-out and finely stitched white wool (rasha) appliqué in the shape of a Chinese-style military signal fan (tōuchiwa or gunbai). It appears to be only a decorative pattern, not a family crest.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.