✦ Japan · Edo period · 1827
A dancer and a family device on one nobori
An 1827 Japanese banner combines a theatrical figure with a small family-associated device. The comparison asks which part identifies the motif, the occasion, and the people connected with the cloth.
Gift of John B. Elliott through the Mercer Trust, 1999 · CC0. Resized without cropping or recolouring.
Enlarge the photograph ↗✦ Photograph-based observations
Which image does the identifying work?
A masked figure in a dark robe steps across the light cloth, raising an open fan. Fine white lines articulate the robe and its plant designs; red accents sharpen the movement. A round dark device sits below the figure at the left.
Fabric tabs run along the right edge and across the top of the photographed section. Their attachment makes the cloth’s intended support visible. The figure, small device, and mounting details occupy the same object but answer different questions.
What the record tells us
The Met dates the nobori to 1827 and identifies the figure as Sanbaso from the Noh play Okina. Its account describes tsutsugaki paste-resist work and a dedication inscription elsewhere on the banner, recording presentation to Shohachimangu in the eighth month of 1827. The small device represents paired Japanese ginger branches, chigai myoga, a design used by multiple families. The full object measures 858.5 by 69.9 cm; this photograph shows only its decorated portion. [1]
✦ Editorial interpretation
What follows from the arrangement?
The dancer attracts attention first, which makes the small device below especially instructive. Size and brightness do not tell us which element has a family association. The larger figure can carry theatrical or ceremonial meaning while the smaller mon connects the object with a different category of identity. Treating everything painted on a banner as one coat of arms would collapse those distinct functions before we had a chance to investigate them.
Material technique helps explain the design. Paste applied to the cloth resisted the colour subsequently added around it, allowing the white lines to define details within dark areas. Those lines make movement and fabric pattern readable without requiring separate sewn pieces for every contour. A design made for a long textile must survive both its method of production and its use on a support. The edge tabs give us physical evidence for that second problem.
The record’s identification of chigai myoga is useful precisely because it does not assign a unique family from the motif alone. When several families use a related design, finding the pattern narrows a question without completing the attribution. The dedication inscription and the history of this particular object could be more decisive. A catalogue of mon supplies names for forms; connecting one form to a donor, household, or shrine requires the surrounding evidence.
This nobori also broadens a comparison too easily restricted to battlefields. A banner can support festival, ceremonial, theatrical, and family meanings. Its shape does not make every instance military, just as a shield-shaped composition in Europe need not have been carried in combat. Compare the surviving textile with Hiroshige’s festival print: one permits examination of an object’s surface and attachments, while the other places banners within a larger public scene.
Claims and their evidence
| Claim | Evidence | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| The Met identifies Sanbaso and the chigai myoga device. | Individual collection record | The device does not uniquely establish a donor’s family. |
| The full banner is over eight metres long. | Catalogue dimensions, 858.5 cm | This image does not show its full length or the dedication inscription. |
| The photograph shows edge tabs and contrasting linework. | Visible object photograph | The photograph does not demonstrate the complete mounting arrangement in use. |
✦ Your turn
Explain what supports your conclusion.
Describe the dancer, the small round device, and the edge tabs separately. Give each a likely function grounded in the record or visible image. Then explain why identifying the mon’s motif is insufficient to name the banner’s donor.
Discuss your answer
The dancer belongs to the represented theatrical subject, the mon to a family-associated motif, and the tabs to physical suspension. The Met’s account says the motif was used by several families. A donor attribution therefore needs evidence such as the inscription or object history, and should not be manufactured from a surname chart.
Take the research further
Compare the Met’s additional photographs with this view and locate the parts absent here. Follow the linked Japanese records for a four-diamond military-context nobori and another festival textile, preserving each catalogue’s date and institutional identification.
Return to the related Academy reading ↗Sources and image rights
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Banner (Nobori), accession1999.247.6. Record consulted 2026-10-11. The date above describes the artifact or photograph, not the publication date of this webpage.
- CC0 — image rights. The individual collection record permits this image’s reuse under CC0. Catalogue prose is summarized in our own words. Image credit: Gift of John B. Elliott through the Mercer Trust, 1999.
- Edo-Tokyo Museum / Tokyo Museum Collection, Nobori Banner with Yotsuwari-Bishi (Four-Diamond) Family Crest. Nineteenth-century nobori, collection ID 20000282, classified under Arms and Armor. Linked record only; its image is not reproduced here. Consulted 2026-10-11.
- Spencer Museum of Art, Boy’s Day Banner (nobori). Hekizan, early to mid nineteenth century, accession 1993.0012. A separately catalogued festival example; linked record only. Consulted 2026-10-11.
Show the BibTeX citation
@misc{jhheraldry_object-sanbaso-nobori,
author = {{The Metropolitan Museum of Art}},
title = {Banner (Nobori) (accession 1999.247.6)},
howpublished = {\url{https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/53912}},
url = {https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/53912},
note = {Original-language museum collection record. Accessed 2026-10-11.}
}