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Ryukyu investiture crown (view source)
Revision as of 16:52, 28 January 2014
, 16:52, 28 January 2014no edit summary
The crown is only on display twice a year, for limited periods, for conservation reasons. It is a black woven hat with twelve thin strips of gold running in parallel vertically along the front of the crown; each strip is further decorated with 24 jewels or small orbs of gold, silver, jasper, quartz, coral, or the like, for a total of 288. A large golden hairpin (''kanzashi'') with a dragon design on the head of the pin was also worn with the crown.
The crown is only on display twice a year, for limited periods, for conservation reasons. It is a black woven hat with twelve thin strips of gold running in parallel vertically along the front of the crown; each strip is further decorated with 24 jewels or small orbs of gold, silver, jasper, quartz, coral, or the like, for a total of 288. A large golden hairpin (''kanzashi'') with a dragon design on the head of the pin was also worn with the crown.
This crown is one which had been brought by the royal family to [[Tokyo]] when the kingdom was [[Ryukyu Shobun|abolished]] in [[1879]]; another crown, which had remained in Okinawa, is believed to have been stolen or destroyed in 1945. Kept in the [[Nakagusuku dunchi|Nakagusuku Palace]]<ref>Located just outside [[Shuri castle]], and not to be confused with [[Nakagusuku gusuku]], located elsewhere on the island.</ref> from the 1870s until that time, along with a collection of other royal treasures and records not taken to Tokyo, it was hidden during the Battle of Okinawa, along with a number of other precious royal treasures in a drainage ditch near the palace. When the royal stewards, headed by Maehira Bokei, returned after the battle ended, however, they found all the objects from the ditch missing. A precious copy of the ''[[Omoro soshi|Omoro sôshi]]'', which had been among the items hidden in that same ditch, surfaced in Boston; it was among a number of objects which had been taken by intelligence officer Comdr. Carl W. Sternfelt, who then brought them to the Harvard Art Museums to be appraised. This copy of the ''Omoro sôshi'', along with a number of other objects, were returned to Okinawa in 1953. Kishaba Shizuo of the Ryukyu America Historical Society spent much of the remainder of the 20th century convinced that Sternfelt had taken the crown as well, and actively seeking to find and recover it; Sternfelt's family insists they have never seen it, and it remains unknown today if this second crown still survives.
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==References==
==References==
*Gallery labels at Naha City Museum of History, August 2013.
*Gallery labels at Naha City Museum of History, August 2013.
*William Honan, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/13/us/hunt-for-royal-treasure-leads-okinawan-to-a-house-in-massachusetts.html Hunt for Royal Treasure Leads Okinawan to a House in Massachusetts]," New York Times, 13 July 1997.
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[[Category:Ryukyu]]
[[Category:Ryukyu]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Art and Architecture]]
[[Category:Art and Architecture]]