Pair Of Shoes For Bound Feet

Object Details

Donor Name

Mrs. Frederick G. Scovel

As per Dr. David C. Ko's comments (Ko is a medical doctor and collector of Chinese footbinding shoes), these shoes are authentic footbinding shoes. Dr. Ko indicates that the sole is stitched on very well.

From card: "Blue silk with tape edged heel, V front and top edge. Hand embroidered designs: hexagonal pink stitching on small heel bottom; fish and bat on heel back; fungus, lotus and swastica on side panel; crude thread swastica on red back panel. Good quality, damaged from wear, soiled. Identified by donor. Verified on basis of design motifs in Chinese Court Costumes, Helen E. Fernald, Toronto, 1946, p. 46, fig. 6, p. 49, fig. 1 and in Chinese Folk Design, W. M. Hawley, Hollywood, 1949, Supplement, Fig. 8, 55 and 56."

Note: In China and Japan, the Buddhist swastika (called the Wan symbol in China) was seen as a symbol of plurality, eternity, abundance, prosperity and long life. See "Swastika." ReligionFacts.com. 21 Nov. 2016. Web. www.religionfacts.com/swastika . Per the website for the Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, California exhibit "Rank and Style: Power Dressing in Imperial China", 2008, the swastika is a good luck symbol introduced into China from India with Buddhism. In 693 the Empress Wu declared the swastika as the source of all good fortune and called it wan, which is the same sound as the Chinese word for "ten thousand" or "infinity." The addition of the swastika to a symbolic wish multiplies that wish 10,000 times. Online site is archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20160624035350/http://www.pacificasiamuseum.org/rankandstyle/html/symbols.stm .

Record Last Modified

13 Aug 2019

Specimen Count

2

Accession Date

27 Jun 1962

Accession Number

242949

USNM Number

E400140-0

Object Type

Shoe

Place

China, Asia

See more items in

Anthropology

NMNH - Anthropology Dept.

Topic

Ethnology

Record ID

nmnhanthropology_8428831

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/3156ff034-d950-4f0a-b886-03e6aa7754bb