Jan., 192 1. Annual Report of the Director. 



383 



of Alaska, and a Porno feather headband. Mr. George A. Crofts of 

 Tientsin, China, remembered the Museimi with a gift of two large, 

 remarkable clay statuettes of the T'ang period (a.d. 618-906), which 

 have been added to the Blackstone Collection, and are placed on 

 exhibition in a case of mediaeval clay figures. The gift of Mr. and Mrs. 

 Edwin F. Gillette of a set of Japanese dolls for the Dolls' Festival 

 (Htna Matsuri) is a distinct addition to the Division of Japanese 

 Ethnology. The group, illustrated in this Report, consists of a painted 

 screen and nine dolls representing the emperor and empress of Japan, 

 the elder and younger ministers of state, and an orchestra of five court- 

 musicians, exactly as it would appear in a Japanese home on the occasion 

 of the Dolls' Festival held each year for the pleastu-e and instruction of 

 little girls. Such sets, handed down as family heirlooms, are taken out 

 of the storehouse annually, carefully unpacked, and disolayed for a 

 week on a series of shelves covered with scarlet cloth. Tnere are gen- 

 erally arrayed before the dolls miniature pieces of furniture, various 

 articles for the house reproduced oftentimes in gold lacquer or in porce- 

 lain, such as tiny tables upon which are placed offerings of food prepared 

 by the little girls, an act which in itself tends toward promoting a deep 

 reverence for the emperor and a knowledge of the old court and its 

 customs. The sixfold screen, which serves as a V>ackground, possesses 

 great merits in color and decoration. Above a streain, near which grow 

 iris, peonies, and a sturdy pine; a white crane flies downward toward two 

 others standing on the bank. The golden-flecked clouds and the soft 

 greens and reds in decoration blend admirably with the brocade cos- 

 tumes of the dolls immediately in front of the screen. These figures, 

 made of enameled wood, are modeled with remarkable care, each 

 expressing a distinct personality. As an illustration of the exactitude 

 of execution, the hands and wrists of the old minister of state, which 

 del' Teate real age, are truly of admirable workmanship. The costimies 

 are all of brocade, probably a hundred years or more in age, which in 

 itself is of value for the study of textiles and design. The head-dresses, 

 of which there are three distinct types, besides the elaborate head-dress 

 of the empress, are removable and exact copies of the style worn at 

 court by the various characters here represented. The emperor and 

 empress sit upon raised platforms, magnificently clothed, each possess- 

 ing emblems characteristic of their offices. The empress holds a small 

 folding-fan of wood painted with the favorite decoration of the crane 

 flidng above the pine, bamboo and plum, a combination emblematic of 

 long life. The emperor, wearing a large sword, holds in his right hand 

 a flat wooden baton of tablet shape (shaku), generally carried by all 

 noblemen at the court. The old and young ministers are equipped with 



