Object of the Month

Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site has a large museum collection consisting of thousands of objects, many of which are not regularly displayed in the house's furnished exhibit rooms. Every month, an object will be featured on this page, providing a look at an unusual piece from the collection.

 

A set of three "kanzashi", or decorative hair pins.

NPS

Pictured here are three examples of Japanese hair pins, one of several forms of traditional hair ornamentation known as kanzashi. Kanzashi were widely used during the Edo period (1603-1868), when hairstyles became more elaborate. During the latter part of the Edo period, kanzashi making reached its acme, with widely varying styles. By the Meiji period (1868-1912) craftsmen were making kanzashi that depicted everyday life, folklore, or humorous scenes.

The leftmost example is a futamata kanzashi, named for the fact that it has 2 prongs or legs on it, and measures just over six inches long. At one end is a metal decorative ball or bead that spins freely around the shaft, and at the very tip is a spoon-shaped piece intended as an ear cleaning tool known as a “mimikaki”. The pin features a hand beaten stippled texture and is decorated with images of plum blossoms and other floral motifs. At some periods in Japanese history, wearing ornamental hair pins was declared illegal in an effort to prevent conspicuous consumption, but these ear scoops were regarded as utilitarian items, which provided a loophole to those who still wished to wear these otherwise decorative items.

In the center is a copper kanzashi with a sliding ring around its two prongs that allows for adjustment, and one end that is shaped like the headstock of a shamisen (with one of its three tuning pegs missing), a traditional Japanese string instrument. The shamisen-shaped tip can be detached from the rest of the hair pin, allowing different decorative pieces to be attached according to the wearer’s preference, as well as revealing a sharp needle that may have been meant for some other practical purpose.

The rightmost piece was made during the Meiji-era, and is just over five inches long. At one end it has the tiny figure of man, painted in dark blue, wearing western dress and climbing a pole, which is meant to show someone in the act of lighting a gas lamp (represented on the pin by two small pieces of red-orange coral) which was a new technology in Japan in the 1870s. The figure of the man is jointed at hips and shoulders and can move to some degree as if he was climbing the pole. This kanzashi is an example of those later nineteenth-century pieces that feature depictions of daily life events.

These kanzashi were almost surely collected by Charles Appleton Longfellow during one of his trips to Japan, his first and longest of which lasted from 1871 to 1873. They may have been purchased as souvenirs, belonged to one or more of the Japanese women Charles employed and associated with during his time in Japan, or were intended to be gifts to his three sisters.

 

View past Objects of the Month.