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Source Description
With its many long arms, the octopus lends itself to a tantalizing design, with the front of this garment displaying tentacles and the back revealing the face. An octopus motif sometimes appears on costumes for the role of the Catfish Priest, a sidekick of the main villain in the Kabuki play <em>Shibaraku</em> (Stop a Moment!). It is also seen in genre painting during the 1600s as a logo on the uniforms of transportation staff, perhaps indicating just how much they can carry. This jacket may have recycled the idea as a fashion statement.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
375948
label
Jacket with Octopus
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
375948
contentType
object
title
Jacket with Octopus
description
With its many long arms, the octopus lends itself to a tantalizing design, with the front of this garment displaying tentacles and the back revealing the face. An octopus motif sometimes appears on costumes for the role of the Catfish Priest, a sidekick of the main villain in the Kabuki play <em>Shibaraku</em> (Stop a Moment!). It is also seen in genre painting during the 1600s as a logo on the uniforms of transportation staff, perhaps indicating just how much they can carry. This jacket may have recycled the idea as a fashion statement.
date
c. 1800–1868
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q117244310
genreSpecific
Textile
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
neck edge to hem: 79.1 cm (31 1/8 in.); Across shoulders: 128.6 cm (50 5/8 in.)
cul
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
accession
2020.66
Source extras
tec
Silk crepe (chirimen)
tombstone
Jacket with Octopus (蛸文様羽織), c. 1800–1868. Japan, Edo period (1615–1868). Silk crepe (chirimen); neck edge to hem: 79.1 cm (31 1/8 in.); across shoulders: 128.6 cm (50 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, L. E. Holden Fund, 2020.66
titleInOriginalLanguage
蛸文様羽織
collection
Japanese Art
didYouKnow
Crepe results from the weft thread being kept tighter than the warp thread during weaving.
citations
citation
Yamanaka, Norio. <em>The Book of Kimono</em>. New York: Kodansha USA, 2012.
page_number
p. 58
citation
Lynch, Annette, and Mitchell D. Strauss. <em>Ethnic Dress in the United States: A Cultural Encyclopedia</em>. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
page_number
p. 136
citation
Permanent Collection Installations.” <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine </em>63, no. 3 (2023): 12–13.
page_number
Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 13
creditline
L. E. Holden Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:57:53.683000
sourceId
375948
dept
Japanese Art
coll
Japanese Art
med
Silk crepe (chirimen)
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
4c3ce53920887f0f