Object Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Blue Square Purse, 1964 |
Object Name |
Purse |
Description |
Blue Square Purse, 1964. Beaded purse gifted to Yoshiko Yamanouchi by the Prime Minister of Japan in 1964. Purse has a silver-colored metal clamshell clasp with a 1" filigree border. Attached to the top edge of the clasp hardware by a jump ring at each end is a handle. Both handle and purse are covered in tiny multicolored sparkling beads giving an overall sapphire hue to the purse. The body of the purse also has tube-shaped beads of the same color, which are sewn to one side in a decorative patter of a circle inside a large braided square border, and to the other side in a similar pattern repeating across the entire surface 9 times. The inside is a blue silk satin with pockets on the sides. There is a metal tab label on one pocket with a scroll border that reads "WAKO". |
Date |
1964 |
Creator |
Wako, Tokyo, Japan |
Role |
Manufacturer |
Catalog Number |
2019.048.002.2A |
Dimensions |
H-6.5 W-6 D-10 inches |
Dimension Details |
(body of purse); 10 length handle |
Collection |
3D - Personal Gear |
Inscription Text |
There is a metal tab label on one pocket with a scroll border that reads "WAKO". |
Provenance |
Gifted to Yoshiko Yamanouchi by the Prime Minister of Japan in 1964. |
Notes |
Wako Company Limited was founded in 1881 and was still active in 2019. "We offer wide item from formal bag appropriate for changed seat including ceremony to town bag. Formal business is important with beauty of dancing posture and material of bag, and, as for the town use, as for using, feelings that thought out use are careful to each including usability of lightness and pocket serious consideration in design and leather feel of a material every day. All articles are domestic production in Japan." [http://www.wako.co.jp.e.zn.hp.transer.com/items/women/cat01/ 9/10/2019] "Yoshiko Yamanouchi (1895–1973) was an early Buddhist community leader, businesswoman, and amateur painter. She was born in Osaka, Japan, on May 12, 1895. She immigrated to the United States in 1915 and settled in San Mateo, California, where she became a prominent member of the community, establishing the first Buddhist Sunday School Young Buddhist Association, and Women's Association for the growing immigrant population. She also maintained and owned a laundry business. "During World War II, Yamanouchi was incarcerated at the War Relocation Authority camp in Topaz, Utah. Despite having no formal art training, she produced a number of watercolor paintings depicting her experiences in camp. Following the war, she returned to San Mateo, where she resumed her laundry business. Her work was included in the seminal exhibition "The View from Within: Japanese American Art from the Internment Camps" which was held in Los Angeles in 1992. "She died on August 10, 1973, in San Francisco, California at age 78." [https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Yoshiko%20Yamanouchi/ 09/06/2019] Prime ministers of Japan in 1964: Ikeda Hayato (1963–64; 3rd time) Sato Eisaku (1964–67; 1st time) [https://www.britannica.com/topic/list-of-prime-ministers-of-Japan-1812632 9/10/2019] |
Search Terms |
Yamanouchi, Yoshiko Purses |
Subjects |
Gifts Prime ministers Purses |
People |
Ikeda, Hayato Yamanouchi, Yoshiko |
Credit line |
Courtesy of Laura Watanuki |