Boy's Day Banner (nobori)

Boy's Day Banner (nobori), early 1800s–mid 1800s, Edo period (1600–1868)

Where object was made: Japan

Material/technique: dye; tsutsugaki; cotton; possibly paint; possibly ink

Credit line: Museum purchase: Barbara Benton Wescoe Fund

Accession number: 1993.0012

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label:
“Flowers, Dragons and Pine Trees: Asian Textiles in the Spencer Museum of Art,” Nov-2005, Mary Dusenbury
This fourteen-foot banner, or nobori, was designed to fly from a pole planted in the ground on the annual Boys’ Day Festival, the fifth day of the fifth month. Erected near the front door of the house, a long nobori flapping in the wind celebrated the presence of sons in the family and served to ward off evil.
The banner depicts Zhong Kui, a Confucian scholar-official and popular Chinese folk deity. In one legend Zhong Kui committed suicide after passing the difficult Confucian examinations but being denied an official position because of his barbarian looks. After death, he was granted official status and returned to serve the emperor by destroying (and eating) an aggravating demon.
This banner almost certainly belonged to a samurai family. Zhong Kui is depicted as a Confucian scholar-official and warrior, following an earlier Chinese prototype, rather than as the comic figure of contemporary Japanese depictions. The banner bears the artist’s
signature and seal – a rarity for Boy’s Day banners. Also, the unusually wide panels of cloth and safflower red background color (now faded) were both reserved for members of the samurai class.

Archive Label:
Nobori (banners) were designed to fly from poles planted in the ground on the annual Boy’s Day Festival that occurs on the fifth of May. Nobori, flying in the wind in front of the house, celebrated the presence of sons in the family and served to ward off evil. This banner depicts the Chinese folk deity Zhong Kui (Japanese: Shōki), a Confucian scholar who was best known for his loyalty to the Emperor and his prowess as a demon queller. Here Zhong Kui wears the robes of a Confucian scholar even as he is depicted as a fearsome warrior. Thus he serves both as a protective guardian of male children and as a model of loyalty, scholarship, strength, and courage—all desirable masculine qualities, particularly among the ruling samurai or warrior class.