Figure Item Number: Edz943 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Description
Multicoloured rice flour paste figure of the deity monkey; left leg is lifted, left hand over brow. He is holding a yellow staff of paste over bamboo behind his back (9cm. Long). Figure is mounted on a bamboo stick which is embellished with rice flour paste flowers with leaves.
History Of Use
This figure is intended to be used as a child's toy or household ornament, not as an object of worship (collector).
Cultural Context
used primarily by children
Iconographic Meaning
Monkey (great sage equal to heaven) is customarily shown in this pose, staff in hand, depicting him on his travels to India to bring the Buddhist scriptures back to China.
Specific Techniques
Hand-formed by shaping, rolling, incising, and combing the malleable paste, while selecting the various colours as needed and then adhering the finished shapes to each other and to the bamboo stick that supported the figure and served as a handle. The only tools used were a piece of bamboo and a broken comb.
Narrative
The maker was a very elderly man who made and sold these figures while sitting at the side of a road in Tsuen Wan. He always attracted a large audience of interested people. The artist said that he received his training in Shandong Province, which is in northeast China. The collector, Elizabeth Johnson, never saw any other such artist. There is a photograph of him at work in the documentation file for accession 328 at the Museum of Anthropology.
Item History
- Made in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong, China before 1976
- Collected during 1976
- Owned by Elizabeth L. Johnson before September 2, 1976
- Received from Elizabeth L. Johnson (Donor) on September 2, 1976
What
- Name
- Figure
- Identification Number
- Edz943
- Type of Item
- figure
- Material
- rice flour paste adhesive, bamboo grass and aniline dye
- Manufacturing Technique
- formed
- Overall
- height 28.0 cm, width 3.5 cm, depth 4.0 cm
Who
- Culture
- Chinese
- Previous Owner
- Elizabeth L. Johnson
- Received from
- Elizabeth L. Johnson (Donor)
Where
- Holding Institution
- MOA: University of British Columbia
- Made in
- Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong, China
When
- Creation Date
- before 1976
- Collection Date
- during 1976
- Ownership Date
- before September 2, 1976
- Acquisition Date
- on September 2, 1976
Other
- Condition
- good
- Accession Number
- 0328/0048