A diamond ball, ito-mari, Japan. Originally these were toys for a girl, also wedding gifts, a symbol of good luck. It is made of yarns in layers. The top layer consists of two shades of blue and white wrapped in geometrical patterns, over a layer of red yarns that are more randomly wrapped over a round core, with stars in yellow and blue yarns on the outermost surface. It has a yellow loop for suspension.
These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.
The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.
If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk
