Left: Tsubame, barn swallow of carved wood, suspended from a length of green bamboo, made on the occasion of Shoryo-e, the Assembly of Sactified Ghosts, held in July of each year at Tennoji, an Osaka temple. 12 of these swallows decorate the hall; after the ceremony, people compete to take them home as charms to avert thunder. Right: noisemakers. (Volume 4, pg. 12)

Featured on PDR in the collection Unai no tomo: Catalogues of Japanese Toys (1891–1923)

When Brooklyn Museum Curator of Ethnology Stewart Culin visited Japan for the first time in the fall of 1909, he escaped from the harangues of curio dealers by asking them to bring him a traditional children’s toy called burri-burri. Culin knew this rare and obscure object only from a specimen in Tokyo’s Imperial Museum and another owned by the collector Seifu Shimizu. Culin’s request to the dealers quickly confirmed the toy’s rarity, as neither he nor any of his numerous assistants were ever offered one. In the end, Culin asked Shimizu to make him a copy to bring back to Brooklyn.