A set of three massage rollers, or amma-ki, made from a partial section of a bamboo cylinder with beveled edges. These massage rollers was collected by Commodore Matthew C. Perry during his historic Japan Expedition (1853-1854) that opened Japan to the western world and established a lasting diplomatic, economic and cultural relationship between two Pacific Rim nations. Artifacts from Perry's Japan Expedition would become some of the founding objects of the Smithsonian Institution's anthropology collections.
From card: "same as 277, except that these were left natural color. and all three are present in complete form. Jan. 1969 one was loaned to Japan Society N.Y.C."
See Chang-Su Houchins. 1995. Artifacts of Diplomacy: Smithsonian Collections from Commodore Matthew Perry's Japan Expedition (1853-1854). Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, Number 37. P 96
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