The Nature Trail is inaccessible due to pathworks by Lewisham Council. We apologise for the inconvenience.
An amuletic pendant, Japan. The pendant is in the form of a pair of raised wooden open sandals, geta, with straps of red cord through which a length of purple cord passes for suspension. The practice of using shoes as amulets may derive from Chinese practice. The Chinese word for shoe, xie, is a homonym for ‘evil spirit’.
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The database retains language taken from historical documents to help research. Please note that some records may feature language and reflect systems of thinking that are outdated and offensive.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, can suggest corrections to our information or if you see content requiring immediate action, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk
