Attush, abiti tradizionali degli Ainu di Hokkaido. Analisi e studio degli attush della collezione Fosco Maraini del Museo di Antropologia di Firenze

Abstract

This article reports on vegetable fiber garments, variously embroidered, made by the Ainu of Hokkaido ‒ Japan. These garments, generically called attush, were decorated by women with the embroidery technique and by adding fabric tapes. The final effect was a harmony of original geometric shapes and symmetries that are immediately recognizable as belonging to this people. The same decorations are also reproduced in many objects of their daily and spiritual life. These observations were based on the study of the attush present in the collection of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology in Florence, donated by the famous scholar Fosco Maraini in 1948, and were the result of his collection and research conducted in Hokkaido from 1938 to 1941.