#fishskin

One Year of FiSHSKiN!!!

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting a whole lotta artwork here on my artblog, and that's because I've been spending my free time working hard on my queer horror webcomic, FiSHSKiN.

Oroch woman’s festive robe made of fish skin, leather, and decorative fur trimmings [image source].

Nivkh woman’s fish-skin festival coats (hukht), late 19th century. Cloth: fish skin, sinew (reindeer), cotton thread; appliqué and embroidery. Promised gift of Thomas Murray L2019.66.2, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota, United States [image source].

Back view of a Nivkh woman’s robe [image source].

Front view of a Nivkh woman’s robe [image source].

Women’s clothing, collected from a Nivkh community in 1871, now in the National Museum of Denmark. Photo by Roberto Fortuna, courtesy Wikimedia Commons [image source].

The Hezhe people 赫哲族 (also known as Nanai 那乃) are one of the smallest recognized minority groups in China composed of around five thousand members. Most live in the Amur Basin, more specifically, around the Heilong 黑龙, Songhua 松花, and Wusuli 乌苏里 rivers. Their wet environment and diet, composed of almost exclusively fish, led them to develop impermeable clothing made out of fish skin. Since they are part of the Tungusic family, their clothing bears resemblance to that of other Tungusic people, including the Jurchen and Manchu.

They were nearly wiped out during the Imperial Japanese invasion of China but, slowly, their numbers have begun to recover. Due to mixing with other ethnic groups who introduced the Hezhen to cloth, the tradition of fish skin clothing is endangered but there are attempts of preserving this heritage.

Hezhen woman stitching together fish skins [image source].

Top to bottom left: You Wenfeng, 68, an ethnic Hezhen woman, poses with her fishskin clothes at her studio in Tongjiang, Heilongjiang province, China December 31, 2019. Picture taken December 31, 2019 by Aly Song for Reuters [image source].

Hezhen Fish skin craft workshop with Mrs. You Wen Fen in Tongjian, China. © Elisa Palomino and Joseph Boon [image source].

Hezhen woman showcasing her fishskin outfit [image source].

Hezhen fish skin jacket and pants, Hielongiang, China, mid 20th century. In the latter part of the 20th century only one or two families could still produce clothing like this made of joined pieces of fish skin, which makes even the later pieces extremely rare [image source].

Detail view of the stitching and material of a Hezhen fishskin jacket in the shape of a 大襟衣 dajinyi or dajin, contemporary. Ethnic Costume Museum of Beijing, China [image source].

Hezhen fishskin boots, contemporary. Ethnic Costume Museum of Beijing, China [image source].

Although Hezhen clothing is characterized by its practicality and ease of movement, it does not mean it’s devoid of complexity. Below are two examples of ornate female Hezhen fishskin robes. Although they may look like leather or cloth at first sight, they’re fully made of different fish skins stitched together. It shows an impressive technical command of the medium.

赫哲族鱼皮长袍 [Hezhen fishskin robe]. Taken July 13, 2017. © Huanokinhejo / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 [image source].

Image containing a set of Hezhen clothes including a woman’s fishskin robe [image source].

The Nivkh people of China and Russia also make clothing out of fish skin. Like the Hezhen, they also live in the Amur Basin but they are more concentrated on and nearby to Sakhalin Island in East Siberia.

Top to bottom left: Woman’s fish-skin festival coat (hukht) with detail views. Unknown Nivkh makers, late 19th century. Cloth: fish skin, sinew (reindeer), cotton thread; appliqué and embroidery. The John R. Van Derlip Fund and the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment Fund; purchase from the Thomas Murray Collection 2019.20.31 [image source].

Top to bottom right: detail view of the lower hem of the robe to the left after cleaning [image source].

Nivkh or Nanai fish skin boots from the collection of Musée du quai Branly -Jacques Chirac. © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 [image source].

Detail view of the patterns at the back of a Hezhen robe [image source].

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Photo via "視覺中國"

#中國非物質文化遺產 #黑龍江 #赫哲族 #nanai people #魚皮製衣 #fishskin clothes #china intangible cultural heritage #魚皮衣 #魚皮畫

為什麼要穿魚皮衣？ 赫哲族是中國人口最少的民族之一，從數千年前開始，世代生活在黑龍江、松花江、烏蘇里江的三江平原流域。由於冬季漫長，氣候寒冷，棉、麻等植物無法存活，以漁獵為生的赫哲族就用魚皮製作魚皮衣和被褥等生活用品，因此在歷史上被稱為「魚皮部落」。《山海經》中記載，「玄股之國……其為人衣魚」相信即是說的赫哲部落。 魚皮衣大多是用黑龍江特產的大馬哈魚皮製成，製作一件魚皮衣，大約需要用50多條魚，有10多道複雜工序，只能手工製作，包括用玉米麵鞣製魚皮、剪裁成布料、縫製衣服、加上紋飾等。製作一件魚皮衣，至少需要兩個月，製成的衣物柔軟、保暖，圖案精美，被視為赫哲文化的重要載體。 (article from 當代中國) PS. 赫哲族是中國及俄羅斯境內的少數民族之一，在俄羅斯稱為那乃人或納奈人（那乃語：Нанай，俄語：Нанайцы），語言屬於滿-通古斯語系的南通古斯語族的赫哲語支，分布在中國黑龍江省、俄羅斯哈巴羅夫斯克邊疆區至鄂霍次克海一帶。赫哲族在中國境內的人數較少，現有5373人（2020年），主要分布在黑龍江省同江市（1060人）、饒河縣（529人）、撫遠縣（468人）和佳木斯市（936人），聚居在街津口、四排、八岔三個民族鄉及佳木斯市郊區敖其鎮、撫遠市烏蘇鎮的赫哲族村、社區。

Photo : a b、c d

◠‿◠ The lady talking that tone of the local languages in Chinese with my grandma & mom as same on video, very family & friendly. and the places near by my dad's hometown in China. ha! love it so much xoxo Thanks! Lan~*

Finnick’s interview outfit on display at the Hunger Games Exhibit in NYC in 2015