Festival coat with dragon

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A tiger accompanies the bold dragon on this jacket. The dragon appears in the clouds above waves, and the tiger gambols among sprigs of bamboo; both associations originated in China. The front of the jacket features pine, plum blossoms, and bamboo, plants that occur together in the Chinese tradition as the auspicious "three friends in winter" because they bloom or remain green even in the cold. It is thought that a similar jacket may have been worn for a festival or regional theatrical performance in the San'in district located on the Japan Sea side of the main Japanese island of Honshu.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art