National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

This is a yanagui (an arrow container) comprising a houtate where arrowheads are placed with a backboard that supports arrow shafts. The upper part of the backboard is rounded off and covered with a band and has holes for strings to tie arrows in a bundle and strings to hang the yanagui. Although most of them have fallen off, it seems that there used to be floral patterns drawn on the green ground by applying suo (deep blackish red), red and yellow pigments to it. There used to be various types of yanagui, including a rattan type found among the treasures of Shosoin and this one is of the e-no-yanagui type.