Rare Collection | nōsatsu Japanese shrine and temple votive slips
The University of Oregon’s Special Collections and University Archives holds the only known collection of Japanese shrine and temple votive slips (nōsatsu or senjafuda) in North America. The prints were collected by Frederick Starr, an anthropologist from the University of Chicago, who was intrigued by the religious nature of the votive slips and the transmission of Ukiyo-e printing techniques and tropes from the Edo period to the nōsatsu of the Meiji and Taisho eras (1868-1925). Starr became a regular participant in the nōsatsu exchange clubs (nōsatsu-kai) that were experiencing a revival during that time and, like other members, commissioned highly decorative slips to exchange at meetings.
