Sunggingans

[A. G. Maisey]

The one I've shown came from an old collection that was put together in Jawa a little after WWII, so it probably comes from at least the 1930's.

I think we can probably date your Bali one to pre-WWII also.

As far as I am aware sunggingan dress in Bali lapsed between the beginning of WWII and maybe as recently as the late 1990's.

I have not heard anything regarding how and when sunggingan dress used to be worn, but these days it seems to be OK to wear for anything except where keris dress is subject to specific rules. My guess is that in previous times it was probably used for public events with a festive air, such as wayang performance attendance, or maybe parties or gatherings.

Here are images of Surakarta Keraton soldiers --- purely ceremonial these days --- parading in the Keraton courtyard, and a couple of them had sunggingan dress on their keris.

[A. G. Maisey]

I do not speak nor understand Balinese and I do not know an equivalent term in Balinese to "sunggingan".

[drdavid]

Alan, do we know how long sunggingan dress has been around. Is it a relatively modern thing (say the last 100 years) or does it go back further
cheers
David

[A. G. Maisey]

Sunggingan scabbards, and perhaps sunggingan hilts have been in use for a very long time, perhaps even from the very beginning.

There are examples of keris with sunggingan dress that pre-date 1700 in both the Dresden and Copenhagen collections. These are North Coast Jawa keris, and the nature of the ornamentation seems to owe much to a Chinese ancestry, however, when we consider that Javanese temples dating from the Early Classical Period were brightly painted, and that the keris seems to have had a religious association from the time of the appearance of its earliest forms, then we factor in the Javanese inclination for display, it is highly probable that even the earliest forms of keris had painted scabbards.

The word "sunggingan" simply means "painted decoration", but the use of this word, rather than the use of other words referring to paint or decoration, implies a form of decoration that is intricate and skilful.

I have not looked at Jensen's "Kris Disc" for a very long time, but I am sure that if we were to trawl through this we would find examples of early sunggingan dress.

[S.Workman]

Thats remarkable, so these painted ensembles show scenes of court activity, or are they depictions of myth or history?

[A. G. Maisey]

The motifs used on sunggingan keris scabbards cover a wide range of subjects, they can be traditional Javanese motifs that are used in other decorative art or craft, they can be wayang figures, or they can be purely abstract.

The motif on the scabbard I've shown has wayang figures, what they are doing I don't know, but somebody with a much better knowledge of the wayang than I have could perhaps guess.

The scabbard shown in this post has an alas-alasan (forest) motif, showing various animals.