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Ningyo Construction
Some types of ningyo are defined by a particular shape;
they can be made of almost any material and still be recognizable--A Daruma
of papier-mache, wood, ceramic, or even paper still is recognizable as
Daruma, and the girl and boy dolls shaped like Daruma, but made using kimekomi
techniques with elaborate cloth and lacquer surfaces, are still often identified
as Daruma ningyo by their tippy oval shapes! I look at these on the page for "traditional ningyo shapes."
It is also true that artisans in particular types of
materials, such as paper, wood, and pottery, have developed ways of working
with these single materials so as to produce dolls so distinctive that
they form their own classes and subclasses.
On this page I will present some of the construction
methods and materials for Japanese dolls of all kinds, and also certain
ningyo who are identified primarily by what they are made of (pottery or
paper) or how they are made (kimekomi), instead of by a particular shape.
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Ningyo construction materials
and methods:
Japanese dolls range from over life-size, such as the chrysanthemum dolls, to
tiny: some dolls are literally painted rice grains, while other forms are called
"keshibina" (poppyseed doll) and "mamebina" (bean doll) to evoke
their smallness.
The
Japanese will make ningyo of just about
any material that is handy, or even not so handy. Most of the materials
are organic--wood, paper, and other plant materials, cloth and shells.
Clay is an important and ancient material for the making of human
figures in Japan, too.
See
Takefu
Kiku-Ningyo (Chrysanthemum dolls) Festival for festival dolls consisting
of giant flower arrangements!
In 1999 Americans could visit Longwood Gardens (southeastern
Pennsylvania)
1999
Chrysanthemum Festival: Celebrating Japan, October 23-November
21 includes an exhibit of ningyo and kiku ningyo--huge figures made of
flowers.
During World War II, Americans of Japanese descent
interned for the duration improvised a crocheted hina display for a little
girl who would otherwise have gone without.
Some areas of Japan which specialize in
bamboo
crafts construct costume and genre dolls entirely
of bamboo segments. These may take subjects from more conventional
dolls (noh dancers, for example). A subject which is associated with
bamboo is the Awa Odori or rice-planting dance, with rows of stamping
farm women in broad hats.
Another unusual doll material is the eggshell. This may
be an amateur craft or a souvenir specialty (e.g. of the Toyohashi
region), and subjects include samurai, sumo wrestlers (to which the
shape is well adapted), or the Moon Princess from the fairy-tale of the
Bamboo-Cutter, a little egg with a face painted on, wrapped in silk,
and snuggled into a slice of bamboo.
The oldest human figures in Japanese culture--the ancestors
of ningyo--are the Haniwa,
hollow clay figures which protect a grave. A haniwa would have
been meant to distract evil spirits from the actual dead body, and replaced
human sacrifice at the grave of an eminent man.
Another doll ancestor would be the cross-shaped
figures made of bamboo and cloth, amagatsu,
which were created in the last months of a woman's pregnancy and taken
care of along with her child. Again, it would distract and confuse
evil spirits who might threaten the child, who is still partly living in
the spirit world.
Cloth ningyo: One of the oldest
types of ningyo is a simple stuffed cloth figure with a round head and
four very short limbs, called a hoko (see the site for the amagatsu).
It is a feminine figure and is placed near
infants to protect them. Red hoko-type dolls were also made and
represented monkeys; called sarubobo, they would have helped ward off
rashes.
Another type of cloth ningyo is the Oshi-e
bina, an almost two-dimensional figure made of overlapping
or closely fittend padded silk panels; the hagoita paddles for New Year's
day are made in this way. In the Meiji period such ningyo representing
Kabuki actors and other subjects were very popular;
Helen
Keller was given a child doll of this type.
Paper is a traditional material,
and folded paper figures are at the origin of the Girls' Day festival (Momo
no Sekku or Hina Matsuri); on the third day of the third month, a
special folded paper doll (katashiro or hitogata) could be
rubbed on one's body to purify the soul, and the sins sent sailing on a
river or up in smoke. This practice is recorded as already old in
before the year 1000, in the Tale of Genji.
Paper probably was used for the original tachibina and
hina dolls. These dolls were almost certainly made by folding
in the origami style.
Modern dollmakers have developed extremely elegant
three-dimensional ningyo styles using crumpled washi paper.
| Paper
ningyo, which is what the tachibina and hina started
out as, are still a delightful art form. Kits can be purchased at some
shops, with beautiful papers cut to the exact size and diagrams for folding.
A more elaborate and three-dimensional version of the art is achieved by
modern artists using Washi paper.
| Examples
of Japanese Paper Crafts --a different type of paper doll, the "big
sister" (Anesama), a sort of folded-paper fashion doll! |
| Origami
hina set. | Jacques Dorier is a washi paper artist whose subjects range widely. He now sells kits to make some of his designs.
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Dan Fletcher Oriented is a site for a wonderful washi doll artist. Be sure to click on "studio" for images of a doll in the making.
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| Obachan,
paper-doll artist is celebrated by her grandchild at this site. Her
dolls are three-dimensional Washi creations. |
| And--here is a site where you can order some origami
doll kits! Search the products of Kim's
Crane on the term "doll kit." |
| Shizu
Origami or Cards --a Japanese source of paper, with English text and
prices in dollars. |
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Papier-maché (harinuki)
is an important
traditional material, used for example in constructing Daruma dolls,
Maneki-neko
"beckoning cats", and the dog toys beloved of small children. It
was also used as part of ichimatsu doll construction in some cases,
and is used for modern dolls as well. A related material is shiso, a mulberry pulp which can be cast or molded by hand.
Traditional clay dolls.
One is proportioned like a gosho doll dancing, the other is a man
leading a woman on horseback. Styles and subjects like these would have
originated in other media, among wealthy artisans and buyers. These
versions would serve poorer folks.
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Pottery dolls, tsuchi ningyo, form a large and well-established category.
Because molded and roughly painted pottery was
cheap to produce, pottery dollmakers turned out just about every kind of
doll subject, allowing even poor people to own hina, gosho, and dramatic
musha dolls. Such dolls could also be sold to be offered at temples and
for other religious purposes.
Nice examples of the traditional clay doll can
be seen in the
Boone
Collection and at Gabi
Greve's site. There is a rabbit doll and information at Fushimi
Dolls.
The finest Japanese pottery dolls are the very artistic Hakata dolls.
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A large older pottery figure of a young samurai |
Hakata Ningyo
Hakata in Fukuoka Prefecture is the most
famous location and "brand name" for pottery dolls. These are unglazed
painted dolls which sometimes are mistaken for plaster figures. The
finest ones often have a detail in metal, cloth, or wood (a hairpin, cord,
etc.) which adds to the vividness of the figure. The Hakata dollmakers
produce ningyo of all types (gosho, geisha and kabuki subjects, hina) developed
a unique specialty: pottery figures representing the various occupations
and stages of traditional Japanese life in the most individual and detailed
manner. These were a popular collectible for Americans in Japan in the
1950s.
More recently they have focused on children and women
in a romantic, more abstract style.
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A Noh actor of painted wood |
Wood: Some
of the most important and oldest regional ningyo are wooden dolls, the
Nara and Saga dolls; take a look at Jean LOTZ
Interests: Antique Wood Doll.
Itto-Bori or "one-knife carving" of wood produces
a rough, vigorous surface which is usually partly painted but partly left
in its natural color; this ancient tradition, represented in the Nara
and Kamo dolls, continues today. (see examples
here)
Saga dolls are smoothly carved, sculptural,
and usually beautifully painted. This is a very old tradtion, probably
derived from Buddhist sculpture.
Gosho dolls were carved of wood,
smoothed, and covered entirely with gofun. Other Goshos may be made
of molded wood composition (toso) or pottery.
Kokeshi dolls are traditionally made
of odd bits of wood turned on a lathe, and painted.
The beloved dolls of Girls' Day and Boys' Day usually
have wooden or molded toso heads and hands, and straw-stuffed
bodies covered with elaborate clothing.Many
modern dolls, particularly Kimekomi dolls (see below for more), are made on carved
bases of wood or molded wood composition, covered with cloth, toso, or
paint. See Nihon Kogeikai
Handbook for the Appreciation of Japanese Traditional Crafts) for detailed images of modern dollmaking.
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A court dancer of painted wood. |
The kimekomi
method produces ningyo with glued-on fabric clothing,
and a face and hands which can be covered with gofun; usually these dolls
have wigs, too.
The first dolls made this way seem to have been the kamo
dolls, carved of willow wood, in the 18th and 19th centuries. They were
small and contrasted the glued cloth with natural wood surfaces.
Nowadays the bodies of kimekomi dolls are usually formed of wood
composition or a
high-quality plastic foam. Artists may mold and carve the composition
into very beautiful shapes, applying the gofun, cloth, and hair to
complete an individual vision. For beginners, the kimekomi dolls come
in kits with tools, completely finished heads, and rough bodies; the
bodies have slits into which small pieces of fabric are secured and
glued onto the surfaces, allowing for an elaborate and lively play of
patterns.
19th-century kamo ningyo at the Yanagawa Ohana museum.
See Kimekomi
Ningyou for a discussion of the technique.
Information about making the dolls and a huge gallery
is Washington Japanese
Doll and Crafts School.
The premier Japanese company producing kimekomi kits
is Mataro Doll Academy, but they no longer seem to have an English website. One can look at this page to see the dolls being made, or clock on links to see the range of dolls they offer.
Mixed media. Many types of ningyo with wigs and fabric
clothing (festival hina and ningyo, three-fold costume or play dolls, babies,
Takeda ningyo), were the work of teams of specialists who created the heads,
bodies, clothing, and wigs separately.
Such dolls had carved and smoothly finished wood (or
toso composition, less likely to swell unevenly with climate) heads as well
as the lower part of the legs and arms. For play dolls, the limbs would
be attached to a carved or molded wood body (often sexed) or to a cloth or
papier-mache body with a squeaker; limbs would be attached with cloth joints (usually),
or peg joints, or wire or bamboo rods, or (later) elastic bands.
Hina ningyo heads usually have a pointed
dowel below the neck which fits into the body. The body of the
seated hina might be straw stuffing, or even rolled paper,
inside
the beautiful clothes. Warriors and geisha may have bundled reeds as
the basis of their bodies; a seated lord might have a block of wood as
the basis of his torso, padded out with whatever was handy.
The visible parts of the body were finished with gofun,
a sort of lacquer made of oyster shells and glue, which could be applied
in many layers and polished to give a beautiful pearly quality to the skin.
Nowadays such dolls may have plastic, resin, or gypsum-based masks and hands.
The clothing may be elaborately padded and
constructed costumes, not meant to be removed; it is sometimes easy to
see the "joints" where the doll's costume is divided at the shoulders
or the waist. Other types of dolls may wear a baby's costume or kimono
with sash,
jacket, and so on which can be removed.
This site offers photos of wood and gofun ningyo
under construction:
Hirano
Masamichi's doll making process
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