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This page was designed and is maintained 
by Judy Shoaf, jshoaf@clas.ufl.edu. 
Please let me know if there is a link 
that is no longer valid, 
or one that you know of that should be added! 
However, I am NOT AN APPRAISER OR DEALER 
and can't tell you about the value of your dolls. 
Nor do I know any appraisers or dealers. 

Puppets and mechanical dolls

  While dolls are not the same thing as puppets, the esthetics of Japanese dolls are also expressed in the large puppets which perform plays or decorate festival carts. 
  The Bunraku puppets are made with wooden heads and hands covered with gofun and delicately painted; then they are richly clothed. Very likely the technology of producing such ravishing figures was adapted from the puppets to the hina and other dolls. 
 

  There are also mechanical puppets made purely for amusement, either Gosho types adapted to give domestic service or Kobe dolls performing artisanal tasks. 

Bunraku Puppets
Bunraku, or Ningyo Jorurui, is a venerable form of theater in Japan.  A joruri performance involves a musician, a storyteller or narrator, and a group of puppeteers who manipulate each large jointed figures who acto out the stories. Most of the puppeteers wear black, including masks, but the one who moves the head usually allows his face to be seen. Bunraku theater grew as a rival to Kabuki, and many of the same plays are performed in both theaters; at one time, more good plays were being written for the puppets than for human actors!
 
  • Lotz Studios Wooden Dolls--Japan--descriptions and examples of many types of dolls, including Bunraku puppets and Kobe mechanical dolls.
  • An Introduction to Bunraku includes historical information, details about stage and puppet construction, and performance videos.
  • Pamphlet on Bunraku covers some of the same points as the preceding site. Wonderful view of the entire stage on the opening page.
  • Artelino article shows a couple of woodblock prints of puppets.
  • Tonda Bunraku Troupe site in Shiga Prefecture.
  • Bunraku Bay Puppet Theater has an excellent website and offers the opportunity to see this theater in the U.S.
  • A wonderful photo gallery of puppets.
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    Karakuri or festival dolls
    Karakuri celebrates various types of dolls, often mechanical, used to decorate festival carts borne through the city or countryside on holidays. These festival dolls, often automatons, may have been the earliest kind of "doll theater," producing later actual theatrical spectacles using moving dolls (mechanical or puppet) and eventually the skills and market for private ownership of some dolls.
     
  •   Karakuri Info page. This is a nice site. Be sure to click on the "Dashi karakuri" link to see pictures of some of the puppets on festival floats.
  • A site in Nagoya gives information and shows a photo.
  • Karakuri Ningyou or Mechanized Dolls --Four important festival karakuri described and illustrated.

    • YouTube has some interesting videos of karakuri dolls, including an Edo period doll which can write with a brush. Search on "karakuri."

    Kobe toys were made in the port of Kobe abround 1880-1940. They are small carved wooden figures which  often represent foreigners, especially Negros, engaged in some task which the mechanism allows them to perform in a comical repetitive manner. Jean Lotz has some illustrations at her Japanese wood dolls site.