Japanese Dolls: The fascinating World of Ningyo

By Alan Scott Pate

Japanese Dolls: The Fascinating World of Ningyo, is a wealth of information for Japanese art collectors, Asian doll collectors and doll enthusiasts of all levels and interests.

Full of beautiful photographs, the book details 18 kinds of widely collected, obtainable and affordable, antique and vintage dolls and figurines (ningyo). Author Alan Scott Pate--the leading American expert on Japanese dolls--writes in illuminating detail about the traditions of each type of doll and shares practical tips on how to collect this amazing Japanese art form.

Included in this guide to Japanese ningyo are:

• Festival dolls: hina-ningyo, musha-ningyo, tableau dolls
• Display dolls: saga-ningyo, gosho-ningyo, isho-ningyo, iki-ningyo
• Wood dolls: kamo-ningyo, nara-ningyo, kokeshi-ningyo
• Clay dolls: fushimi-ningyo, hakata-ningyo
• Mechanical dolls: karakuri-ningyo, kobe-ningyo
• Theatrical dolls: bunraku-ningyo, takeda-ningyo
• Play dolls: ichimatsu-ningyo, keue saiko

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
• Release date: May 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781462907076

Book preview

(Detail) Sendai kokeshi pair, Showa era, 20th century, height 12 inches. Moreno Collection.

Interior view with bijin-ningyō. Norwood Collection.

Japanese Dolls

THE FASCINATING WORLD OF NINGYō

Text and photographs by

Alan Scott Pate

T U T T L E    P U B L I S H I N G

Tokyo • Rutland,Vermont • Singapore

To Robert Capriccio, my best friend, and for a million other reasons....

Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd, with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, Vermont 05759, USA, and 61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12, Singapore 534167.

Copyright © 2008 Alan S. Pate

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Control Number 2007930166

ISBN: 978-1-4629-0707-6 (ebook)

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Ningyō display by Alan Scott Pate Antique Japanese Dolls, Arts of Asia Pacific Show, New York. Courtesy of Alan Scott Pate Antique Japanese Dolls.

Gosho-ningyō named Mikika photographed in the home of Jules Adeline, ca. 1883. Courtesy of Stephane Rioland, Paris.

Contents

The World of Japanese Dolls

Walking down 8th Avenue in New York City near Madison Square Gardens, I happened to see a group of Japanese dolls arranged in a hotel shop window display (Fig. 1). Pressed close up against the glass, in front of posters advertising Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Rent, and other popular Broadway shows, surrounded by resin-cast miniature Statues of Liberty and inhabiting a world otherwise populated by Americana kitsch, the dolls depicted beautiful young women in classic Japanese poses. Some held fans, others held flutes, parasols, or flowering branches, all quintessential accouterments for a style of doll known as bijin-ningyō. Were they selling ningyō on a Manhattan street corner? On closer inspection, the dolls were obviously new. The fabrics held a sheen closer to polyester than silk. The white faces were somewhat dull, looking more like plastic than traditional gofun. Going inside, I asked the shopkeeper where the dolls came from. Were they Japanese? No, China! came the curt reply. Japanese dolls being manufactured in China and sold in tourist shops in Manhattan! A surprising indicator of the level of ubiquity and the truly iconic nature to which Japanese dolls have risen.

Doll collecting is one of the most popular pastimes in the West. The vast majority of collectors focus on dolls from their own culture, dolls that evoke nostalgic memories of their childhood, or newly emerging styles enjoying the heady rush of voguish popularity (Fig. 2). Economically, antique doll collecting in the US accounts for tens of millions of dollars per year. It is undoubtedly big business. Auction houses across the country, like Theriaults and Withington, stage doll-specific auctions with great frequency. Numerous magazines are dedicated to doll collecting. Doll clubs exist in every state where individual members share their prized possessions. While the more classic mid-nineteenth century parian and china dolls, French bisque dolls by such makers as Thuillier, Halopeau, and Albert Marque, the latter whose dolls wore clothing specially designed by Margaines-Lacroix, continue to set auction records, modern styles from Beanie Babies to Madame Alexander are forming the bases for new collections. But Japanese dolls, despite their presence in homes across the country and, indeed, in shop windows in Manhattan, are still considered exotic, largely unknown on any real level. Publications dedicated to ningyō in Western languages are scarce. Information is limited and often fragmented or inaccurate. While many may be familiar with bijin-ningyō or ichimatsu play dolls by sight, few know much about their history, their true roles in Japanese culture, or the enormous diversity to be found within the larger category of Japanese dolls. All of this makes it difficult for the collector interested in antique Japanese dolls to make informed decisions.

This book is designed to raise the general level of understanding of antique Japanese dolls, known as ningyō; to help those who would like to collect them to learn more about the various types of ningyō traditionally made in Japan, and to provide illustrations of superlative examples. Along the way, we will also explore a little of the history of collecting these beautiful forms. Who were the first collectors? What did they collect? Where are those pieces today? Finally, general tips on the care and preservation of ningyō are given, along with some hints on where to buy and view quality antique Japanese dolls.

Fig. 1 Japanese dolls in a New York City display window. Photo Author.

Fig. 2 New York City advertisement using a doll. Photo Author.

Fig. 3 Yūsoku-bina pair, Edo period, 19th century, height 20 inches. Rosen Collection. Photo Lynton Gardiner.

Collecting Japanese Dolls

Who was the very first collector? Caches of related objects found in Stone Age caves indicate that collecting, in some form, has been around since the dawn of man.¹ In the realm of recorded history, some say that the first collector was the fourteenth-century BCE Egyptian pharaoh Amanhotep III, who coveted the heir-looms of a previous ruler and so had the tomb summarily opened in order to retrieve the objects of his desire. In terms of self-identified collectors, history points to the third-century Attalus I of Pergamum, who had a deep passion for early Greek art.² Within the East Asian tradition, the Chinese can point to their own lengthy history of collecting calligraphy, paintings, and bronzes beginning in the third century CE, if not earlier.³ In Japan, the collecting of calligraphy examples was an early focus dating to at least the Nara period in the eighth century. The country’s treasure repository known as the Shōsōin, dating from this same period, houses what might be considered the oldest intact art collection in the world.⁴ Undoubtedly, collecting has a long and venerated history. It is a natural and universal impulse.

Ultimately, though, what does it mean to collect? Joseph Alsop in his pioneering work on the history of art collecting provides the following definition: To collect is to gather objects belonging to a particular category the collector happens to fancy; and art collecting is a form of collecting in which the category is, broadly speaking, works of art.⁵ The weight of this definition rests on two points: the individual’s perspective on what he/she fancies and the tendency to categorize objects. Collecting is an inherently personal activity. It speaks of the interests, tastes, and curiosities of the individual. Our daily lives are filled with a multitude of objects ranging from the innately practical and utilitarian to the marvelously superfluous. Out of this vast expanse of innumerable objects, both contemporary and historical, the collector finds pleasure in, is drawn to, or somehow chooses certain things, certain categories to collect. Even more narrowly defined areas of collecting can be subdivided into further categories of specialization. Although antique Japanese dolls may appear to be a relatively specific field, subcategories abound: festival dolls such as the Girl’s Day hina-ningyō and the Boy’s Day musha-ningyō; or display dolls, including saga-ningyō, gosho-ningyō, and ishō-ningyō (Fig. 5). Collections can be categorized by the material used, for example, wood dolls such as kamo-ningyō and nara-ningyō, or clay forms such as fushimi-ningyō and hakata-ningyō. Alternatively, they can be classified according to purpose, for example, ningyō used for performances and entertainment such as bunraku-ningyō and karakuri-ningyō, or others which were designed for play such as mitsuore-ningyō and ichimatsu-ningyō. What is collected or, indeed, how the collected objects are categorized depends on both the individual’s proclivities as well as larger classifications accepted by fellow collectors and society at large.

Fig. 4 Interior view with ningyō. Lapin Collection.

Fig. 5 Gosho-ningyō group, ca. 1880. Photo Author’s Collection.

Fig. 6 Enlightening Pursuits, exhibition announcement, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2001. Courtesy of Michael Ayervais.

Fig. 7 Ningyō: The Art of the Human Figure, exhibition announcement, Japan Society, New York, 1995. Courtesy of Michael Ayervais.

Trends and foci regarding collecting have shifted dramatically over time. In some eras it was a social vogue, a hallmark of the educated, a somewhat élitist and discriminating activity. In other eras it was considered a quaint hobby, a quirk, or an amusing self-indulgence. In modern times it has been increasingly perceived as a smart investment. But for the true collector, in any era, it is usually about a uniquely personal passion, a compulsion, and a desire to acquire and possess beautiful things. The celebrated collector and connoisseur of Old Masters’ drawings, Eugene Thaw, once stated: The motivation [to collect] comes from the need for aesthetic eye satisfaction and the need to order the resulting accumulation.⁶ The desire to possess a beautiful object and then, once acquired, to organize it is the basis of all collecting.

As they say, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and definitions of what is noteworthy as an art form, or what is desirable as a collected object, have been similarly subjective. Gertrude Stein once famously stated: Nothing changes from one generation to another except the way of seeing.⁷ The inherent beauty or quality of an object never changes, but how that beauty or interest is perceived frequently does. Although it is now largely agreed that classical Greek and Roman sculpture is one of the high points of Western civilization, until the 1950s such sculptures from antiquity were seen more as curiosities than fine works of art.⁸ Within the realm of Japanese art, Japanese wood-block prints are an excellent example of subjective shifts in perceived beauty and value. What began as a mass-produced consumer good in Japan evolved into a coveted category of collecting. The vogue for collecting prints, which began in the late nineteenth century and continues today, began in some respects with the discovery of these beautiful works serving as raw packing material, crumpled and discarded by the very culture that produced them.⁹ As a result, the Japanese came late to their own collecting party, and the finest collections of woodblock prints are not found in Japan but in the West. The perceived beauty and, above all, desirability of these forms, first promoted through savvy European dealers such as Siegfried Bing (1838–1905) and Hayashi Tadamasa (1853–1906), or the American architect and print dealer Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959), was fueled by the enthusiasms of artists and collectors who responded to the bold new aesthetics exemplified in the Japanese woodblock print. Thus, it has been in many fields of art and art history that collectors, and the dealers they patronize, have led the way in the exploration of new art forms previously overlooked or underappreciated by both the museum and academic communities.¹¹

Fig. 8 Ningyō: The Art of the Japanese Doll, Mingei International Museum exhibition, San Diego, 2005. Photo Lynton Gardiner.

Ningyō fall squarely into this category. Historically, it has been the enthusiasms and passions of the individual collectors that have helped to preserve and continue to elevate the perceptions of ningyō. Laboring heavily under the inconsequential term doll, these spectacular and rich artistic forms have, for the most part, remained far below the radar screen of most academics and museum curators. Institutional holdings abound, but these collections have frequently languished through lack of care and a general lack of understanding of the nature and value of the pieces themselves. Even in Japan, the majority of the national art museums tuck ningyō safely away under the curatorial supervision of the textile department, frequently an unwelcome burden resulting in only the perfunctory annual display of dolls around the Hina-matsuri season in response to the inevitable spike in public interest at this time. Curators such as Kirihata Ken, formerly of the Kyoto National Museum, represent the rare exception of the museum curator and scholar who has seen inherent value in the doll as an art form, a very real and valuable cultural expression, steeped in tradition and worthy of independent focus and study. His works on the topic have provided the basis for much of this author’s research.

Such deprecating attitudes towards ningyō are, however, changing. Exhibitions featuring ningyō outside of Japan are growing in frequency, helping to elevate public awareness and curatorial appreciation for the form. The New York Japan Society’s Ningyō: The Art of the Human Figure in 1995, featuring selections from the Ayervais Collection supplemented with material from the Peabody Essex Museum, might be considered the first seminal exhibition of ningyō outside of Japan (Fig. 7). The catalog which accompanied this exhibition, with essays by Kawakami Shigeki of the Kyoto National Museum, represented a real step forward in English language scholarship on the topic of ningyō. In 1998 an exhibition of antique and contemporary Japanese dolls entitled The Dolls of Japan: Shapes of Prayer, Embodiments of Love, was held in New Orleans, before traveling to Michigan State University in 2004 and Emory University Library in 2005. In 2000 the Frederick Starr East Asian Library on the Columbia University campus displayed nearly sixty ningyō from the collection of Mr and Mrs William Pickens III, which were being donated to that institution. In 2001 the New York Metropolitan Museum displayed a selection of ningyō drawn from the Ayervais Collection, entitled Enlightening Pursuits, as part of their Japan gallery rotation (Fig. 6). An exhibition by the Morikami Museum in Delray Beach, Florida, held in 2005, entitled Ningyō: Antique Japanese Dolls from the Collection of Mr and Mrs Joel Rosen, was another significant milestone, especially as it featured an exquisite selection of Edo-period ningyō presented with an illustrated catalog.

Fig. 9 Interior of the Thomas apartment, Tokyo, ca. 1950. Photo Thomas-Justice Collection.

The most important exhibition to date, however, was the Mingei International Museum’s exhibition in San Diego, also held in 2005, entitled Ningyō: The Art of the Japanese Doll (Fig. 8). Curated by this author, the exhibition featured over 200 exquisite ningyō drawn from collections all across the US. This constituted the first real opportunity for the general public to see a broad cross-section of high-quality antique Japanese dolls covering a range and diversity of type seldom seen even in Japan.

Although the list of exhibitions above appears to signal a new tide of interest in Japanese dolls, the collecting of this beautiful tradition has a long and interesting history. From the first introduction of ningyō to the Western world in the nineteenth century, the acquisition and study of these extraordinary objects has largely been propelled by the energies of collectors. Individuals like James Tissot (1836–1902), Jules Adeline (1845–1909), Eloise Thomas (1907–82), and Samuel Pryor (1898–1985), whose collections will be addressed later in this volume, were pioneering in their collecting habits, discovering early on the importance and beauty of ningyō (Fig. 9). In Japan, their counterparts were products of the Meiji restoration, gentlemen and artists who took stock of their immediate cultural surroundings, watching it disappear before the onslaught of the West, and discovered a renewed appreciation for an art form that had long been taken for granted. Nishizawa Senko (1864–1914) and Shimizu Seifū (1851–1913) led the charge. Collectors and educators, they helped to instill a profound interest in and dedication to the preservation of traditional ningyō which was admirably carried on by their successors, Nishizawa Tekiho (1889–1965), Endō Takeshi (b.1897) (Fig. 10), and Yoshikawa Kanpo (1894–1979).

The collectors of today are following in their footsteps. Indeed, a number of important pieces found in collections today can be traced back to some of these earlier efforts. The twenty-first century represents an unusual opportunity for collectors of Japanese dolls. Grossly undervalued, ningyō of great merit can still be acquired and significant collections can still be developed for a fraction of the costs associated with almost any other field of art collecting. Museums and academic institutions are gradually opening up to the intrinsic artistic and cultural value of these forms as well (Fig. 11). With a number of exhibitions planned for the coming years, a knowledge and appreciation of ningyō will continue to grow, creating ever more opportunities for the world to discover the priceless legacy of antique Japanese dolls.

Fig. 10 Endō Takeshi Collection at Unai-sō Villa, Tokyo, ca. 1912. Photo Private Collection, Japan.

Fig. 11 Amagatsu-ningyō. Mingei International Museum Collection. Photo Lynton Gardiner.

The present work is, in many respects, a continuation of the author’s previous publication, Ningyō: The Art of the Japanese Doll (Tuttle, 2005), which introduced for the first time in a non-Japanese language the deep roots and rich history of ningyō in Japanese culture. Here we shift our focus to collecting, discussing not only various forms of ningyō that one might collect, from the luxurious display dolls of the Hina-matsuri to the quirky little hand-held mechanical dolls known as kobe-ningyō, but also exploring the history of ningyō collecting itself. By tracing the evolution of some of the early great ningyō collections, both in and outside of Japan, we gain a clearer glimpse not only of what constitutes a superior collection of antique Japanese dolls but also of how ningyō themselves have been regarded, pursued, and collected over the last 150 years. The individuals involved in this aspect of ningyō history are fascinating characters in and of themselves, each playing important social and art-historical roles in their own day. The results of their efforts form a rich patrimony from which we all are currently benefiting today.

Fig. 12 Hōsō-ningyō, Edo period, 19th century, height 15½ inches. Hannig Collection.

Fig. 13 Goten (palace) doll display, Showa era, early 20th century, height 23½ inches. Carabet Collection.

Ningyō have played a far more important role in Japanese culture than one might initially imagine. From the dawn of Japanese history right down to the present day, ningyō have been woven into the very fabric of Japanese society, serving a multitude of roles from talismanic to onanistic, from high art to child’s play, and nearly every conceivable shade in between (Fig. 12). Through dolls one might explore such a startling array of subjects pertaining to nearly every conceivable facet of Japanese culture and history, from politics to religion, from textile weaves to the role of women, from domestic trade to foreign policy, from fertility to literature, from martial history to beliefs in the supernatural, and from technology to the socialization of children, so that even the most casual observer can see how ningyō represent a category of objects that goes far beyond our limited concept of doll.

However fascinating it is to tumble down the rabbit hole of cultural connections and symbolic meanings, ningyō are first and foremost a beautiful art form, one that was created, marketed, and sold. Ningyō were part of the art culture as well as the economics of the period. Doll shops and doll artists worked closely together, constituting an economic team, and the dynamics of the Japanese marketplace 150 years ago is not so very different from what it is today.

Behind the Curtain:

Anatomy of a Doll Shop

When one casts an eye over the history of Japanese dolls in the Edo period, certain makers or retailers immediately stand out: Hishiya Jirōzaemon, which is celebrated for its creation of the jirōzaemon-bina in Kyoto, with later shops in Edo; Izukura Kihei in Osaka, whose shop became synonymous with gosho-style ningyō; and the long-lived Nezumiya Būzen in Edo, with its prominent shop on Nihonbashi, which was an aggressive marketer of Hara Shūgetsu’s kokin-bina. The Nezumiya Būzen had a documented history in Edo as official supplier to the shogunate from the mid-eighteenth century into the opening decades of the Meiji era, a 200-year span—a feat closely seconded by Nezumiya Būzen’s neighbor Tachibana Shinano. These two shops were immortalized in a woodblock print from 1682 that shows the two shops side by side, the rat-decorated noren (shop curtain) of Nezumiya next to the orange blossom crest of the Tachibana-ya¹ (Fig.16). Behind the curtains we can see arrayed a number of standing ningyō for the Gogatsu (Boy’s Day) celebrations. In front, a porter carries away a large standing figure that appears to be