By Isla Quinn
No arms. No legs. A round head, a plain trunk, a few thin lines for a face. Then flowers, rings, a wash of red. That is a kokeshi, and once you have seen three you start telling them apart across a shop.
Where they come from
Wikipedia says kokeshi are simple wooden dolls from the Tohoku region, in northern Honshu, made for more than 150 years as children’s toys. The earliest makers worked around the middle of the Edo period, which ran from 1600 to 1868, and sold to hot-spring visitors. It names Shinchi Shuraku, near Togatta Onsen in Zao, as where production began. A guide on Nippon.com, a Japan-focused news site, gives a slightly different picture: kokeshi arose in the late Edo period, when artisans who turned wooden bowls and trays on horizontal lathes used offcuts to make toys. The early dolls were very small, so young children could grip them. Both say hot-spring visitors bought them, and that is how the onsen towns came to make them.
Made on a lathe
Wikipedia says the earliest makers were kijishi, artisans skilled with a lathe. The body is a simple trunk and head, with no limbs. Decoration is floral or ring designs in red and black, sometimes green, purple, blue or yellow, then covered in wax. Wikipedia names three woods: cherry, valued for its darkness; dogwood, which is softer; and itaya-kaede, a Japanese maple. It says the wood is seasoned outdoors for one to five years before use. Since the 1950s, it adds, makers have usually signed their work on the underside, sometimes on the back.
Reading the styles
Both sources group the traditional dolls by hot-spring area, though they do not count them the same way. Wikipedia lists eleven regional styles. Nippon.com says they fall into 10 to 12 styles, then lists twelve. Here are the twelve the Nippon.com guide describes, with the details it gives.
- Tsugaru, Aomori: bobbed hair, a cinched waist and a flared, skirt-like base, often painted with daruma or peonies.
- Nanbu, Iwate: a loosely attached head that knocks.
- Kijiyama, Akita: single-piece construction, a small elongated head, and a red ribbon-like ornament.
- Naruko, Miyagi: a head fixed by a peg, which squeaks when turned, with chrysanthemum or maple designs.
- Sakunami, Miyagi: slim, based on the original toy design, with shoulders and base turned on a potter’s wheel.
- Togatta, Miyagi: a large head with a red radiating pattern on top.
- Yajiro, Miyagi: a head slightly larger than the trunk, with carving marks like a beret.
- Hijiori, Yamagata: crescent-moon eyes and a usually yellow trunk; some larger ones have heads filled with adzuki beans that rattle.
- Yamagata, Yamagata: made in the city rather than a hot-spring town, with a small head and slim trunk.
- Zao Takayu, Yamagata: a thick, heavy trunk and a red radiating ornament on the head.
- Tsuchiyu, Fukushima: a small head, a slim trunk, a long nose and a tiny red mouth, with a bull’s-eye pattern cut into the head on a wheel lathe.
- Nakanosawa, Fukushima: large red-rimmed eyes and a broad nose.
Wikipedia calls Naruko the most dominant style. Nippon.com names the three main production centres as Naruko and Togatta in Miyagi Prefecture and Tsuchiyu in Fukushima.
The sounds
This is the part that makes them hard to put down. Nippon.com says some heads are attached so that they make a sound when moved: Nanbu heads knock, Naruko heads squeak. Some makers carve the head and trunk from one piece, others fit the head separately. Our reading: if you are choosing between styles, turn the head gently in the shop and see what it does, since the sound belongs to the way the head is joined.
What the red means
Nippon.com says farmers visiting the hot springs in the off season were an early market, and artisans began painting the previously plain wood. It says red was the most common colour, believed to ward off evil and illnesses such as smallpox, and that farmers took dolls home as lucky charms for the harvest. Children’s dolls were meant to promote health and strength. Wikipedia, by contrast, says a popular theory linking kokeshi to infanticide has little or no evidence, with the earliest references dating only from 1965. We do not build on that theory.
The name, and the revival
Wikipedia says the origin of the name is unclear and that the hiragana spelling was agreed at the All-Japan Kokeshi Exhibition at Naruko Onsen in August 1939. Nippon.com says artisans and collectors agreed in 1940 to standardise the name, and lists older regional names, kogesu, kiboko and deko. The two sources are a year apart, and we show both.
Nippon.com says popularity has risen and fallen, with a boost in the late-1960s boom, and that today’s revival is led mainly by young women who call themselves kokeshi joshi. Wikipedia describes a second family, the creative kokeshi, which developed after 1945. They allow complete freedom in shape, design and colour, are not tied to a region, and are generally made by artists in cities.
Dates in order
- Mid-Edo period (1600 to 1868): earliest makers sell to hot-spring visitors, according to Wikipedia.
- August 1939: hiragana spelling agreed at Naruko, according to Wikipedia.
- 1940: name standardised, according to Nippon.com.
- 1950s: makers begin to sign the underside, according to Wikipedia.
- After 1945: creative kokeshi develop, according to Wikipedia.
- 1965: earliest references to the infanticide theory, according to Wikipedia.
Side by side
Both sources place the dolls in Tohoku hot-spring towns and the Edo period. They differ on the number of styles, the year of the name, and whether the first dolls were sold to bathers or made from bowl-maker’s offcuts. Both can be true at once.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia, an open encyclopaedia, and Nippon.com, a Japanese news and culture website. Neither is a museum or a craft association. We have left out the names of shops and living makers.
What we left out
Prices, workshop and shop names, the kokeshi aeroplane design, any method for repainting or repairing a doll, and the claim that one maker is the only remaining producer of a style, which we could not confirm.
Quick answers
Where do kokeshi dolls come from?
According to Wikipedia, they come from the Tohoku region in northern Honshu, where the earliest makers sold them to hot-spring visitors around the middle of the Edo period.
What are kokeshi made of?
Wikipedia says they are handmade from wood, with cherry, dogwood and itaya-kaede named, seasoned outdoors for one to five years, then painted and covered in wax.
What is the difference between traditional and creative kokeshi?
Wikipedia says traditional kokeshi follow regional styles tied to Tohoku hot-spring towns. Creative kokeshi, which developed after 1945, allow free shape, design and colour and are not tied to a region.
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Roam first. Shop later.