Significant Musha-Ningyo Set Depicting Gempuku (Coming of Age), Edo Period

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15" (38 cm.) seated. Significant musha-ningyo set depicting the gempuku (coming of age) ceremony featuring three figures, each with exceptionally rendered faces with exaggerated and concentrated features, painted details and silk fiber hair, and each dressed in suo style kimono of the samurai nobility, consisting of a wide sleeved outer hitatare jacket and matching nagabakama long-legged trousers of unlined asa hemp bast fiber, a leather band flanking the jacket opening, hikitate eboshi cap with an additional white hachimaki headband tied in the back which is typically reserved for ceremonial contexts. The central figure represents a young boy participating in this important rite ushering him into manhood, flanked by two of his trusted advisors. Minor wear to textiles, lacquer accessories are replaced. Edo Period, circa 1800, Exhibited: Japan Society (1996) Mingei International Museum (2005). Published Ningyo: The Art of the Human Figure, p. 61, Ningyo: The Art of the Japanese Doll, p. 161-162. The gempuku is one of the most important rituals in a young man's life. Held typically between the ages of 12-15, it was actually performed when the boy reached a height of 4'6". Although coming of age ceremonies were held in all of the different social classes (nobility, samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant), it was deemed exceptionally important within the world of the samurai and held with great reverence. At this time his forelock is shaved to create the long shaved pate of the samurai male and he is deemed ready to assume his duties as a fully participating adult in samurai society. Ningyo tableau depicting the gempuku are exceptionally rare and this is the only documented set outside of Japan.