Talismanic Wooden Doll (Hoso-Ningyo) with Characteristic Red Hair, Circa 1800

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12" (30 cm.) h. overall. 8 1/2" ningyo. Standing upon a wooden plinth with carved legs is a wooden socket-headed ningyo with tinted gofun complexion, painted facial features, narrow eyes, mouth designed as though open with painted teeth, hip-length straight red hair with bangs, wooden block torso, wooden hands and feet, wearing red silk coat (uchigake), three inner collars of variant colors, dense trousers of gold-leafed silk (kinran), and holding a long-handled sake scoop and tray. The plinth has original (rubbed) gold finish with umber borders. Very good overall condition with some fading of complexion. Edo era, circa 1800. The ningyo, depicting a sake-loving imp (Shogo), designed as a talisman to ward against devastating childhood diseases, the doll was designed to be placed near a child, with the belief that diseases would be attracted to the red hair of the doll, rather than to the child. Few examples exist today of this exceptionally rare ningyo. This doll is shown and discussed in Ningyo, The Art of the Japanese Doll, by Alan Scott Pate, page 271.