Passed
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Description
21" (53 cm.) Depicting children of the buke (military) class, each has rounded gosho-style head and hands of wood covered in gofun with painted details, silk fiber hair with her's done in an okappa banged style and his with a chassen mage (tea whisk style) appropriate for youth of their class, and is depicted barefoot and mounted on fabric covered stands. The wakagime (young prince) wears an orange silk brocade sleeveless jacket tied with a purple silk crepe closure over a bold green and orange plaid kimono tucked into equally gold, green, blue and white plaid hakama trousers, with a fan in his right hand and two finely wrought swords at his hip; and the himegime (young princess) is also dressed in a sleeveless jacket, but of green figured silk with supplemental embroidery over a fine orange figured silk kosode kimono with embroidered designs of shochikubai (three friends of winter) motif of bamboo, plum and pine trees, and is holding a tsuzumi small drum in her right hand and has a fan tucked into her broad silk brocade obi tie belt. Light fading of textiles, minor soiling of gofun. Edo Period, 19th century. Published in Japanese Dolls: The Fascinating World of Ningyo, p. 116. Also known as nannyo warawara (noble boy and girl), these stunning pairings of children of the buke or kuge (noble) classes are among the most prized ningyo forms of the Edo Period. Traditionally gosho-ningyo focused almost exclusively on male children as symbols of health, with only a few mitate parody forms depicting females. So, as a gosho form, himegime were quite exceptional in that they were one of the few female styles of gosho created during the Edo Period.