Fascinating Iki-ningyo (Living Doll) of a Peddler, Meiji Period

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22" (56 cm.) Iki-ningyo (Living Doll), depicting a standing workman, is fashioned of wood and covered overall in a pigmented gofun, with inset glass eyes, and individually inserted real hair strands, depicted with a bushy mustache and chin beard, open mouth with individually realized teeth, finely detailed musculature executed in a hyper-realistic manner, and is clothed only in a loincloth with left arm raised and right hand gesturing to a now-missing object, mounted on a flat wood stand, Some old repairs, loss of hair. High Meiji Period, Late 19th century. Exhibited Morikami Museum (2012); Published: Japanese Dolls: The Fascinating World of Ningyo, p.144 and Entertaining the Gods and Man: Japanese Dolls and the Theater, p. 57. Though originating as exhibition pieces in the late Edo Period, iki-ningyo became exceptionally popular in the late 19th century for the export market, fulfilling the demand for Japanese "exotica", following Japan's opening to the West in the mid-19th century. Affluent Western travelers viewed them as something akin to 3-D postcards capturing "true Japan," and were sold in the ports through important shops such as Deakin Bros. and Kuhn and Komar.