Passed
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Description
17" (43 cm.) h. including crown. The dairi-bina imperial couple, with heads of wood that is covered in gofun with painted details, diminutive features, real hair with the me-bina arranged in a long single braid trailing down the back with silk and paper cuffs, includes the o-bina (imperial lord) wearing a black sokutai ho of great formality, seated cross-legged with sashinuki trousers with the kani-arare checkerboard pattern and formal kanmuri court cap with tall ei tail, and holding a shaku scepter in his right hand and long sword at hip; and the me-bina (imperial lady) whose costume of slightly less formal textiles comprises a series of silk brocade outer kimono over her nagabakama trousers, briodo black velvet accents, and a silk brocade kake-obi suspending a beautiful gauze mo train in the back with a large ho-o phoenix design. Wear and degradation to black ho, fading to textiles, replaced nagabakama on female, loss to hair. Late 18th/Early 19th century, circa 1800. Exhibited Mingei International Museum (2005). Published in Ningyo: The Art of the Japanese Doll, p. 107. Jirozaemon-bina was the creation of Ohinaya Jirozaemon, an important Kyoto-based atelier that also had established branches in Edo. Supplier to the imperial family, Jirozaemon was noted for his high quality ningyo. In the late 18th century he created a new hina form that was noted for its unusual round head and diminutive features that were said to hearken back to Heian period painted images. Referred to as hikime kagihana (line-eyes-dash nose), this minimalist style already existed in tachi-bina and other very early hina. But Jirozaemon paired this with a toned-down version of the Kyohobina that more closely resembled pure court style known as yusoku. His creations were an immediate success rendering this as one of the dominant hina forms throughout the late 18th and into the early 19th centuries.