$800
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Description
6" (15 cm.) Refined and beautiful example of a sandai-chigo (court-visiting doll) dressed in a rich chirimen silk crepe kimono with elaborately embroidered sleeves tucked into white hakama trousers, depicted kneeling on a silk brocade zabuton cushion, head and hands of wood covered in gofun with painted details, real hair would have originally been arranged in a chigo-wa or binboku looped hairstyle, Edo Period, Circa 1800. Exhibited Japan Society (1996). Published Ningyo: The Art of the Human Figure as the cover image as well as page 60. This exceptional doll was selected by Sumie Kobayashi of Yoshitoku to grace the cover of this important early exhibition catalog. Sandai-chigo were gift dolls given to children of the nobility on the occasion of their first presentation at court or at different rites of passage. The delicate embroidery of the sleeves matches the patterning on the zabuton cushion.