Passed
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Description
20" (51 cm.) Each having head of wood covered in a fine gofun with inset glass eyes and painted details including okimayu skybrows and blackened teeth befitting their imperial rank, the pair posed resting atop separate silk banded tatami mat bases. Including a luxuriously attired me-bina (lady) wearing a layered robe of silk brocade and silk crepe with richly embroidered sleeves featuring a flying crane design, a silk brocade kake-obi draped over her shoulders supports a gauze mo train in back bearing auspicious painted shochikubai (Three Friends of Winter) design of pine, plum and bamboo, her long human hair in a single braid trailing down the back with paper cuffs and ties, dramatic phoenix-topped crown with trailing bead and metal pendants, with a delicately-painted folding fan splayed between her two hands; and o-bina (lord) wearing a formal black sokutai robe with a tatewaku undulating line pattern and red inner lining, he holds a shaku scepter in his right hand a long sword at his left hip, and with a black lacquered eboshi court cap and tail ei (tail). Soiling to gofun faces, fading and wear to textiles, wear, staining and fading to silk banding on bases. Early Meiji Era, late 19th century. Exhibited Japan Society (1996). Published Ningyo: The Art of the Human Figure, p. 42. As a distinct style of hina, Kokin-bina were created by the Edo/Tokyo artisan Hara Shugetsu and by the end of the Edo Period were the dominant style of hina.