Passed
Click image to enlarge
Description
6 1/2" (17 cm.) The small simply-rendered cold painted tsuchi-ningyo (earthen doll) depicting a Sumo wrestler is covered in gofun with painted details depicting a standing fleshy sumo wrestler with rounded belly, stylized flower-like belly button, hair in a top knot, wearing a red keishomawashi apron with blue and gold band and fringe. Wear to gofun finish. Meiji Era, late 19th century. Published Japanese Dolls: The Fascinating World of Ningyo. Beginning in the 16th century the Fushimi area just south of Kyoto was home to a robust clay doll-making center which initially focused on figures designed to be donated to the Fushimi-Inari Shrine which was located there or to be taken home as sacred talismans. But their popularity spread and by the 19th century this area was producing a wide range of souvenir type dolls, still accompanied by the belief that dolls made from the soil around Fushimi would have special protective powers. Tsuchi-ningyo can be found in all regions of Japan, each with its distinctive style and range of signature-like figures; another example is the popular hakata-ningyo in Kyushu.