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Miyagi Kokeshi Dolls The Yajiro kokeshi, born in a valley of the towering Zao mountain range | ||||
The Yajiro kokeshi doll is part of the history of the Kamasaki hot spring which is wedged between tall mountains in the Zao mountain range. Their bright colors make them vastly different from the other Miyagi kokeshi dolls. These bright colors, which look so beautiful against the verdant mountain foliage here, must have charmed all who visited this hot spring town. | ||||
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Dogwood with its great life force Quite a variety of different woods are used now to make the Yajiro kokeshi doll, including cherry, camellia and maple, but the wood it is famous for is the lovely white dogwood. Dogwood trees are cut down every autumn to spring between the equinoxes. The bark is removed straight away and the trunks are stood upside down for six months to a year to dry out. If they are not turned upside down they are likely to sprout again in the coming spring, even after six months or more after having been cut. Such is the amazing life force of these trees that can survive in the harshest conditions of the cold north. Maybe because such a hardy wood is used to make them you can sense a hidden strength in the kokeshi dolls behind their quiet smiles. |
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Craftsman Mr Sakyo Niiyama, who I interviewed for this story, told me he wants to use dogwood that has been raised in the cold conditions of the north. But the amount of dogwood timber available has been dwindling every year and the local craftsmen have had to content themselves with wood brought in from elsewhere. However, Mr Niiyama has been planting dogwood saplings in the mountains behind his house for the past 26 years, ever since the peak of kokeshi doll production in this region, and he says that next year some of the trees will finally be big enough to use for his work. So the lovely turned wood surface and bright colors of the original Yajiro kokeshi dolls will be revived again in the craft of Mr Niiyama as his hopes of the past 26 years bear fruit. |
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Many kokeshi doll makers turn the torsos one day, paint them another. One of the reasons for this is that it is hard to paint with a steady hand after doing the physically demanding job of turning for many hours. The craftsmen need their greatest powers of concentration when they are painting the faces on the dolls. They put in the eyes first and this is like investing the dolls with life. "The expression on the face of the first doll of the day and the tenth can be quite different," Mr Niiyama tells me. "The tenth is always better." It seems the craftsman's hand moves more smoothly as he warms up. And Mr Niiyama says modestly that even though he has been making dolls for 55 years, in one year there is perhaps one in a hundred dolls with a really beautiful face, one which he immediately feels, "Yes, that's it!" And he believes it is not always the ones that he concentrates on the most that turn out the best. After all these years he is still giving all he has to make as many dolls that satisfy him as he can. |
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"This is my favorite place," he proclaims, referring to his workroom containing his lathe. The switch has been turned off and the place is silent. He guides me to the place where his painting utensils. I was a little surprised to find that he did his art work here as I had imagined a place with a more tranquil atmosphere, perhaps a tatami room. But this is where he throws his whole body behind the hard physical work of turning and also where he can feel most at ease to do the quieter tasks. I suppose every artisan needs a place where he can pour all his spirit into his craft. And for Mr Niiyama this place with his lathe is indispensable for him to do work in a way that he feels most comfortable. He first comes face to face with a doll when he picks up a piece of dogwood here in this workshop. Or is it when he first plants the saplings in the mountains. |
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