Cute Japanese Baby Dolls

Hinamatsuri Dolls

Also known as "Girls' Day", Hinamatsuri (literally Doll Festival) in Japan is a time to wish for the health and future happiness of young girls. During Hinamatsuri, most homes with young girls display hina dolls, decorate them with peach blossoms and offer the dolls special colored and diamond-shaped rice cakes, white sake and other items. In the hinamatsuri practice, originally dolls were used as substitutes to protect young girls from misfortunes and were washed away in the river with the perceived bad luck. That practice transformed into decorating dolls and spread throughout Japan in the Edo Period (1603-1868).



Japanese Samurai Doll :

Friendship Dolls: 

“Among the artworks are two of the Friendship Dolls sent to San Francisco as “goodwill ambassadors” from Japan in 1927. Nearly lifesize, these dolls make the ‘American Girl’ doll phenomenon look quite tame.”



Miss Mie, a Friendship Doll, from the Mie Prefecture in Japan and Her Accessories:

Miss Mie was among the 58 Torei Ningyo (Dolls of Gratitude) or Friendship Dolls that Japanese school children sent to the United States in 1927. Prior to their arrival, the Committee on World Friendship Among Children, founded by missionary Dr. Sidney Gulick, had sent 12,000 “blue-eyed” dolls to children in Japan. Each Torei Ningyo had a number of accessories including a passport, a steamship ticket, a wooden base with name plaque, lacquered clothing chests, shoes, two pedestal lanterns, a silk parasol, and many hand-written letters from Japanese children. Our museum is home for Miss Mie as well as all of her accessories and more than 150 friendship letters.

Public awareness about the Friendship Dolls increased during the 1980s and at least 44 dolls have been re-located throughout the United States. Four Torei Ningyo have returned to Japan for restoration and a homecoming tour. Miss Mie returned to the Mie Prefecture where she was given a “welcome home” celebration. She was then restored by the Yoshitoku Doll Company (founded in 1711) in Tokyo. Following her restoration, Miss Mie visited 12 cities within the Mie Prefecture during the spring of 2010 and then returned to Nebraska accompanied by Susan Curtis, collection assistant, and an entourage of our Japanese friends. Miss Mie’s arrival at the Museum was marked by a public celebration to honor a new and growing friendship with the citizens of the Mie Prefecture and the people of Japan.


Japanese vintage kimekomi doll of Lady in golden high hat, 1960's :

Lovely Japanese vintage doll represents young lady dressed in rich kimono and a courtier's gold hat ('eboshi'). She carries a pair of dip-buckets, painted with waves motif, on a yoke across her shoulders.
She performs a traditional dance of Shiokumi woman who carries seawater for the purpose of making salt and she dances to the memory of her poet lover and expresses her longing for him.
The doll made in kimekomi technique. 'Kimekomi' means "tuck in" in Japanese. The doll body is made of compacted paulownia sawdust mixed with glue. Clothes made of silk brocade with traditional Japanese design, and are glued and tucked into grooves of a doll body. Doll's face covered in a highly burnished gofun (crashed oyster shell) and hand-painted artistically and the wig is made of artificial hair.
Black lacquered wooden stand come with.
This lovely doll crafted about 1960's.

Japanese traditional doll :

Hina Matsuri Doll Stand :