Visit to a Doll’s House

A doll is one of those things that inevitably bring us back to our childhood, reminding us of the half-forgotten games and fairy tales. However, some of them are able to breach even bigger time barriers, bringing to us legends and traditions of olden days. Such are Japanese dolls, which Kyivans can see at the National Museum of the Arts thanks to the Japanese Embassy and Japanese Fund. Soon the exhibition will move to Cherkasy.

Dolls appeared in Japan in the third millennium BC. At that time they were used as amulets protecting mortals from various dangers. However, only in the Edo period (seventeenth century) did dolls start to be made not only for ritual functions but also for their beauty. A variety of dolls have appeared: Hakata (made of clay), Kokeshi (wooden), and Kimekomi (with rag clothes glued to them); Ichimatsu and Osana “baby” dolls and adult ones depicting characters of the traditional Kabuki and Noo theaters; dolls for Girls Day and Boys Day, etc. Brightly colored or painted in pale hues, cheerful or scowling, every doll is not just an ordinary toy but a piece of art, decoration for a house, and pride of its owners. However, the Japanese confess that these days young people are losing interest to the art of doll-making (although it is probably its high skills, laborious handicraft, and artistic wit that lay in the basis of the Japanese hi-fi equipment producers’ inventiveness and conscientiousness). However, Japan has preserved various schools of doll-making. Along with other pieces of arts bewitching one with the master’s beautiful fantasies, a little doll stubbornly prevents man from becoming a robot.