Togatta kokeshi

Background of Togatta

Togatta is located in the foot of "Mt.Zao",a onsen town and the base of ski areas in this mountains.

The main settlement of kokeshi artisans is outer small village of the town centre,quiet and rustic amid deep woods -just "The village of Kijishi" - but lately,rather deserted because of downturn in kokeshi.

The production of kokeshi started from the mid 19th,and the more thriving its onsen,the more thriving its kokeshi.

Now,although kokeshi artisans are decreasing,it has about thirty artisans or so,relatively more than other kokeshi production areas.

Large-Headed Kokeshi

Japan has been a quake-prone country and it often has annoyed the people - including manias for kokeshi.The other day,an earthquake occured in Tohoku which had a magnitude of 6.6.Fortunately,there was little damage to the people -excluding one of my friends.He phoned me and said,"What a disaster! all my kokeshi have fallen down! " I worried about him and his kokeshi,especially about his Togatta-kokeshi.Because ...

• artisan : Masato Midorikawa
• type : Togatta
• tall : 31cm(12inch)
• max width : 8cm(3inch)
• max circumferences : 28cm(11inch)

They are large-headed as you can see.This is the most characteristic and so unique of all type of kokeshi.But at the same time this is the weakness - to earthquake.I said before,"she might have been concerned about her own head"("type of traditional kokeshi") -this concern is about her lack of stability rather than about her own looks.

Other features are:

• red patterns radiating from the top of head
• red patterns from forehead down the side of both cheeck
• eye with pupil,with lower eyelid
• inverted-v nose
• with lip rouge

Flowery Kokeshi

In addition,their body are very often painted with floral pattern - such as cherry,Japanese plum,chrysanthemum.These are main characteristics of Togatta-kokeshi.You can refer to an another Togatta kokeshi(LS) as another sample of them.And if you have time,I'd like you to compare these with other type of kokeshi such as Tsuchiyu kokeshi.

When I saw Togatta-kokeshi at first,I didn't like very much them because of their unique shape.But as I see and study more kinds of kokeshi,I feel they are more and more pleasant.Sure,they are large-headed,but they are never "big headed" -they know very well that they are vulnerable.Rather,the problem is I can't find good solution for them -as a last resort,I lay them on the floor.But it's also quite a strange spectacle!