Tough negotiator kokeshi

• artisan : Shiro Inoue
• type : Yajiro

Junk Kokeshi

Surprised, overwhelmed, and even disgusted at a pile of "junk” he had left when we organized his belongs.


When my father-in-low passed away, he had been a collector of Japanese antiques - small Buddha images,Darumas, Maneki Nekoes, Samurai body-armors, and much more strange items to me... I had known nothing of them and had been indifferent to them.


Even worse, so dusty box-room they were kept in!! I nearly died of dust-allergy, at the same time they were kept encased free from danger.


More than a half of them were just simple woody dolls -KOKESHI, one of Japanese art crafts.


"What to do with them?"  I asked my wife after we finished. I continued.
"You'd better to sell them in bulk or donate them to some kind of neighbor small folk museums".


It was quite reasonable, because his house was too far from ours to manage them, and if we would have taken them our home, "Give them an inch,they'll take a yard" - my house was too small to share with them. And I didn't want to be the 'ancient emperor' - who rests in peace under guard by many kind of clay figures and dolls in large burial mound. Frankly speaking, I might be a little hostile to her who forced me to 'open a can of worms'.

Code of Silence?

That night, When I went to bed, I met someone's gaze - a kokeshi doll on the rack. She was small about pen size.


"What do you think should I do? "  She gazed at me - somewhat with angry.
"OK, please listen to me. I have some reason to say goodbye to you."  I said.
"First, I am too careless to take care of you.Second, I don't know you very well. I am sorry I' m quite different from your ex... anyway, I am never such a man that have played with dolly. Third, I have hay-fever. So you had better find someone else more eligible.


She stills gazed at me without saying.And now,she still remains here.