Earth Mother Kokeshi - Nuruyu Kokeshi

Latecomer Kokeshi

There is a large-scaled,traditional -about 300 years of history- summer festival in Tohoku,Japan - Aomori Nebuta Matsuri.

It is very often said that natives of Tohoku are silent,careful,and stoic (and following cut and dried line is,"harsh weather in Tohoku has built their such characters").But if you go and see its festival with the hearsay,you may think either its character analysis is quite wrong or they are stressful enough to erupt - they are quite intense during the festival.

Nuruyu is located in the above Aomori prefecture.It is so rustic and calm onsen(hot spa) spot that it seems to be no related to such a revel - that's right,but Nuruyu kokeshi are aggressively involved in it.

Its beginning period of kokeshi production was about early 20th,not so early(according to an old record,there were some wooden dolls in early 19th,but it isn't proven till now).And there were mainly two trends in style of kokeshi -one was Naruko style,which was literally based on the design of Naruko kokeshi,the most major kokeshi production area,and another was original by its native artisans.

I will introduce the latter to you because "aggressively involved in it" is the latter.It has unique characteristics,and these characteristics reflect wide range of native history in the region.

Truly Native

[kokeshi description]

• artisan ; Senzo Mori
• tall ; 25cm(10inch)
• max width : 6.7cm(2.6inch)
• max circumferences : 21cm(8.2inch)

You may think this doll is quite different from other kokeshi.It make sense because:

• sensual body line
• purely dark hair
• long and thick eyelash
• gaudy painting
  

These features are opposite to "pretty" - innocuous remark which most people tell when they are asked to give impression of kokeshi. The most striking is "the tattoo of heavy-bearded Kabuki-face".What a far out fashion! She is rather avant-garde.

Actually,this design is one of Kabuki pictures,and it is inspired by Nebuta festival - Many floats are paraded in the festival,and most of them are painted with Kabuki pictures.So,this design is based on its native tradition.

And look at the red spiral pattern just below the Kabuki picture.This apparently seems to be just plain pattern.But this pattern comes from an ethnic - Ainu,Japanese indigenous people.This is called "Moreu",one of the patterns in their ethnic costume.Ainu have lived mainly in Hokkaido,northernmost area in Japan,and some of them have lived in Tohoku.So,we can see that the doll inherits the native design from them as well. Honestly,her look have some of the same features as Ainu have -purely dark hair,long and thick eyelash so on.I think Nukuyu artisans truly respect Ainu culture and tradition.

Earth Mother Kokeshi

Some people say this kind of kokeshi "play rather eccentric",and it is because that they are latecomers - that is,"they need draw everybody's attention." This is the landscape which we have seen before -"traditional kokeshi versus creative kokeshi".

In fact,I think this kind of Nuruyu kokeshi is "a creative kokeshi among traditional kokeshi".But at the same time,I have something to say,"This is really creative".This is far from "uniform product" - some of creative kokeshi are the case.And as we saw above, it really includes its tradition deeply rooted in its long history,in a way,than other traditional kokeshi.

Above all,she is so broad-minded.She can accept everything with her smile,even such a heavy-bearded man like bogeyman - he is also in Tohoku,Japan,called ""Namahage". I think she seems to be a symbol of  Earth Mother -who is the archetype of all people.