Vintage Japanese Yamagata/Sakunami Wooden Koma Container | Rare Fortune Telling Container by Kobayashi, Kotaro

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Dimensions: 2-0”h x 2-3/4”dia.

One rarely seen this type of original Kokeshi inspired vintage Japanese wooden toy made by  Kobayashi Kotaro (b. 1936), a Sakunami carver who specialize in this subject matter. This family of creators hail from Miyagi Prefecture.

This style of container for spinning tops is painted in a veritable rainbow of colors in red  yellow and purple, and all made to attract older children in the 1950s. The sides of the toy is incorporates Rokoru mono stripes running around the container. When the lid is removed there are marking in sections on the inside related to telling fortunes, (uranai) containing four wonderful, scaled spinning tops. Each top is differently that serve as options for a player to choose from. The entire piece possesses the warm-heartedness of being a true treasure of a particular time in history. The base of the container is made of Mazuki, which is a very pale, fine, white-grained variety of dogwood, which is native to the area. It has the artists script signature on the bottom of the container.

See our Vintage Japanese Toy Section:  https://mingeiarts.com/collections/vintage-japanese-toys as well as our e-book entitled: A Collector’s Guide: Traditional and Creative Kokeshi and Toys: https://mingeiarts.com/collections/our-books/products/a-collectors-guide-traditional-and-creative-kokeshi-and-toys

Condition: Excellent meaning that the piece retains its original craft/workmanship and functions as intended, showing a wonderful-developed patina and is void of damage, cracks, breakage, or repairs and meets all the standards of the collectible Vintage Traditional Kokeshi Toys.