Ichimatsu - Dressed Up Traditional Japanese Dolls

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This 68-page full-color softcover book with a custom sleeve is a limited edition personal copy from the author. It was during the Edo period in Japan that the ICHIMATSU doll initially appeared through the artistic work of Toko Shokansai and Emiko Sato. The first model of the doll was a popular Kabuki actor called Ichimatsu Sanogawa. The doll became very popular and was played with by changing its clothes. Then, the doll became a present for little girls, also an accompaniment for brides, and beams commonly all over Japan. However, during the hanging of the times, the doll gradually disappeared from the public. 

Emiko Sato establishes the ICHIMATSU Doll Museum showing all these adorable real ICHIMATSU dolls, which have even been preserved with great care. All of the doll's accouterment and clothing are featured in this rare book for which we have yet to see another copy outside of the museum.

Friendship Doll Program: American educators sympathized with the Japanese immigrants who faced great difficulties. The realization of a doll exchange was one way they thought would improve the situation by fostering mutual understanding and friendship between Japan and America.

In 1927 there was an exchange program between the United States and Japan that lasted for approximately 15 years and which impacted the lives of children in Japan and America. The Friendship Doll Mission in conjunction with the Japanese Asian Doll Enthusiasts (J.A.D.E.) was established in which the residents of Urayasu City vow never to repeat war, and they launch a movement to send dolls to children worldwide with the formation of the Urayasu Friendship Doll Exchange Association. In addition, junior high school students, as a part of international understanding education, make hand-made dolls, kimonos, and passports; attach letters, and send the dolls. In 2002, the Japanese American National Museum sent new Friendship Dolls to the children of Japan as a thank-you gesture for lending the museum their dolls for a special Friendship Doll exhibition all of which are illustrated in this publication.

Condition: Excellent unused condition with an unbroken spine.