Keshi Dolls
Meiji Period
34.8 cm long x 5.1 cm high x 4.5cm wide
Cat. 255438
Part of the Boone Collection
© The Field Museum

This keshi miniature set depicts a daimyo, or regional lord, procession with 27 dolls plus a palanquin. During the Tokugawa shogunate from 1603-1868, daimyo were required to make a semi-annual trip from their homes to Edo. This expensive journey kept the daimyo from becoming too rich and powerful, becoming a threat to the shogunate. At the same time it raised revenue for the shogunate. The stand the dolls are on is also the bottom of a box, with a matching lid of unfinished wood which has written on it daimyo gyoretsu, or daimyo procession, telling what the enclosed scene depicts. Also on the box are seals of the artist.


(Commentary by Helena Stenberg)

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