Isho Costume Doll
Twentieth Century
34 cm high x 21 cm wide
Cat. 271681
Gift of Nathanial Grey
© The Field Museum

This young girl is a very modern type of doll, not of any traditional category of Japanese doll. Because her clothing is worn normally, rather than being a part of the doll itself, she cn be classified as an isho costume doll. She stands on a wooden base in fixed position, holding a tsuzumi hand drum. Her hair is very unusual, with very modern color and a style which derives from a hair style of the Nara period (710-784), but which would not be worn with bangs and such long hair in back. She wears a red brocade uchikake kimono, the top half of which is worn hanging from the waist, with a similar white brocade layer underneath and a plain white juban under-kimono under that. She wears a purple obi sash, tied in a bow at the back in an exaggerated ichi monji bunko musubi style of obi knot.


(Commentary by Helena Stenberg)

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