Series - Dolls with Souls

Series - Dolls with Souls

Why do so many BJD owners think of their dolls as alive? Why does a popular online questionnaire, “100 Questions for Super Dollfie Owners,” include the question, “Do you believe your doll has a soul?” What’s this special spark that our resin friends seem to have?

To answer these questions, we have to look at the history of Japan, the country most central to the popularity of Asian BJDs (ABJDs). After all, it was in Japan that Volks began producing the first ABJDs, Super Dollfies, in 1998. ABJDs spring from a long Japanese tradition of honoring dolls as powerful beings. In this article, we will look at some highlights of doll history in Japan (note: this article is not meant to be comprehensive!) and the influences of the past on modern ABJDs.

Since the story of dolls in Japan is so long and interesting, I’ve split this article into three parts. In Part One, we’ll look at the ancient religious uses of simple clay dolls and the first documentation of dolls in The Tale of Genji. Part Two will focus on early modern and modern dolls, from the elaborately dressed festival dolls of the early Edo Period to the patriotic mascot dolls of World War II. In Part Three, we’ll look at two overall trends in Japanese doll-making: increasingly complex construction and greater life-likeness. And we’ll finally tie everything back to our beloved ABJDs. It may be a long ride, but I think it’s a fascinating one, so please bear with me.

Dolls, or ningyo, have always been more than toys for the Japanese. Small human-shaped figures first appeared in religious ceremonies, when shamans in the Jomon Period (up to 300 B.C.E.) used clay figures, or dogu,to call on the gods. Later on, in the Kofun Period (250-540 C.E.), funerary figures, haniwa, were made in the form of dancers, solders, falconers, farmers, etc., then buried with the deceased. It is clear that, from the early days, the Japanese have viewed dolls not just as toys, but as repositories of supernatural power.

Around the peak of the Heian Period, in 1000 C.E., dolls appeared in Murasaki Shikibu’s Tale of Genji. In this book, girl characters played with dolls, dressing them up (just like we do!) and putting them in dollhouses. Dolls were also mentioned as objects used in ritual purifications; apparently there was a ceremony in which scapegoat-like dolls were cast out to sea, bearing a person’s troubles with them. While dolls appeared as playthings in The Tale of Genji, they also showed up as magical substitutes for humans, in a continuing trend of dolls as spiritually significant objects.

Dolls were so revered in Japan that they featured prominently in two major yearly festivals, the Girls’ Festival on March 3rd and the Boys’ Festival (now Children’s Day) on May 5th. Codified around 1680 C.E. in the early Edo Period, both the Girls’ Festival, called Hina Matsuri, and the Boys’ Festival, Tango no Sekku, starred elaborately dressed dolls on tiered displays. Girls’ dolls, hina ningyo, represented the Emperor, Empress, royal children and attendants. Traditionally, a girl would invite her friends over for a party where she would feed both her human friends and the hina ningyo. Hina ningyo always sat with regal dignity, representing an ideal of quiet, reserved womanhood, while boys’ dolls, musha ningyo, were of legendary kings and warriors. Musha ningyo took fighting poses, embodying courage, loyalty, strength and other qualities that Japanese families wished for their sons. Both hina ningyo and musha ningyo symbolized gender ideals, and they were treated as if they were alive.