Description
Kokeshi wooden doll with paintings of a Wooden Horse and Plum Blossoms ; Touno Town, Iwate Prefecture. Vintage, ca. 1960's. H.6.5"(16.5cm) x Dia.1.25"(3cm), 67 grams. "Touno machi" (Touno Town) painted on the lower back, base is unsigned. Cinched and banded waist line. This piece has been in our family collection for some 50+ years, so definitely has some age and character.
Touno Village, now part of Touno City (since 1954) in the ancient Province of Mutsu is famous as a collection of Magariya (L-shaped folk houses) where folk stories from the region are shared with visitors by local residents. It was made more famous by the book "Touno Monogatari" (Legends of Touno), written by the folklorist Yanagita Kunio (1875-1962) in 1910. It was a collection of stories of the villages local folk stories that were in large part the recollections of an actual Touno local, Sasaki Kizen, who researched and told local legends of gods, ghosts, and the legendary water sprite "kappa". The stories are still being told today by resident who act as "story guides" for visitors from around Japan, and, thanks to Yanagita's book, from around the world.
The L-shaped Magariya homes actually come from the regions long history of rearing horses. In a mountain setting with heavy winter snow, horses were often kept indoors, sheltering both farm families and their horses, in a wing of the residence as they were invaluable members of the workforce. The horse pictured here resembles Iwate Prefecture's "Chagu Chagu Umakko" a horse with bells and dressed in colorful trappings to march in local festivals as a prayer for healthy livestock, as well as bountiful harvests and family safety.
Plum blossoms are a well-known symbol of spring throughout Japan, and the town of Ichinoseki, south of Touno, is one of the prime plum-viewing spots in Iwate Prefecture. I'm not sure if there is a connection to the painting on this doll, or if it just represents spring in Touno. Either way, it is a charming representation of the season in Iwate Prefecture.