My journey through the Mountains of Fukushima and the kokeshi I meet throughout Japan

KokeshiSourcing diaries
Written By Hannah

There are eleven officially recognised traditional (dentō) kokeshi styles, each tied to a specific village or family lineage in the Tōhoku region, including Naruko, Tōgatta, and Tsuchiyu. Sōsaku (creative) kokeshi emerged after the Second World War, made by artists working outside those regional traditions. This entry covers a sourcing trip through Fukushima, the traditional heartland of kokeshi craft, and how to read a maker's identity through nose shape, eye shape, and eyebrow angle.

Most people stick to the big cities. Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka, where the famous markets are and the inventory moves fast. But not me. My favourite finds come from the hidden parts of Japan, where the air is thin and the history is thick.

Fukushima is one of those places. This region is the heartland of kokeshi, where the winters are long and the woodcarving traditions run deep. I spent a week here, winding through mountain passes and visiting workshops tucked away in quiet valleys, meeting the people who still keep these traditions alive.

I climbed Mount Bandai before the sun was fully up. Standing there, watching the mist peel off the peaks, I thought about how much of Japan you miss if you only ever see the famous parts.

Dentō or Sōsaku? The types of Kokeshi

If you are new to collecting kokeshi, the first thing that surprises you is how different they can look from one another. Some are neat and cylindrical with simple painted flowers, clearly following a pattern you could almost recognise from across the room. Others look like nothing you have ever seen. A round amber sphere with autumn leaves, or a figure with carved arms hugging itself. They are all called kokeshi, and yet they seem to come from entirely different worlds.

They do. There are two types, and once you understand the difference, you will never look at a shelf of kokeshi the same way again.

dento traditional kokeshi vintage showa era

Dentō kokeshi: the tradition that rules everything

The key word is strict. Traditional kokeshi are not open to free interpretation. They are the legacy of a craft passed down through generations, deeply rooted in specific villages and family lineages. The maker does not decide one morning to use a different body shape. A Yajiro maker does not invent a new eye form. The tradition is the tradition.

There are eleven officially recognised traditional styles, each tied to a specific region in the Tōhoku region. Like Naruko from Miyagi, famous for the squeaking sound when the head is turned. Tōgatta with its slender body and straight shoulders. Tsuchiyu from Fukushima with its rounded hairstyle and gently turnable head.

view all traditional kokeshi in my collection
Large Sōsaku kokeshi by Tanaka Harumasa, tsubaki camellia, signed, Shōwa period

Sōsaku kokeshi: when the rules disappeared

After the Second World War, something shifted in Japan. A generation of artists and woodworkers began asking what kokeshi could be if they were not bound to a school, a family style.

Sōsaku artists had day jobs as painters, teachers, designers. They came to the lathe from outside the lineage and experimented with story telling kokeshi.

These are the ones I often hunt for. The four pieces below give you a sense of how wide that creative range actually was.

see all creative kokeshi in shop

Traditional kokeshi: the art is in the eyes and the noses

There is a moment, when you pick up a kokeshi for the first time, when you realise the face is doing something. It is not just painted on. It is saying something. And once you learn to read it, you cannot stop.

I have been collecting and sourcing Japanese kokeshi for years now, and the faces are still what draw me in first. Before I check the bottom for a signature, before I look at the body decoration or the wood. The face gives it away.

Not just the mood of the doll, but the hand of the maker. Every artist leaves their fingerprints in the eyes.

If you look closely at a kokeshi friend, you’ll notice that some makers have signatures that aren't written on the bottom, but painted on the face.

The nose is the big giveaway. Take the work of Abe Ichiro. While most makers use a simple dot or a couple of lines, Ichiro is famous for his long, elegant noses. It gives his dolls a dignified, almost noble expression that stands out in any display.

🔎 Look close: what differences can you see? 👇

Number 1 and 2 have short noses whilst the others have longer ones. The others are Ichiro’s work. The first one is and the second one is a Tōgatta kokeshi signed by Sato Fumio.

Then you have the eyes. Some makers, like Inoue Harumi, favor those peaceful, hooded eyes that make the doll look like it’s mid-meditation and very relaxed. Whilst Ichiro’s look like they have their tongue in their cheek as if they had a funny thought.

Two vintage kokeshi dolls from the Yajiro tradition, handmade by maker Inoue Harumi, featuring characteristic hooded eyes and red floral patterns on the wooden bodies and available in the shop collection

Inoue Harumi’s kokeshi

The two kokeshi I am holding in the photograph above are by Inoue Harumi, a maker working in the Yajiro tradition.

She is the perfect illustration of what I mean about eyes as a signature. Her dolls have these wonderful hooded, downward-gazing eyes, heavy-lidded, serene, almost meditative. Looking at them, you feel the doll is mid-thought, somewhere peaceful and far away.

See their shop listing for more details here.

Creative kokeshi: where traditional ends and creative begins

The dolls above are all what collectors call dentō kokeshi. In their traditional style, tied to a specific regional school with established conventions around shape, decoration and face. But in the mid-twentieth century, a new wave of makers emerged who wanted to work outside those rules.

They called this movement sōsaku kokeshi — creative kokeshi. And this is where things get genuinely strange and wonderful.

The first lady has a lovely ribbed body and scattered momiji maple leaves and is made by Usaburo.

  • If any single name defines the sōsaku world, it is his.

  • He started making kokeshi in 1950 with no interest in following what had come before, introducing a carving-and-burning method using Nichrome wire that nobody had applied to kokeshi before.

  • The corrugated chatter-work body on this piece is entirely his invention. It is a structural technique he developed to work with the wood rather than against it.

  • More details: click to view her listing

The second photo is from a cute pair from Kenichi Murakami (1929–1991). He was born into a family of woodworkers.

  • He first studied oil painting before turning to kokeshi around 1946.

  • He primarily created dolls with minimal decoration, emphasising the natural wood itself, and loved to capture the innocence of a young child through deep carving and horizontal cut lines.

  • More details: click to view their listing

The third set of ladies are by the hand of Kisaku

  • They are a good reminder that not every great sōsaku maker left a paper trail.

  • His full name has never been reliably documented, even among serious collectors, and yet his work is immediately recognisable: the structured figure, the textured kosode, the carved body that feels architectural rather than decorative.

  • The 1970s produced many makers like this: skilled, prolific, collected internationally, and quietly anonymous.

  • More details: click to view the left doll’s listing and the right doll’s listing

Last but not least, the fourth little acorn-shaped piece in the creative section is by Tamura Chie 千栄

  • She is an award-winning sōsaku maker and one of a very small number of women to have built a serious reputation in the creative kokeshi world.

  • This piece is a perfect example of why her work endures. She did not paint an acorn onto a doll. She turned the entire doll into an acorn. That is a completely different idea.

  • In a craft world that has been almost entirely male for its entire history: skills passed father to son, apprenticeships run through family lineages with little room for outsiders, let alone women.

  • More details: click to view her listing

How I look at a face now

When I pick up a kokeshi, I turn it slowly and look at the nose first, then the eyes, then the eyebrows if there are any.

  • 🤥 Nose shape tells me the regional family it comes from.

  • 👀 Eye shape tells me the individual maker’s temperament.

  • 😌 Eyebrow angle tells me the mood of that particular day in the workshop.

A kokeshi is not a mass-produced object. Even among signed makers, no two are exactly the same. That is what makes them worth collecting: not as decoration, but as small portraits of the people who made them.

This trip was particularly special. I found pieces from makers I had been looking for across multiple trips, and the landscape of Fukushima gave everything a context I had not expected. The mist on the lakes, the long mountain light, the workshops in the valleys below. This is where these dolls come from. You feel it when you hold them.

Naruko kokeshi by Sakurai Shoji and Sakurai Akihiro side by side, showing near-identical painted faces from father and son

Sometimes you find kokeshi with the exact same face. That’s what happened to me here. See the resemblance? They were made by a father and his son. The father, Sakurai Shōji (桜井昭二), was born in Naruko in 1927. The son, Sakurai Akihiro (桜井昭寛), was born there in 1951. Both made kokeshi their entire lives. Both signed their work with the same family name on the base, in the same Naruko tradition their family has held for five generations.

Read more about this duo that's so alike but with 80 years of life in between them, in my journal.

Gorgeous views make every sourcing trip very worth the journey

My trip was particularly special. I managed to find pieces from the true masters and learn a lot about the styles and meaning.

And the views from the hikes were just breathtaking.

Read more

A selection of other journal posts about kokeshi makers and how to read their work.

See the kokeshi in our collection

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Dōjo kokeshi by Sekiguchi Sansaku, with dark lacquered hair and pale face with closed eyes. Her dark kimono has carved circular patterns, set against a blurred ukiyo-e print and a tatami mat.
Dōjo sōsaku kokeshi by Sekiguchi Sansaku, signed and dated 1991
€115.00

Small enough to sit in one palm, this kokeshi has a quiet, downcast composure that larger pieces often lose. Her dark lacquered hair falls in a smooth, sculpted line across a pale, softly painted face, eyes closed in a calm, almost sleepy expression. The kimono is deep and dark, incised rather than simply painted, with a fine red under layer just visible at the collar.

This is the work of Sekiguchi Sansaku, one of the defining names in Gunma's post-war sōsaku kokeshi movement and a recipient of the Prime Minister's Award. His young girl, or dōjo, design recurs across his career in many sizes, and this piece carries his own seal on the base along with a handwritten inscription dating it to the 21st of July 1991.

→ What draws you to a kokeshi is rarely the name on the base. Read more about how makers like Sekiguchi carve rather than paint their signature detail in my journal.

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Kano Chiyomatsu sōsaku kokeshi with rounded head and tapering body, adorned with pyrography and painted rust red maple leaves, on a mat beside a plant and whisk, against ukiyo-e prints.
Large signed sōsaku kokeshi by Kano Chiyomatsu with painted and pyrography momiji leaf motif, Shōwa period
€385.00

This kokeshi stands taller than almost anything else in the collection: 41 centimetres of smooth, weighted wood, its rounded head resting above a body that tapers in and out again like a figure caught mid movement. Dark maple leaves drift across the surface in loose, hand painted clusters, their veins burned into the wood before the colour was added. At nearly a kilo in the hand, this is not a piece you display and forget. It asks to be picked up.

This is the work of Kano Chiyomatsu, a sōsaku kokeshi artist from Gunma prefecture whose career spans more than seventy years and includes two occasions, in 1981 and 1982, when his work was presented to the then Crown Prince and Crown Princess Michiko. His pieces have been included in Gunma's own middle school art textbooks and he has been recognised as a Prefectural Traditional Craftsperson. This particular piece carries his signature and seal.

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Kawamura Shōji Yamagata kokeshi of dark keyaki wood, with a minimalist painted face and body featuring red-maroon and black calligraphic patterns.
Yamagata kokeshi in dark keyaki wood, signed Kawamura Shōji, Shōwa period
€125.00

The grain does most of the work before the paint even starts. This kokeshi is turned from dark keyaki, Japanese zelkova, and the wood has aged into something close to bronze: warm, dense, with a reddish-brown depth that shifts as the light moves across it. Over that, sweeping black brushwork and horizontal red-maroon banding run the full length of the body. The result is more calligraphy than decoration. It stops you because it looks like nothing else on a shelf.

Kawamura Shōji (川村昭治) was part of the Kawamura family of Yamagata kokeshi makers, a lineage documented across multiple generations in the dentō tradition of Tōhoku. This piece shows his more abstract side: the traditional training is visible in the precise lathe work and the weight of the form, but the decoration is entirely his own, abstract, direct, and confident.

Kawamura’s work sits on the boundary between dentō and shingata. His foundation is traditional Yamagata-kei kokeshi making, but his output ranges from pieces that stay close to that convention to others that drift toward the freer, more individual expression associated with shingata and sōsaku work.

→ Interested to read more about the woodworking on kokeshi like these? I wrote about it in my journal.
→ Wondering where Yamagata fits among the eleven kokeshi traditions? Here's the full picture.

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Usaburo sosaku kokeshi doll, dark stained wood, chrysanthemum inlay, full figure front view, Showa period Japan
Usaburō sōsaku kokeshi signed Yuji Okamoto, chrysanthemum wood carved and award seal, Shōwa period
€145.00

The wood here is stained almost to the point of black, but hold it under a lamp and it turns, deep brown catching the light across grain of the rounded okappa hair. Against that dark ground sit two chrysanthemum medallions in pale, untouched wood, their petals radiating out in fine ridges, close enough to touch and count. The face is set low and quiet, downcast eyes, a small red mark for a mouth, the kind of stillness that makes you stop scrolling and just look at it for a second longer than you meant to.

This is a sōsaku kokeshi signed by Yuji Okamoto, second generation maker at Usaburō, the Gunma workshop that has been making kokeshi since around 1950 and today ships its work to collectors across the world. What makes this particular figure worth pausing on is what is stuck to its base: the original gold award sticker from the All Japan Kokeshi Concours, the country's oldest and largest kokeshi competition, held every year in Shiroishi. This piece carries the Forestry Agency Director-General's Award, one of the recognised honours given out at that event alongside the Prime Minister's Award. It was made to be judged against the best kokeshi in Japan, and it won something.

The sticker on the larger of these two pieces carries exactly that award. The grain visible beneath the kimono decoration is central to what Usaburo built his reputation on: the wood is not hidden, it is part of the design.

Interested to read more about the woodworking on kokeshi like these? I wrote about it in my journal.

Read more →
Vintage daruma pair by Shido Shozan and Seifu Gono, Shōwa period, vermilion and oxblood
Lacquered daruma pair, turned wood with hand-painted signed by Shido Shozan and Seifu Gono, Shōwa period
€185.00

They look down with the kind of stillness that takes a moment to place, heavy lidded eyes under thick brushed eyebrows on the larger figure, the same sharp piercing eyes on the smaller one. A full beard is painted strand by strand rather than filled in flat, while vermilion lacquer sweeps around him in one unbroken line, giving way to a dark, almost black hood at the crown. Beside him, the smaller daruma that carries an deep warm lacquer worn into a darker tone where beside the decades of handling he still holds his shine.

Both take the armless, legless form associated with Bodhidharma, the monk said to have meditated so long in stillness that his limbs withered away, leaving only the seated shape carried in his memory ever since.

Both made by different well-known woodworkers. The larger daruma has a black seal pressed at its base, belonging to Shido Shozan, a Yamagata carver known chiefly for his sōsaku kokeshi rather than daruma like this one. The smaller daruma is made by Seifu Gono. A mingei craftsman known for turning keyaki, the slow growing Japanese zelkova prized for its depth of grain, into figures exactly like this one. Keyaki is not an easy wood to source, it takes centuries to mature, and Gono treated every piece as something meant to outlast him.

Curious where this expression comes from in the flesh? I found a thousand versions of it on one hillside in Osaka. Read about it in my journal.

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Sōsaku kokeshi doll by Usaburō with painted face and Hida road farmhouse scene
Sōsaku kokeshi by Usaburō with painted view of the Hida road
€95.00

She looks out from under a heavy dark bob, two sliding wooden panels framing a small painted face with the calm, slightly downturned eyes typical of a well made kokeshi. Turn her around and the whole story changes: her body carries a painted scene, thatched farmhouse roofs rising steeply against a stand of trees, rendered in dark ink tones against the warm honey wood, like a print laid straight onto the grain.

Usaburō Kokeshi was founded by Okamoto Usaburō in Shinto Village, Gunma Prefecture, in 1950. Rather than following the strict regional patterns of traditional kokeshi, his workshop became known for sōsaku kokeshi, free in subject and form. Sometimes painting real places travellers had visited directly onto the wood. This particular scene depicts the Hida road, the old route through the mountains of Gifu Prefecture that leads to Takayama and the thatched villages of Shirakawa-go, a well loved keepsake from one of Japan's classic postwar travel routes.

Interested to read more about the woodworking on kokeshi like Usaburo? I wrote about it in my journal.

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Sōsaku kokeshi by Sato Suigai, full figure with carved plum blossom kimono and wooden kasa hat
Large sōsaku kokeshi with plum blossoms, signed by Sato Suigai, Shōwa period
€165.00

She stands taller than most kokeshi you will come across, and heavier too, with real weight settling into your palm the moment you pick her up. The head is covered edge to edge in fine combed striping, dark lines cut close together into a rounded cap, with a single red wooden bead perched at the crown like a stray plum bud. Sprays of red plum blossom trail down the body, each one carved first and filled with pigment after, and held against her side is a separately turned wooden kasa, a wide travel hat, raised the way a Heian noblewoman would once have lifted hers to shield her face on the road. Nothing about the proportions is timid: this is a maker working at full scale and full confidence.

The base carries the brush signature of Suigai, a painter who found his real language in wood. He spent a lifetime letting plants speak for people, plum blossom especially, always returning to it the way you return to a word that still means something. That instinct is what earned him Japan's Prime Minister's Award, but it is also simply what makes this particular figure feel considered rather than decorative. You are not buying a doll. You are buying the version of plum blossom one specific person kept coming back to, and decided, of everything he could have painted, this was worth painting again.

→ Interested to read more about the woodworking on kokeshi like these? I wrote about it in my journal.
→ Curious about the theme behind this pose? I wrote about oshinobi dōchū, the Heian tradition of travelling in disguise, in my journal.

Read more →
Large vintage Japanese shingata kokeshi doll, full figure, black bowl-cut hair, flower motif body, attributed to Nidaime Tetsuen
Large Shingata kokeshi doll, Tetsuen style, attributed to Chiyoko Hamatsu (Nidaime Tetsuen) Shōwa period
€245.00

He looks caught mid turn. One section of his dark hair is brushed back in short, dry streaks, as if just ruffled, while the rest sits in a neat round cap above a calm, half lowered gaze. Down the long cylinder of his body, four flowers stack in grey and black, each bloom slightly different from the one above it, hanging leaves drifting between them. There is a stillness to him that a mass produced kokeshi rarely has, the kind that comes from a hand working without a template.

At 46.5 centimetres, this is not a doll you tuck onto a shelf and forget, it commands a room the way only a handful of vintage kokeshi can. The name on the base, Tetsuen, belongs to a small, tightly knit Shiraishi workshop where a style was considered worth keeping alive even after its maker was gone. Female kokeshi maker Chiyoko Hamatsu picked up the brush in her brother in law's memory and kept his flowers blooming for another four decades. Owning a piece like this means owning both the scale and the story, a kokeshi large enough to anchor a room and old enough to carry a small piece of a family's determination not to let something disappear.

Want to understand the difference between dentō and sōsaku kokeshi? I wrote about it, with a trip through Fukushima along the way.

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Nakanosawa Takobozu kokeshi pair by Saito Tokuju, signed vintage Japanese wooden dolls with red rimmed eyes and peony body decoration
Pair of Tsuchiyu Nakanosawa Takobozu kokeshi signed by Saito Tokuju, Shōwa period
€235.00

Two takobozu kokeshi standing shoulder to shoulder, the way they were clearly made to be seen. Both have that unmistakable oversized round head and the wide, startled eyes rimmed in red that give this Nakanosawa style its nickname, octopus priest.

This is not two random old kokeshi that happen to look similar. They come from one hand, a hand trained directly by Iwamoto Yoshizo, the man who carried this exact design forward after his father invented it. Tokuju spent the rest of his life protecting that design rather than putting his own spin on it. That is rare enough to be worth a spot on a shelf where you will actually see it every day, not tucked away as an investment. A signed pair like this, from a maker specialists still name when they talk about this style, is not something you will come across twice.

→ Want to understand the difference between dentō and sōsaku kokeshi? I wrote about it, with a trip through Fukushima along the way.

→ Curious how Tsuchiyu compares to the other ten traditional kokeshi lines? Read the full guide.

Read more →
Usaburo kokeshi pair natural wood hair ume plum blossom front view
Sōsaku kokeshi pair with ume plum blossom, natural wood hair, Usaburo studio by Yuji Okamoto
€195.00

The hair on these two is the first thing you notice, and the last thing you expect. No black lacquer, no painted bob. Just the wood itself, left to show its own colour and grain, warm and pale where the light catches it. Below, plum blossoms scatter across both figures in red and cream, unhurried, some caught mid-branch as if the painter simply stopped when the flower looked right. The larger figure stands with quiet composure, the smaller one echoes her almost exactly, a pair clearly made to be seen together.

Usaburo's studio built its reputation on the opposite of this: a glossy black bob that became so recognisable it is often the first thing collectors associate with the name. This pair by Yuji Okamoto, second generation of the workshop, does something quieter. Leaving the natural wood exposed where paint would usually go asks the material to carry the character instead of colour doing it for him. It is the same hand and the same studio you find behind some of the most awarded creative kokeshi in Japan, working here in a lower key.

Interested to read more about the woodworking on kokeshi like these? I wrote about it in my journal.

Read more →
Vintage Usaburo kokeshi pair, summer wave motif and winter snow motif, Shiki no Uta four seasons series, Showa period
Usaburō Studio Kokeshi pair Summer and Winter wave egg shaped, Shōwa period
€145.00

Two small egg-shaped figures, standing no taller than a teacup, each carrying its own season on its body. One is wrapped in soft olive waves that curl toward a pair of birds caught mid-flight. The other is scattered with dozens of white, snow-like specks that spill straight onto the kimono without a break. Side by side they hold a kind of quiet balance, warm summer green against honey-brown winter, two halves of the same idea standing a hand's width apart.

These two belong to Okamoto Usaburō's "Shiki no Uta," (Poem of the Four Seasons) a design created for his workshop at the foot of Mount Haruna in Gunma. Usaburō spent his career developing carving and burning techniques that let wood carry more expression than kokeshi traditionally allowed, work that eventually reached the collection of Emperor Shōwa.

This pair represents summer and winter from his four-part seasonal design, and the softer linework and gentle surface patina on both place them earlier in the workshop's long production history, well before the cleaner, more uniform look of the pieces made today.

Interested to read more about the woodworking on kokeshi like these? I wrote about it in my journal.

Read more →
Vintage Tsuchiyu kokeshi doll pair, signed by Jinnohara Kazunori, Japanese wooden folk art.
Unavailable
(sold) Pair of Tsuchiyu kokeshi with turning heads, signed by Jinnohara Kazunori, Shōwa period
€225.00

Two faces, nearly identical at first glance and then not at all. One laughs with its mouth open, a flash of red catching the light like a hint of tongue. The other's mouth is small, round and pursed, closer to a kiss than a laugh. Tilt either head and it turns with a small resistance and a soft squeak, the same trick Tsuchiyu makers have used for generations. Both dolls are signed on the base by Jinnohara Kazunori (陳野原和紀). More info on the makers page.

Where they differ further is the hand that painted the bodies. One carries a busier decoration, a looping purple line, a wider red band, a restless zigzag near the base, the wood warmer and more time worn. The other stays quieter, its red kept narrow and calm. The motif itself, a scatter of grass and small flowers, traces back to Kazunori's lifelong reconstruction of the historic Kumematsu style.

Want to understand the difference between dentō and sōsaku kokeshi? I wrote about it, with a trip through Fukushima along the way.

Read more →
Abe Kazue signed Tsuchiyu kokeshi held in two hands, zigzag and cross banding
Vintage large Tsuchiyu kokeshi signed by Abe Kazue, 37cm high, Shōwa period ca. 1970s
€145.00

At 37 centimetres this kokeshi commands rather than decorates. The body tapers from a broad shoulder down to a narrow base in one long, uninterrupted line, and the proportions are exactly right: it reads taller than it measures. The banding is bold, red and black on pale natural wood, with small painted crosses breaking the rhythm of the stripes just enough to hold the eye. This is a piece that works from across the room.

Tilt her head and she answers back, a soft, hollow squeak from the loose-fitting joint where the head meets the body, the same trick every Tsuchiyu maker has used for generations. What marks this particular piece is the banding itself: a zigzag line dotted with small crosses partway down the body, breaking from the plain horizontal stripes typical of the tradition, followed by a single sweeping red arc lower on the torso, a freer, more painterly touch than the usual strict rings.

→ Want to understand the difference between dentō and sōsaku kokeshi? I wrote about it, with a trip through Fukushima along the way.

→ Curious how Tsuchiyu compares to the other ten traditional kokeshi lines? Read the full guide.

Read more →
Vintage hand painted wooden daruma pair, large and small figure, Japanese Showa period folk craft.
Hand painted wooden daruma pair, dated 1983, Shōwa period
€95.00

Two daruma sit together like a small, watchful family: one broad and full, the other its smaller echo. Both wear the same fierce expression, thick black brows drawn in a single confident stroke, eyes rimmed white around a dark centre, a short orange mustache below. On the belly of each, the character for fortune sits in solid black. Nothing about them is dainty. They look like they mean it.

Daruma dolls carry one of the most recognisable stories in Japanese folk craft: the wish made, the goal set, the eye left blank until the promise is kept. Pieces like this pair were turned on a lathe by the same craftsmen who shaped kokeshi, in the onsen towns of Tōhoku where wood was the material at hand and every visitor wanted something to bring home. No maker signed this pair. What they carry instead is smaller and more personal: a handwritten date on the underside, someone once marking the day this pair came into their life.

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Camellia Girl (Tsubaki Musume) creative kokeshi signed by Tamura Noboru Shōwa period
Camellia Girl (Tsubaki Musume) creative kokeshi signed by Tamura Noboru Shōwa period
€145.00

The half-dark head is what stops you. One side deep black, the other the warm reddish glow of the wood grain itself, and between them a face with heavy-lidded almond eyes that looks both ancient and entirely contemporary. Below it, two large camellia flowers in deep red fill almost the entire body.

Tsubaki Musume, Camellia Girl, is one of the most recognized designs in the sōsaku kokeshi tradition, and Tamura Noboru one of its most celebrated makers. He won the Prime Minister Award during his career and his work is collected internationally. This piece is signed on the base in his characteristic brushwork.

Tamura Noboru works from Studio Tamura Kogei, a creative kokeshi studio in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture. The same studio is also home to his wife: female kokeshi maker Tamura Chie, whose work under the name Chiei Saku has its own devoted following among collectors. More info on their makers page.

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Sōsaku kokeshi by Takeda Masashi with original tomobako, carved autumn grasses
Sōsaku kokeshi with carved autumn grasses, Takeda Masashi studio, Shōwa period, with tomobako
€145.00

The body is deep lacquered brown, the colour of old teak in low light. Across the torso, autumn grasses and chrysanthemums are carved in low relief and left in their natural wood tone, so the decoration glows against the dark ground. The head sits directly on the shoulders, smooth and pure black, no neck, no detail. From across the room it reads as a single dark silhouette. Move closer, and the flowers appear.

This piece comes from the hand of Takeda Masashi (武田まさし, 1930 to 2015), one of the most recognised names in sōsaku kokeshi. Masashi worked from Zaō in Yamagata, a mountain region that became a quiet centre for creative kokeshi making in the mid-twentieth century. His studio was known for exactly this: dark lacquered bodies, carved naturalistic relief, and a formal restraint that sets his work apart from the brighter painted styles of other kokeshi traditions.

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Sōsaku kokeshi by Kisaku, layered kimono, signed, Shōwa period
Sōsaku kokeshi by Kisaku, layered kimono, signed, Shōwa period
€95.00

She stops you because of the detail. The dark outer kimono falls open at the sides to reveal a warmer inner robe, and each layer carries its own incised pattern: broad sleeves with carved surface texture, a lower section in dense relief that reads like heavy woven cloth. The face is minimal, the dark hair close and smooth, and none of it competes with what is happening on the body. She is a figure that rewards a second look and a third.

Kisaku (喜作) was active in the sōsaku tradition through the 1960s and 1970s, and his carved pieces are consistently sought by collectors for the quality and restraint of the cutting. What makes this figure technically demanding is the layering: each area of the kimono is treated differently, the transitions between inner and outer robe carved cleanly without losing the sense of depth. The signature is brushed in ink directly onto the base.

She has a sister: a second Kisaku figure from the same period, rounder in form and decorated with incised ume plum blossoms. Both are available separately. You can find her here.

Interested to read more about the woodworking on kokeshi like these? I wrote about it in my journal.

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Kisaku sōsaku kokeshi doll, front view, with black hair and carved eyes. Terracotta body has white carved plum blossoms and Japanese characters on the lower front.
Sōsaku kokeshi by Kisaku, ume plum blossom, signed, Shōwa period
€95.00

She is rounder and softer than most sōsaku figures of this size, the terracotta ground warm against the white of the carved plum blossoms. The flowers sit in shallow relief across her body, petals cut directly into the wood with white pigment worked into the recesses, each one slightly different from the next. The dark hair is smooth and close, the face simple and settled. She is the kind of object that reads clearly from across a room and rewards you further when you pick her up.

Kisaku (喜作) worked in the sōsaku tradition through the 1960s and 1970s, and his carved pieces are consistently sought by collectors for the quality and restraint of the cutting. The ume plum blossom is among the most traditional motifs in Japanese decorative craft, and placing it on a kokeshi in this form, incised rather than painted, without additional ornament, is a choice that relies entirely on the maker's confidence in the technique. Signed with the red hanko on the base.

She has a sister: a second Kisaku figure from the same period, taller and more angular, her outer kimono carved with broad sleeves and layered incised textile patterns. Both are available separately. You can find her here.

Read more about the woodworking on kokeshi in my journal.

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Two Usaburo sōsaku kokeshi dolls of different heights. Both have dark hair caps, serene faces, and bodies decorated with red camellia flowers, yakie-burned patterns, and visible wood grain.
Large sōsaku kokeshi pair with tsubaki camellia and kimono, Usaburo studio by Yuji Okamoto, Shōwa period
€285.00

The zelkova grain runs through the entire body of this kokeshi like a landscape, visible beneath the painted camellia flowers and the yakie-burned fan and lattice decoration of the kimono. The dark upper section of the body, a deep burgundy against the warm honey of the wood below, is not paint covering the material. It is the material, treated and turned until it reached that colour. The proportions are generous: broad at the shoulder, tapering at the base, heavier in the hand than you expect.

Usaburo Kokeshi was founded in 1950 in Shinto Village, Gunma Prefecture, by Okamoto Usaburo, the craftsman who introduced the yakie burning technique to sōsaku kokeshi and worked with zelkova and chestnut at a time when most makers dismissed these woods as unsuitable. His studio went on to win the Minister of International Trade and Industry Award at the All-Japan Kokeshi Competition, one of the most significant government recognitions in Japanese craft.

The sticker on the larger of these two pieces carries exactly that award. The zelkova grain visible beneath the kimono decoration is central to what Usaburo built his reputation on: the wood is not hidden, it is part of the design.

Interested to read more about the woodworking on kokeshi like these? I wrote about it in my journal.

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Sōsaku kokeshi by Seiju Kon named Oshinobi Dochu, Shōwa period, 1965
Sōsaku kokeshi by Seiju Kon named Oshinobi Dochu, Shōwa period, 1965
€95.00

The first thing you notice is the hat. It stops you before you understand what you are looking at. Below it, the body is built from rings of different wood, each one a slightly different tone of amber and chestnut, pressed together in warm tiers. At the very top, a painted face, small and precise.

Someone thought carefully before they made it.

Seiju Kon, whose given name is Kon Akira, was born in 1931 in the Yamagata area and studied under master woodworker Hasegawa Tatsuo. His work is rooted in the Tsugaru kokeshi tradition and he returned, throughout his career, to a small set of subjects: figures from Noh theatre, women of the Heian court, characters from the world of classical Japanese performance and rank.

She is one of those. She belongs to a series he made across decades, and it is immediately recognizable to anyone who has seen his work before.

→ Interested to read more about the woodworking on kokeshi like these? I wrote about it in my journal.
→ Two makers took on the same disguised traveller in very different ways. Read more about this in my journal.

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Sōsaku kokeshi on wooden plank by Tamura Chie donguri acorn girl form with autumn leaf body decoration, signed, Shōwa period Japan
Donguri kokeshi by Tamura Chie, acorn girl with autumn leaves, signed, Shōwa period
€85.00

She sits in your hand like a small warm stone. The form is a single unbroken sphere, no neck, no waist, no separation between head and body, just one continuous round shape with a tiny stem at the top and a face tucked quietly into the side. Two round eyes with lashes look out from between painted autumn leaves.

Her maker Chie is one of the few widely recognised female masters in the sōsaku tradition. She is known for translating natural forms directly into wood, and this piece is exactly that: not a doll holding a leaf motif, but a doll that is the thing itself, an acorn that became a girl, or a girl that became an acorn.

Tamura Chie works from Tamura Kogei, a creative kokeshi studio in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture. The same studio is also home to her husband Tamura Noboru, one of the most celebrated names in sōsaku kokeshi and a Prime Minister Award winner.

Interested to read more about the woodworking on kokeshi like these? I wrote about it in my journal.

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Large sōsaku kokeshi Tamura Noboru 28cm keyaki natural grain body with leaf motifs and burnt stripe decoration, displayed on wooden stand,Shōwa period Japan
Large sōsaku kokeshi by Tamura Noboru, 28cm high, keyaki grain body with leaf motifs and burnt stripe decoration, Shōwa period
€195.00

The grain of the wood is doing most of the work here. Tamura Noboru turned this piece of keyaki so the annual rings wrap around the body in concentric arcs, one layer visible through the next, the whole surface reading as landscape rather than material. The leaf motifs painted on the body sit inside that grain rather than over it. The burnt stripes at the collar, head and base mark the transitions the way a line drawing marks a contour.

Tamura Noboru is one of the most recognised names in sōsaku kokeshi, the tradition of creative artist-made kokeshi that emerged in the mid-twentieth century as makers began working outside the strict regional styles. He received multiple awards across his career, including the Prime Minister Award, Japan's highest recognition in traditional craft.

Noboru works from Studio Tamura Kogei, a creative kokeshi studio in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture. The same studio is also home to female kokeshi maker Tamura Chie, whose work under the name Chiei Saku has its own devoted following among collectors. I have kokeshi from her as well, you’ll find it under this page among the related items.

Interested to read more about the woodworking on kokeshi like these? I wrote about it in my journal.

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Abe Ichirō Tsuchiyu kokeshi doll with a light wood face, black features, and red hair accents. Its body is banded in red, black, natural wood, and purple.
Tsuchiyu kokeshi by Abe Ichirō, 36 cm, black and purple banding, signed, Shōwa period ca. 1970s
€145.00

The banding on a standard Tsuchiyu body runs in red, black and natural wood. This doll adds a fourth color: discrete purple bands sit alongside the red, painted in the same lathe technique but in a different pigment. It is not a common choice in the Tsuchiyu tradition and it gives this particular piece a quieter, cooler register than the typical warm red. Small decisions in the color palette are one of the ways a maker like Ichirō marked individual pieces within the constraints of a traditional style.

Abe Ichirō (阿部一郎, 1925 to 2000) trained under his father Abe Shinjirō, one of the central figures of the Tsuchiyu lineage in Fukushima Prefecture, and spent his career both making kokeshi and passing the woodturning tradition to the next generation. The rokuro-moyo pattern, painted while the wood spins on the lathe, is one of the defining marks of the Tsuchiyu style. On this piece the color has held particularly well.

The head turns and produces a soft squeak when rotated. In Japanese this is called the cry of a child, and it is one of the quiet surprises of traditional Tsuchiyu kokeshi.

→ Curious how Tsuchiyu compares to the other ten traditional kokeshi lines? Read the full guide.

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Vintage large Tsuchiyu kokeshi signed by Watanabe Chūzō, 36cm high, Shōwa period ca. 1970s
Vintage large Tsuchiyu kokeshi signed by Watanabe Chūzō, 36cm high, Shōwa period ca. 1970s
€145.00

She stands 36 cm tall and takes up space the way a confident object does, not aggressively, but with presence. The red rokuro-moyo bands circle the body in clean horizontal lines, painted while the wood turned on the lathe, each one slightly varying in width and intensity. The face is the kind you remember: a long brushstroke for the nose, eyes that hold more expression than the minimal style usually allows.

Tilt her head and she answers back, a soft, hollow squeak from the loose-fitting joint where the head meets the body.

This rotating head is not a decorative feature. It is a technical standard: in traditional Tsuchiyu kokeshi, the head and body are turned separately on the lathe and fitted together with a slight friction joint that allows rotation. A head that turns correctly is evidence that the proportions are right and the wood has been worked to tolerance. Collectors use it as one of the first checks when assessing a piece. This one still moves as it should.

→ Want to understand the difference between dentō and sōsaku kokeshi? I wrote about it, with a trip through Fukushima along the way.

→ Curious how Tsuchiyu compares to the other ten traditional kokeshi lines? Read the full guide.

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Sōsaku kokeshi with fan by Tanaka Kojo 田中晃常, signed, Shōwa period 1960s front view on tatami mat with ukiyoe print in background
Sōsaku kokeshi with spring decor named "Dream of Spring" signed by Tanaka Kōjō 田中晃常 Shōwa period 1960s
€85.00

The first thing you notice is the hair: dark chestnut wood turned over a pale cream body, the two tones meeting in a clean line. Below it, red and white ume blossoms move across the body with the ease of a maker who has painted this hundreds of times.

She is small enough to hold in one hand and considered enough to keep looking at.

Tanaka Kōjō (田中晃常) made sōsaku kokeshi in Gunma during the Shōwa period, and his "Haru no Yume" series, Dream of Spring, is among his most recognised work.

The ume blossom motif was not a decorative choice: it is the first flower of the Japanese year, blooming before the cold has left, and the symbol of the tea ceremony season's opening. He made this kokeshi to live beside the tea bowl, not apart from it.

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Japanese sosaku kokeshi pair Murakami Kenichi Yuki no Uta tomobako
Sōsaku kokeshi pair signed by Murakami Kenichi, with original tomobako, Shōwa 1970s
€110.00

Two figures, almost perfectly round, with the smallest possible faces. Each one is a child pulled so deep into a winter coat that almost nothing is left visible: two small eyes, a nose, and just enough of a chin to know there is a face at all. The rest is wood, pale and smooth, the natural grain running in quiet lines across the surface. Put them together and they look like they are waiting for something to stop.

Murakami Kenichi came to kokeshi through oil painting, and that shows in how he thought about a subject. Where other makers added decoration, he removed it. These two pieces are among his most recognizable work, a winter child so bundled in a coat that almost nothing human remains visible, and the entire point of the making is that restraint. What you are holding is not a simplified figure. It is a figure from which everything unnecessary has been taken away.

Comes with original tomobako box inscribed 雪の詩 (Yuki no Uta, Poem of Snow).

Read more about the woodworking on kokeshi in my journal.

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Traditional dentō Yajiro kokeshi pair signed by Inoue Harumi with chrysanthemum motif, Shōwa period
Traditional dentō Yajiro kokeshi pair signed by Inoue Harumi with chrysanthemum motif, Shōwa period
€165.00

Two figures, held together in one hand. They clearly belong to each other, and yet if you look at them side by side something is slightly different in each face, a line placed a fraction differently, an expression that is almost but not quite the same. The chrysanthemum on each body is bold and graphic, a wide explosion of red petals that fills most of the torso. At a distance it reads as decoration. Close up it is a very confident hand.

Inoue Harumi learned to make kokeshi from her parents. Her mother Yukiko was herself trained within the Yajiro lineage, and if you look at Harumi's faces you can see where they came from: the same careful restraint, the same particular placement of the features. This is what craft knowledge that passes through families actually looks like. Not a copied style but a sensibility absorbed over years, made visible in every brushstroke.

→ Want to understand the difference between dentō and sōsaku kokeshi? I wrote about it, with a trip through Fukushima along the way.

→ Yajirō is one of eleven regional kokeshi traditions, each with its own tell.‍ ‍See how to recognise them all.

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Sōsaku kokeshi with fan motif signed Tanaka Kojo 田中晃常 painted decoration, Shōwa period 1960s Japan displayed on tatamimat
Unavailable
(sold) Sōsaku kokeshi with fan by Tanaka Kojo 田中晃常, signed, Shōwa period 1960s
€85.00

She stops you because of the fan. It sits in front of her like she is mid-performance, a separate piece of wood painted with an ink landscape of mountains and mist. Everything else about her is warm and composed: the orange-red kimono, the natural wood face tipped slightly forward, the painted fringe falling in neat vertical strokes. She is small enough to hold in one hand and substantial enough to stay exactly where you put her.

Kojo is a well known kokeshi maker in Gunma Prefecture with several kokeshi competition wins to his name, known specifically for figures that carry objects and for the technique of incising motifs directly into the lacquered surface so the natural grain shows through. This piece shows that clearly.

The chrysanthemum forms on her kimono are not painted but carved, each petal catching light differently depending on where she stands.

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Agatsuma Satoshi's Togatta kokeshi doll with painted smiling face, red sunburst head, and iris flowers, on a table before two Japanese art prints.
Togatta kokeshi signed by Agatsuma Satoshi with iris motif from Miyagi, Shōwa period
€85.00

The face draws you in first: half-moon eyes, a small closed mouth, and a confident hairline in black. From there, red radiating lines sweep across the entire head in the unmistakable Togatta sunburst. The body carries a hand-painted iris in deep red with long green leaves, each petal laid down in a single fluid stroke. No outlines, no corrections.

Togatta kokeshi come from the Zao area of Miyagi Prefecture, one of the oldest kokeshi-producing regions in Japan. The tradition began with craftsmen at mountain hot spring resorts making simple wooden toys for visitors, and grew, across generations, into a living folk art with its own distinct vocabulary of forms and markings. A signed piece from a craftsman registered in that lineage is not decoration. It is a record of continuity.

→ That red sunburst crown has a name, and a whole family of related traditions around it. Meet the other ten here.

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(coming soon) Tsuchiyu kokeshi pair by Sato Sashima, signed, Shōwa period 1970s
Unavailable
(coming soon) Tsuchiyu kokeshi pair by Sato Sashima, signed, Shōwa period 1970s
€0.00

I work through my finds in small batches as each piece takes time to research, photograph and write properly. But some items are too good to sit invisible in the backlog, and if you have been looking for a signed pair of Tsuchiyu kokeshi by a documented master maker, I want you to know this one exists.

This pair of traditional Tsuchiyu kokeshi was made by Sato Sashima (佐藤佐志馬, 1907 to 1985), one of the central figures in the Tsuchiyu kokeshi tradition from Tsuchiyu Onsen in Fukushima Prefecture. The two figures stand at ca. 31 and 23 cm, their bodies decorated with the characteristic red rokuro-sen banding applied on the lathe, and both signed on the base. The larger piece shows some age-related wear to the red pigment consistent with its Shōwa period origin.

The full listing, photographs and price will follow. Want to know the moment it goes live? Scroll down.

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see full collection
Read more journal posts:
Oshinobi dōchū: the kokeshi tradition of travelling in disguise
Oshinobi dōchū: the kokeshi tradition of travelling in disguise

Oshinobi dōchū, travelling incognito, shows a Heian noblewoman shielding her face with a kasa hat while journeying in disguise. Two pieces in the collection, by Sato Suigai and Seiju Kon, show how differently that same story can be built in wood.

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One glaze, three lives: a wood-fired chawan explained
One glaze, three lives: a wood-fired chawan explained

This chawan was fired at the Kakuzan-gama, a kiln built in 1959 inside the Kyoto headquarters of Ōmoto, a Japanese religious movement, by Kaneshige Sozan, a member of Bizen's most celebrated pottery family. It is signed by Deguchi Eiji, who served as Ōmoto's Sōchō (director) from 1958 to 1962. A single white glaze on this bowl developed rust, near-black and crystalline blue effects during firing, the result of flame position, ash deposit and heat variation inside a wood kiln, not of painting or decoration.

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Fourteen days, one fire: what it actually takes to fire a Bizen kiln
Fourteen days, one fire: what it actually takes to fire a Bizen kiln

Bizen-yaki is never glazed and never painted. Everything visible on a finished piece was decided during the firing itself, by potters who spend two weeks feeding a kiln by hand, reading the fire instead of a dial. On a return visit to Shibaoka Tōsendō, the Kōzan-gama kiln in Imbe, here is what that actually looks like from the inside.

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What happens when water meets Hagi-yaki: kan'nyū and nanabake, watched in real time
What happens when water meets Hagi-yaki: kan'nyū and nanabake, watched in real time

I filled a Hagi chawan with water and watched what happened. Within a minute, the glaze showed exactly how it will change with years of tea, and four other pieces revealed just how differently that process can unfold, starting long before the kiln, in the clay itself.

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The eleven kokeshi traditions and how to tell them apart
The eleven kokeshi traditions and how to tell them apart

Every kokeshi carries the place it comes from before it carries anything else. A guide to the eleven regional traditions of Tōhoku, and how to recognise each one on sight.

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One of my favorite mornings in Hagi: come with me to the Okada kiln
One of my favorite mornings in Hagi: come with me to the Okada kiln

Three generations under one roof, a blue glaze that surprised me, and a cat I bought on the way out. One of my favorite mornings in Hagi, at the Okada kiln.

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Journey to Katsuo-ji: The Temple of a Thousand Daruma in Osaka
Journey to Katsuo-ji: The Temple of a Thousand Daruma in Osaka

Perched in the forested hills of Minoh, Katsuo-ji is known throughout Japan as the Daruma Temple, thousands of red daruma cascading down its steps, each one carrying someone's wish. A visit that changed how I see the wooden daruma in our own collection.

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Three objects for your Japanese meditation corner, and why each one matters
Three objects for your Japanese meditation corner, and why each one matters

Every temple I visit in Japan has the same quality of quiet, and it starts with three things: scent, sound, and a presence that holds the space. Here is how to bring that same intention home, starting with a single kōro and the concept of ma.

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Tea bowls crossing time: a visit to the Raku Museum in Kyoto
Tea bowls crossing time: a visit to the Raku Museum in Kyoto

Inside the Raku Museum in Kyoto during the Raku Successive Generations exhibition. Chawan from Chōjirō to the 16th Kichizaemon, a quiet garden, and one idea about tradition that stayed with me.

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Caring for your vintage urushi lacquerware
Caring for your vintage urushi lacquerware

Urushi looks fragile and behaves like the opposite, until it meets a sunny windowsill or a winter radiator. Here is what actually damages lacquerware, what does not, and the handful of habits that keep a piece looking the way it did the day it was finished.

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Caring for your vintage kokeshi
Caring for your vintage kokeshi

A kokeshi asks for very little once it has found the right spot. Grouped in threes on a shelf, alone on a windowsill out of direct sun, or standing next to something entirely unrelated, like a stack of books or a single dried branch. Here is what I have learned about placing them so they actually get looked at, instead of disappearing into a room.

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Caring for your vintage ceramics: chawan, yunomi and ikebana vases
Caring for your vintage ceramics: chawan, yunomi and ikebana vases

Every ceramic piece I bring home has already been through decades of hands before mine. A chawan changes colour with tea over the years, a vase collects mineral marks if you let it, and neither of those things is damage. Here is what actually matters when you look after one.

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My journey through the Mountains of Fukushima and the kokeshi I meet throughout Japan
My journey through the Mountains of Fukushima and the kokeshi I meet throughout Japan

A week in the heartland of kokeshi: Fukushima. From climbing Mount Bandai before sunrise to studying the unique facial expressions in the work of masters like Ichiro and Sato Fumio. Discover how the landscape and deep-rooted woodcarving traditions shape these authentic vintage treasures.

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What the wood remembers: grain, fire and chisel marks and the face that looks back
What the wood remembers: grain, fire and chisel marks and the face that looks back

What draws you to a kokeshi is rarely the name on the base. It is the grain showing through the dark wood, the mark the tool left, and the two lines that somehow become a face. A close look at how makers like Usaburo and Sansaku Sekiguchi work with and against the wood itself.

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Bizen-yaki: the Okayama tradition without glaze
Bizen-yaki: the Okayama tradition without glaze

Bizen-yaki has no glaze. Every color, every mark, every surface effect is made in the kiln by fire, ash, and position. This guide explains what hidasuki, goma, sangiri and shiro-Bizen actually are, how they are made, and what to look for when you buy.

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A tiger made for its own year: kinsai gold and a Kyoto tradition
A tiger made for its own year: kinsai gold and a Kyoto tradition

There is a small tiger on my desk with gold worn down to almost nothing on its ears and shoulders. It was made for a Year of the Tiger, in Kyoto, by a kiln lineage going back to 1771. The wear is not damage. It is exactly what the gold was always going to do.

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Inside a 200-year-old Kyoto raku-yaki kiln that still makes tea bowls by hand
Inside a 200-year-old Kyoto raku-yaki kiln that still makes tea bowls by hand

Behind the curtain at Raku Studio Waraku in Kyoto's Gion district. How aka-raku and kuro-raku tea bowls are hand-formed, fired, and finished with charcoal by 8th generation master Kawasaki Motoo. A sourcing diary entry from KAIKO&CO.

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Sourcing in Japan Day 3: The hunt for haori & hidden treasures
Sourcing in Japan Day 3: The hunt for haori & hidden treasures

Furukawacho Shotengai in Higashiyama: an arcade frozen in the 1970s, a kimono specialist with six haori I had not expected to find, and a folder of 1895 Kyoto lithographs from an antique bookstore tucked behind a curtain. Day three of my Sourcing Week in Japan series in Kyoto and Okayama.

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Finding Ouchi-nuri hina dolls in Yanaka, Tokyo's cat town.
Finding Ouchi-nuri hina dolls in Yanaka, Tokyo's cat town.

An antique market stall on temple grounds in Tokyo's Yanaka cat town, a lacquered doll pair from the ‘50’s with a story about a homesick bride, and a cat print.

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Ōbi-yaki: the Kanazawa tea bowl tradition born from a Kyoto restriction
Ōbi-yaki: the Kanazawa tea bowl tradition born from a Kyoto restriction

A Kyoto potter stayed behind in Kanazawa in 1666, and the Raku family sent a glaze north with him, one built for the cold. Eleven generations later, that same amber glaze still catches the light.

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The same face, eighty years apart: Naruko kokeshi and the art of handing something down
The same face, eighty years apart: Naruko kokeshi and the art of handing something down

Two kokeshi, eighty years apart. Same face, different hands. The story of the Sakurai family and five generations of Naruko tradition.

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Sourcing in Japan Day 2: Meeting my favorite chawan supplier in Osaka
Sourcing in Japan Day 2: Meeting my favorite chawan supplier in Osaka

Some supplier relationships take years to build. In Osaka I have a meeting over tea and chawan pieces that never reach any public market. Day two of my Sourcing Week in Japan series in Kyoto and Okayama.

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Sourcing in Japan Day 1: Kobo-san Antique Market at Kyoto's Toji Temple
Sourcing in Japan Day 1: Kobo-san Antique Market at Kyoto's Toji Temple

This is where the week begins. An early alarm, a heavy bag, and the first market of the trip: Kobo-san at Tōji Temple, Kyoto, at 5:30 in the morning. Day one of my Sourcing Week in Japan series in Kyoto and Okayama.

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The most beautiful objects in the Japanese tea ceremony tradition are made to be emptied
The most beautiful objects in the Japanese tea ceremony tradition are made to be emptied

This is Hotei, the laughing god of contentment, made in soft Hagi-yaki. Hagi ware made by the hand of potter Okada Yutaka. He holds a single piece of incense. After that piece is placed near the charcoal, he sits empty for the rest of the session. Japan put its finest craft into this moment of emptying, and then into the silence after.

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Why size matters: what a chawan feels like before you drink from it
Why size matters: what a chawan feels like before you drink from it

Before you taste the tea, you hold the bowl. Weight, diameter, the way the foot sits in your palm: these are not secondary details. They are the bowl. On what I look for when I source chawan in Japan, and why size tells you more than the glaze ever will.

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How to live with kokeshi: placing a Japanese wooden figure in a modern home
How to live with kokeshi: placing a Japanese wooden figure in a modern home

A kokeshi placed well in a room is more powerful than five grouped without thought. Here is what I have learned about height, background, and the quiet effect of giving one figure enough space to simply stand.

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The objects of the tea ceremony and what to look for in each one. What I bring home from Japan, and why.
The objects of the tea ceremony and what to look for in each one. What I bring home from Japan, and why.

Every time I return from Japan, I carry objects built around a ritual. Not decorative pieces, but things that were made to slow things down. This is what I look for in each one, and why.

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The beauty of Hagi-Yaki that will grow with you
The beauty of Hagi-Yaki that will grow with you

Hagi-yaki has been made in western Japan for over 400 years. What makes it special is what happens after you buy it. The bowl changes with every cup of tea you drink from it. That is why hagi-yaki is so loveable.

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Hannah
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