TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Japan is the top advanced country of robots, and one of the origin is the karakuri-ningyo (wind-up doll) that dates back to Edo period. Making full use of traditional woodworking techniques, our ancestors created an amazingly delicate movement of dolls that never lets us bored. The ultimate manufacturing handed down over generations. This is an introduction to the attractive wind-up dolls that goes beyond machine, marveling the western world.

The history of wind-up dolls dates back to the old times described in “Konjaku Monogatari (Tales of Times Now Past)” written in Heian period, and developed as the mass entertainment of the festivals in Edo period. Wind-up dolls falls roughly into two types; “Dashi-karakuri” maneuvered by festival floats, and “Zashiki-karakuri” that move with a spring. For 270 years, this karakuri-ningyo culture have been inherited for generations by “Tamaya Shobei,” the karakuri ningyo master in Nagoya.

“Cha-hakobi-ningyo (Tea delivery doll), ” a wind-up doll that starts to move when you put on a teacup on the tray, is a Zashiki-karakuri introduced in “Karakurizui” written by Hanzo Hosokawa, an inventor of Edo period. The doll became famous when the seventh generation of Shobei Tamaya first made a replica in 1969. The doll with the tray moves straight for a meter and stops. After you pick up the tea cup and place it back on the tray, the doll turns around and comes back. For the motor, whiskers of a whale is used instead of the spiral spring.

“The quintessence of wind-up doll is to make it all by wood,” says Mr Shoji Takashina, who is the 9th generation of Shobei Tamaya, after his father (7th) and brother (8th).

“The large difference between Western wind-up doll (automata) s the materials used. While automata is made of metals, Japanese karakuri is made of seven kinds of selected woods for every single parts from the body to the spring, using different trees according to the purpose. Oil nor anti-friction is used because trees are living substance, but we can keep the dolls moving for over 200 years if we keep on repairing.

Considering the nature of the tree, the quince gear is made by sticking eight sector form along the slash grain. Repeating the delicate work, it takes a year to finish the doll. Wind-up doll is the crystallization of traditional wooden culture and Japanese ingenuity.

The true value of Tamaya Shobei lies in the fact that he produces all the parts by himself, from face, gear and to the costume. Of all, he devotes the longest time on making “Kashira (head).” The head is carved out of 200 year-old Japanese cypress dried for over 10 years. For the facial expression, the techniques of Noh mask is used, changing the expression by different angles. It takes 10 years to acquire the coloring technique, repetitively using shell powder (pigment) as the base and the top coat.

“Wind-up doll is not a robot imitating human movement. The gawk movement is the taste. Also, being a wooden doll, it shows different moves depending on the temperature and humidity. You will be bored at once if it always has the same exact movement.”

Having the atelier within the city of Nagoya, ninth karakuri-ningyo master is visited by engineers of large enterprises. Though times go by, “karakuri-ningyo” has “something” that touches the “spirit of manufacturing” technical experts share.

Source: Travel Vision

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