Made throughout Japan today, it is only in the Tohoku region (northern end of Honshu Island) that kokeshi are made according to the local traditional techniques
FOLK toys are a distinct feature of every country and region with Pakistan, too, enjoying a lavish culture of highly decorative folk toys, specially dolls, which children of all ages enjoy during their formative years. In fact, the tradition of gudday, guriya ki shaadi in Pakistan has evolved around it and still considered an important and essential part of every girl’s life in grooming her for adult life and the responsibilities that come with it.
Far away in the Orient, unique folk toys are found in every part of Japan, too, the most being kokeshi or wooden dolls. Made throughout the country today, it is only in the Tohoku region (northern end of Honshu Island) that kokeshi are made according to the local traditional techniques. The art of traditional kokeshi is believed to go back about 200 years.
Kokeshi consists of only a head and a body crafted on a lathe. Traditional kokeshi came into being when Kijiya woodworkers who made wooden household articles turned their skills to create dolls that visitors at a local hot-spring resorts could purchase for their children. Traditional kokeshi are mostly handcrafted, each displaying the characteristics of the person who made it. As the making of kokeshi continued in different parts of the Tohoku region, their shapes and patterns became fixed. Today, traditional kokeshi can be classified under eleven types: Tsuchiyu, Togatta, Yajiro, Naruko, Sakunami, Yamagata, Kijiyama, Nanbu, Tsugary, Zao-takayu and Hijiori.
On the other hand, creative kokeshi are free in terms of inspiration, shape and painting. They represent one generation only in terms of the craftsmen’s individual talent, who tend to be based in the outskirts of large cities rather than in rural areas.
Kokeshi of unique design came to be manufactured as souvenirs and most of these, which have a relatively short history, are known as new (shingata) kokeshi, as opposed to traditional (dento) kokeshi. Creative (sosaku) kokeshi express certain themes and are a relatively new phenomenon. Their artistic value is often high.
The recent kokeshi exhibition titled ‘The World of Kokeshi Dolls’, sent by the Japan Foundation and organized by the Japan Cultural Centre in collaboration with the Pakistan-Japan Cultural Association, Sindh, and Danishgah (an association for special children) remained open for the public for three days, February 19-21, 2004. It presented traditional and creative kokeshi dolls and other hand-crafted wooden toys to showcase Japanese wood-working techniques using the lathe, and how new developments are emerging from it. Earlier, in October 2002, the ‘Exhibition of the Dolls of Japan’ was the first-ever of its kind to be held in the port city of Karachi.
Variations in the crafting of the dolls set them apart from their counterparts and are outrightly visible to the experienced eye. For novices, however, the literature on the dolls provided at the exhibition made it possible for the visitors to make out the subtle differences. The slightly bulging torsos and patterns consisting of lines in Tsuchiyu dolls sets them apart from Togatta kokeshi that have cylindrical bodies and narrow eyes, among other variations. Yajiro kokeshi have the crowns of the heads painted with multi-coloured lines drawn in a beret-like fashion while Naruko have forelocks and sidelocks.
Traditional Tohoku kokeshi artisans also made other wooden toys from early on, using kokeshi materials and techniques such as tops, kitchen and household items, moving toys and Hina Ningyo (dolls for the Girl’s Festival).
In the words of the Consul-General of Japan, Janji Hanagata, speaking at the inauguration of the exhibition, “The dolls are a unique expression of Japanese culture. For the Japanese, they are Ningyo, figures portraying the human form and offer so many shapes and meanings to the loving mind. No other country in the world is as rich in the most varied types of dolls as Japan .... In this season of spring in Pakistan, it will not be an overstatement if we call this exhibition ‘A Bouquet of Beauty’ sent by the Japan Foundation.
Made throughout Japan today, it is only in the Tohoku region (northern end of Honshu Island) that kokeshi are made according to the local traditional techniques 
