Kokeshi doll artist - Okamoto Usaburo

Today, I would like to write about the great Sousaku Kokeshi aritst, Okamoto Usaburo.

He is a one of a great Sousaku (creative) Kokeshi doll artists nowadays.

He has his own factory called Usaburo Kokeshi factory in Gunma Prefecture.

You can visit there and see how Kokeshi dolls are created. You can also try to paint plane Kokeshi doll.

Okamoto Usaburo was born in 1917.

When he was young he is not Kokeshi Doll Artist but created Metal industrial arts.

He started making Kokeshi Doll from 1950.

He didn’t persist in old method and he created new technique to making Kokeshi Doll like engraving or burning by Nichrome wire to design.

He has so many prizes as Kokeshi doll artist.

He won the many prizes include award of the Minister of International Trade and Industry (’78,’84,’85) and the award of the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (’79,’82).

His Kokeshi dolls are always warm even bravely Samurai Kokeshi doll.

Kokeshi doll ; The model of world famous doll.

Today, I would like to introduce traditional Kokeshi doll artist, Sato Koichi.

He was born in 1936 and studied under HAMAZU HEISABURO from 1957 to 1977.

After that he devoted himself to create Kokeshi Dolls until now.

He is very good at to creating parent or grandparent Kokeshi doll.

This Kokeshi Doll is called ‘Komochi Kokeshi’. ‘Komochi’ means parent in Japanese.

This Kokeshi Doll is called ‘Magomochi Kokeshi’. ‘Magomochi’ means grandparent in Japanese.

Do you remind certain world famous doll when you see these dolls?

Some of you might know but these Kokeshi doll are model of Russian traditional doll called "Matryoshka doll".

We are very very pround of this fact but Matryoshka doll is much more famous than Kokeshi in the world doll nowadays.

We have to do something to let Kokeshi doll be famous like Matryoshka doll or Teddy Bear!!

The Kokeshi Master Craftman, the late Mr.Watanabe Masao

In this blog, I' writing about Kokeshi dolls and I will write about artists of Kokeshi dolls.

Each Kokeshi dolls was created by the artist one by one by their hands.

So each Kokeshi doll is only one in the entire world.

Today I'd like to introduce Waranabe Masao, the master craftman of Kokeshi dolls.
This is his most inportant work. The design is called 'Mushin （無心）', meaning 'Innocent' in Japanese.

The artist made this Kokeshi Doll with hoping that everyone who sees this Kokeshi Doll becomes to be innocent again.



This model is exhibited in the exhibition that was hold by the small and medium enterprises agency in United States before.

He bleached the color of wood by using special chemical.

Mr. Watanabe Masao was born in 1917 in Fukushima Prefecture.

Originally, he was a traditional Kokeshi artist but he started Sousaku Kokeshi dolls from 1950.

After stating create Sousaku Kokeshi dolls, he showed a great aptitude for creating Kokeshi dolls.

As I wrote avobe, he is really famous in foreign countries and one of his work preserved at the Toys museum in Nürnberg, Germany nowadays.

Of course, his works are highly regarded in Japan.

He won many awards include the award from the Prime Minister twice ('63, '71).

Sadly, He passed away in 2007 when he was 89 years old.
This is a huge loss of the world of Sousaku Kokeshi world.

I will show you some of his other works.



















Oboko （おぼこ）　　　　 　　　　　 Kantsubaki （寒椿）

There are many his work in our Rocobee Kokeshi Store.

If you won't have a plan to buy them, please just see his great works!!