Mountain ski doll, colored

Description

• Please note that this is an old item, so some dust stains, age spots and scratches are part of the charm of old tools.
• Please note that it is sensitive to water.
• Please check the condition of used items with the pictures in advance. If you have any questions, please be sure to contact us before purchase.
• No returns after purchase. Please make your purchase after careful consideration.

Valuable peasant art and wooden dolls were made throughout Japan during a short period of time from the late Taisho Period to around the 1960s.
In 1919, Western-style painter Yamamoto Ting, who returned from his studies in Europe in 1919, attempted “simple, entertaining, and creative labor” by making use of the traditionally wasted farming season, based on his observations of farmers’ lives in Europe, in order to “bring out a great breed of industrial art from the hands of farmers all over Japan. He advocated the Peasant Art Movement as a practical advocacy to improve the livelihood of farmers through side jobs, and the Japan Peasant Art Institute established in Shinshu began to provide coeducational instruction to trainees. The Japan Peasant Art Institute was established in Shinshu, where both male and female students were taught in a coeducational program. However, the movement declined due to the economic downturn caused by the termination of government subsidies and the effects of the war, etc. Nowadays, however, peasant art is attracting renewed attention.

The mountain climbing dolls, in particular, were invented in the Taisho era (1912-1926) by Ryoichi Iguchi, a painter and proprietor of the Kamikochi Ryokan (inn) in Kamikochi, and Yusui Shimizu, a sculptor in Matsumoto Town, as a souvenir of mountain climbing, when mountain trails and lodging facilities were built throughout Japan as the number of climbers increased during the Meiji and Taisho eras. Mr. Shimizu later became the first person to create a souvenir of the Japanese Alps. Shimizu later established the Japan Alps Farmers’ Art Production Association and developed Matsumoto Shirakaba crafts nationwide.
Most of the production was made before and after the Showa period, and then until around the 1960s. Yamatsuke is a characteristic of the postwar period. At that time, it was produced as a sideline job for carvers, carpenters, painters, and teachers, and is a wonderful piece of work in both design and technique.