Edo Sekku Ningyo

Realistic and refined

Edo festival dolls keep the Edo style: natural colours, realistic faces and a refined finish. Alongside hina dolls for Girls' Day and dolls for Boys' Day, makers craft decorative samurai armour, often based on historical research, from iron, copper, washi, deer leather and silk braid. Ichimatsu dolls, gosho dolls and genre figures are made too. It is made in Adachi, Arakawa and other wards of Tokyo, and in Saitama city and nearby in Saitama.

Body first, then dressing

• The head and body are carved from wood or moulded from toso, paulownia sawdust paste.
• Hands and feet are fitted to the body.
• A costume tailored separately in silk, cotton or hemp is dressed onto the doll.
• Armour displays are assembled mainly by hand from metal, leather, paper and silk cords.

Edo finds its own style

Doll making in Edo began in the early Edo period under Kyoto's influence. A distinct Edo style was set around the Horeki era, about 250 years ago, when hina and Boys' Day dolls became realistic and refined. Doll culture peaked in the Bunka-Bunsei era: helmet displays once set outdoors moved inside, detailed armour modelled on real suits appeared, and the city filled with tiny dolls and figures that looked like popular actors.