Japanese Dolls: The Fascinating World of Ningyo

Tuttle Publishing, 2008 - Antiques & Collectibles - 272 pages

The fascinating world of Japanese doll collecting

For centuries, Japanese doll artisans created spectacular works of art, invested with both significant cultural meaning and elemental beauty, encased in the deceptively simple body of a doll.

Japanese Dolls: The Fascinating World of Ningyo, is a cornucopia of information for Japanese art collectors, Asian doll collectors and doll enthusiasts of all levels and interests. Full of beautiful photographs, the book details 18 kinds of widely collected, obtainable and affordable, antique and vintage dolls and figurines (ningyo).

Author Alan Scott Pate—the leading American expert on Japanese dolls—writes in illuminating detail about the traditions of each type of doll and shares practical tips on how to collect this amazing Japanese art form. Included are:

• Festival dolls: hina-ningyo, musha-ningyo, tableau dolls
• Display dolls: saga-ningyo, gosho-ningyo, isho-ningyo, iki-ningyo
• Wood dolls: kamo-ningyo, nara-ningyo, kokeshi-ningyo
• Clay dolls: fushimi-ningyo, hakata-ningyo
• Mechanical dolls: karakuri-ningyo, kobe-ningyo
• Theatrical dolls: bunraku-ningyo, takeda-ningyo
• Play dolls: ichimatsu-ningyo, keue saiko

What people are saying

doll book

User Review  - faculty - Overstock.com

I have been to Japan and collect dolls so this book was written for my interests. The pictures are wonderful also. I dont know the book would be generally interesting but if you collect dolls or love Japanese culture this would be a terrific and unique purchase.

About the author

Alan Scott Pate was born in Florida and studied in France, Korea, and the United States. He has an MA in East Asian Studies from Harvard University. He is the owner of Akanezumiya in St Ignatius, Montana, which specializes in religious and figural art of Japan from the Edo period and earlier. The leading expert on Japanese dolls in the US, he has curated exhibitions, lectured extensively on Japanese dolls, and published widely in journals focusing on Japanese antiques. He is the author of Ningyo: The Art of the Japanese Doll.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Japanese Dolls: The Fascinating World of Ningyo; Art and Design Series
• Photographs by: Alan Scott Pate
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing, 2008
• ISBN: 4805309229, 9784805309223
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Antiques & Collectibles / Dolls; Antiques & Collectibles / Figurines; Art / Asian / General; Art / Asian / Japanese; History / Asia / Japan