KIKUCHI "Ichimatsu-ningyou" FACTORY

The interview with the craftman is available for those who read Japanese. Enjoy it!(Japanese interview)

The popular KABUKI actor(What's ICHIMATSU?)
In EDO era, there was a KABUKI actor named Sanokawa Ichimatsu and he was so popular like today's show business person. Ichimatsu was a man and was wearing a certain plaid pattern KIMONO. Then the pattern itself was called ICHIMATSU pattern and ICHIMATSU dolls were first made just like him. This doll and the ICHIMATSU pattern don't relate so much but they have common origin. (At first were dolls modeled after Ichimatsu?) That's right because he was the most popular actor back then. Originally, people can change clothes on those dolls, and that's a sense of toy, unchanged since old times.

I'm the fourth master
(What's the name of your doll?) It's SHOHGIKU. (How many masters before you?) I'm the fourth master. This doll was originated in Kikuchi doll factory around 1883. You know doll wholesalers in ASAKUSA? The factory had been making dolls to sell those wholesalers. Nowadays the system has been changed a lot though. (As a subcontractor?) Right. A sort of Subcontractor. But now, we sell the dolls directly to department stores so the system has been changed. (Since what age have you been making dolls?) Since around 20 years old. It's been 22, 23 years now. Although I had been helping with the work by just copying what others were doing, officially, it's been 22 or 23 years.

More than half of our co-workers are men
(Although most dolls are of women, men make them?) Well, men do more than half of doll making process. (How about the doll's face?) I do that from the beginning, from the foundation. The unvarnished doll's head is made of KIRI(Paulownia wood) sawdust. We lacquer the head many times and assemble it. Up here, it's mostly men's work. (Sawdust?) For the core, yes. After we lacquer it, you can't tell what it's made of. (With what do you shape and harden sawdust?) With FUNORI(a marine alga of the genus) glue. If I do the process thoroughly, I'd use more than a hundred materials. In making a doll, we don't use a single material. As for other traditional crafts, they only need several materials, on the other hand there are so many kinds of materials for dolls. (Do you make anything you need from nothing?) That's right. (Do you buy cloth?) Nowadays it's pretty hard to get good cloth. This is KODAIGIRE, old cloth, and made into doll-sized KIMONO, embroidered especially for dolls. (The KIMONO is also sewed here?) Yes. It's mainly women's work to sew KIMONO or dress KIMONO on dolls.

Young people's taste is antique style
(Do you always buy cloth?) Some clients ask us to undo KIMONO from their girlhood and remake it for a doll, and some ask us to make another KIMONO for dress-up after several years from when they bought dolls here. Some people even sew KIMONO by themselves because for more than half of them, a doll is a hobby. For people who have time, sewing doll's KIMONO is of course tasteful. (Not so many people are able to sew?) Well, generally, sewing seems to require much work nowadays, but for anybody who can have fun in sewing, I think it's good. (Can the doll's KIMONO be sewed quicker than human's, because it's much smaller?) Well, you're right in a sense of how much cloth you need. Now that KODAIGIRE cloth is becoming popular, not so easily available though, using the cloth makes quite different and much better　impression on dolls. (What age are your customers?) Naturally, there are many high aged customers, as well as young ones. As for young customers, antique style, such as using KODAIGIRE cloth, is getting popular. That's a new trend. (Does the doll attract attention in a modern house?) Well, for example, "HAIHAI-NINGYO"(a crawling baby doll), once seen in any families, is now very unusual and has scarcity value. (Is HAIHAI-NINGYO designed to sit by HINA-NINGYO for HINA-MATSURI festival?) Yes. People used to give someone (usually their daughters who are expecting a baby or who just had a baby girl) HINA-NINGYO as a gift. ICHIMATSU doll has the same meaning as a gift, then HAIHAI-NINGYO is a transformed ICHIMATSU as much younger baby. ICHIMATSU-NINGYO represents three, five or seven years old girl and looks like a big sister of HAIHAI-NINGYO. (Is HAIHAI-NINGYO also a dress-up doll?) That's right. It retails with nothing on. Without any clothes on we make the doll in crawling position. So, up here is men's work. Now the doll is arranged beforehand with collar, and wears NAGA-JYUBAN(long underwear worn for KIMONO), and then it wears KIMONO. Here the KIMONO is designed and made to meet a form of the doll. (Do you sell dolls with measurements of their KIMONO?) Yes, there is a size table. This size, so-and-so GO, has been unchanged since olden times and it's common to other parts such as TABI, socks for KIMONO.

Our dolls are designated as traditional craft products
Since the doll is designated as a traditional craft product A doll that sells well recently is absolutely manufactured by machine, screw upped to doll's stand and fixed KIMONO and OBI, a belt, with glue. It's made on mass production. Styrene foam makes a core. So most dolls are in standing position. (Even their hands aren't movable?) As for our dolls, hands are also movable so that we can actually put their arms through KIMONO sleeves. Just like babies. They can stand up and sit down. (About the price, is it ten times higher?) On the contrary, dolls that sell well in other stores are more expensive. (Is it due to lack of knowledge among consumers?)　Well, they hardly recognize differences between others' products and ours because they are sold under the same name. (Then what are the differences?) As for ours, you can adjust the length of the doll's KIMONO with a waist cord. Under a mass production, upper and lower parts of KIMONO are gluedtogether because OBI belt can cover them. Since we have worked in this manner over generations and our dolls are designated as traditional craft products, we don't do such a thing. The KIMONO is not split up but in complete one. (If a skill is designated, you are not allowed to use other skills?) That's right. We make each original ones so we can't rely on mass production. Also as for doll's KIMONO.

Half to one year to complete
(Is the name "ICHIMATSU-NINGYO" general name?) Yes, it is. About 20 years ago, the doll made a boom then the boom has spread all over, and other doll manufacturers began to make it. Before the boom, a few doll makers were involved in making only ICHIMATSU. (As for ICHIMATSU, is your workshop the oldest?) Oh yes. (Is there any other handcrafting shop?) Only several shops are so but quite few. Their dolls don't come onto the market, ours neither. What you can see in stores are the dolls made by mass production and such stores are popular. (Aren't you going to sell your dolls to a wholesaler?) Thinking of our process, we would be in trouble in accepting numbers of orders. Back in time, we were able to make a lot to order quite reasonably. (Do you still work with your father?) Yes. There are other craftsmen but we do most process in our family, even to hairs. Originally, craftsmen divide the work, such as for hairs or for KIRI sawdust. And we could ask them. But now we try to do everything by ourselves because each specific craftsman is getting older. (Are you going to be in trouble when a large number of dolls sold out?) He-he. (Do you have the dolls in stock?) Originally, a wholesaler is to have a stock but in order to respond to occasional request of order, we have to have at least thirty units of stock, in wide variety. It takes a half to one year to complete if we make a doll from the beginning. So we lay by half completed dolls in some extent. It takes time in drying process and so on.

45 centimeters doll is the most popular one
(Do dolls' prices vary depending on KIMONO?) They vary with the kinds and the size. Since this is exactly where we work, we are ready to listen to our customers. (What kind of dolls sells the most?) 45 centimeters doll is the most popular one. The size is getting smaller and smaller. As for big one, it is as high as a child is. Nowadays demands for such big dolls are very rare so we don't make them unless we have orders from customers. (But I have seen a big one at a museum…..) In such places it's no good with small ones. We make such big dolls to resort houses or some kind of municipal facilities of a ward, but nowadays they aren't likely welcome to be decorated with at ordinary families.

We accept repairs very often
(What about the repairs?) When a doll gets fifty or sixty years old, parts like KIMONO or hair is getting damaged. Color fading is one of such damage. Then they bring in the dolls to ask us to change hair or KIMONO but let the dolls' bodies as of old time. We accept such repairs very often.

It is women's roll to choose designs and sew KIMONO.
(When KODAIGIRE, old cloth, is used for doll's KIMONO, is it expensive?) Well, we got to use KODAIGIRE for most dolls because new cloth isn't good enough and makes the doll look cheaper. So this is another reason why we get in trouble on too many orders. (Is it difficult to get KODAIGIRE?) At first, we used to pull out KIMONO of our family's old drawer but the source is limited and no good to make use over and over. So we buy cloth at an antique shop, which handles KIMONO, but as a form of one complete KIMONO. Then we take the KIMONO apart and do ARAIHARI (to stretch and dry the pieces of KIMONO on boards after they have been washed and starched), and sew into dolls' KIMONO. I do the roll of purchasing such KIMONO but it IS women's roll to choose designs and sew KIMONO. (You mean your mother and your wife?) Yes. Right now, only two of them do the work. (How about hair?) We also use the real hair. It's not so easy to get it now though. And among KODAIGIRE, we can't find purple cloth. (Is it much more expensive on use of real hair?) No, not so much. It's only for the working time (to decide the price), although the material is much expensive. (Which one is your favorite, Mr. Kikuchi?) The small one over there. It's really small type. It takes as long time as bigger ones but I become devoted and concentrated without thinking over the time. (Then you don't want to sell that?) Well, it's hard to offer such small one for expensive price.

At first we put the eyeballs then paint it over and over
(Do you use a mold for the face?) It's a rough mold to use before putting the eyeballs. The mold is made of pine resin and we fill it with paulownia sawdust. With a mold we can make only several heads. Now we put eyeballs, then we paint and shave the face over and over. So each face has slightly different expression. (Does it likely to happen that a customer want particular doll because it has prettier face?) Yes, it happens. (What's characteristic of your doll's face?) All the faces are inevitably alike. They say a doll's face bears a resemblance to its creator. During working with dolls, I don't care about it. I just think a face would eventually be the face of very close people. (Is that the unfinished head in your hand?) After having pressed paulownia sawdust onto the mold and dried, I put eyeballs already. I'm afraid you can't imagine the facial expression from this one alone. Now, we try to make a face out of this one. In the beginning, we put eyeballs onto a face and then we paint it many times to make quite flat face. Later on the eyes are carved, so it's impossible to make all same expressions. (To carve out the eyes?) Right. The eyes are carved on doll's face. There IS a specialist for artificial eyes. This is quite a difference between our dolls and western dolls or toy dolls. As for those dolls, after a face is made with a mold, the eyes are attached from the inside. On the other hand, as for genuine Japanese dolls, the eyes are put from outside of a face. It's the same for HINA-NINGYO dolls. (It takes time to make dolls?) The work has many stages. So if you do from the real first stage, it takes outrageous time.

It's much highly evaluated overseas.
(Do you make any popular actor's or actress's face?) No, never. We'd rather make an old-fashioned doll. The better our work is, the quicker a doll sells. (It looks like an ornament but can we still play with it?) So we do have dolls in glass cases but there are other ways to have fun with dolls such as touching them often. For our doll, when you get tired of it, just undo both OBI and KIMONO as to a reference, then you can sew another OBI and KIMONO to dress your doll. (Do you have any suggestions how to play with dolls?) Well, it's a matter of time and money to spare. Housewives are the most promising customers. So with the economic downturn their budgets might become tight. (Are there eager collectors?) Some have special room for their doll collection. Quite a large number is put in such room. Even limited to the dolls from our shop, they have various kinds, from small dolls to larger ones. Furthermore they have dolls from other shops and from old time. (What about the price?) A western antique doll, called "Bisque Doll" costs several millions yen but a Japanese doll isn't so expensive. Japanese dolls are much highly evaluated in foreign countries because of the rarity. A Japanese doll is not available in overseas doll market. Even in Japanese market, it's rare. (Are there any auctions for Japanese dolls?) No, there aren't. Because of recent antique boom, you can buy the dolls at some municipal places but they are cheap and many of them are damaged. The material is paulownia sawdust painted with the mixture of shell and glue many times. That's why they are not endurable to humidity and shock. At this point foreign dolls are endurable even if you wipe their face. In case of Japanese dolls, you aren't allowed to wipe. It's all right if you don't touch the face. As for the face, even the doll's 50 or 60 years old, I wouldn't recommend to repaint it, but if the face has a crack or other damages, it's still possible to repair.

It's O.K. to display the doll at all times of the year.
(Can you display the doll all the year round?) Nowadays it's O.K. to display it at all times of the year, which causes even less damage. The doll is getting something that you can enjoy all through the year. That's partly because fewer people celebrate HINA-MATSURI; doll's festival now. (It's been said that your daughter won't get married unless you put away HINA dolls as soon as the HINA-MATSRI is over. How about yours?) On the contrary, as for ICHIMATSU doll, you can display it all the year through. Because it's rare goods and we are losing the sense of seasons, ICHIMATSU dolls sell well all the year round. (In summer, do you dress the doll KIMONO, especially for summer?) Some customers ask us to sew YUKATA(easy cotton made KIMONO for summer or for the nightwear) to wear their dolls. But basically it's not a doll for summer. It looks too warm to have comfort in summer.

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