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Ryūjo Hori

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Ryūjo Hori (堀柳女, Hori Ryūjo, 1897 – 1984) (born Matsue Yamada) was a Japanese dollmaker of traditional dolls.

Biography

Hori started her career as a painter, but switched to doll making after an epiphany with a piece of gum; seeing the half-chewed gum she was fiddling looked something like a human face caused her to become interested in three-dimensional representations of the human form. She began to construct dolls from flour and newspaper paste, using chopsticks as a structural base.[1][2] In 1930 she joined Yumeji Takehisa's Dontakusha group of artists and subsequently focussed her entire output on doll-making; that same year she had her first exhibition at the Hina Matsuri Festival.[3][4][5] Early on in her career, she studied under the famous doll-makers Goyo Hirata and Juzo Kagoshima, both Living National Treasure of Japan.[2]

Her creation of a new style of kimekomi-ningyō doll resulted in her own appointment as a Living National Treasure of Japan in 1955; she was both the first woman to be awarded this accolade and the first artist to be largely self-taught.[3][6] She commonly sculpted dolls in the likeness of aristocratic women of the Heian period, in paulownia wood or (later in her career) shiso (terracotta overlaid with paper).[7] Her dolls can take up to ten years to complete.[8] In 1983 she was presented to Nancy Reagan during a presidential visit to Japan, who claimed to "admire [Hori's] patience as much as [her] art".[5] (Hori was forbidden from bringing her tools - primarily knives - to the meeting.)[9]

References

  1. ^ New Japan. Mainichi Publishing Company. 1967. p. 125. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  2. ^ a b Tsune Sugimura; Masataka Ogawa (1968). The Enduring Crafts of Japan: 33 Living National Treasures. Walker/Weatherhill. p. 210. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  3. ^ a b 金子賢治; 今井陽子 (2003). 今日の人形芸術: 想念の造形. TBS. p. 14. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  4. ^ 講談社 (1993). Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha. p. 562. ISBN 978-4-06-206489-7. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  5. ^ a b "Dolls, Tea Service Delight First Lady". Miami Herald. 10 November 1983. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  6. ^ Louis Frédéric (2002). Japan enciklopedia. Harvard University Press. p. 353. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  7. ^ Tokubē Yamada (1955). Japanese Dolls. Japan Travel Bureau. p. 156. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  8. ^ Jan Fontein (1982). Living national treasures of Japan. Committee of the Exhibition of Living National Treasures of Japan. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  9. ^ Briton Hadden; Henry Robinson Luce (November 1983). Time. Time Inc. p. 127. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
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