Lot 89: Fushimi dolls

Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800)
Fushimi dolls
Signed Beito'o hachijuyonsai (age 83, by western count) ga, sealed To Jokin in and Jakuchu koji
Hanging scroll; ink, color and mica on paper
36¾ x 11½in. (93.2 x 29cm.)

Jakuchu painted Fushimi dolls for almost forty years. These clay dolls were first made in the Momoyama period and became popular souvenirs for pilgrims and tourists visiting the Fushimi Inari Shrine (the "Fox Shrine") in Kyoto. The dolls shown here are Hotei, one of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune, and a papier-mâché dog, one of the twelve animals of the zodiac, with drum tied to its back (the drum rattles when you shake the toy, calling forth the numina). The dolls serve as amulets or talismans, a phenomenon of popular folk religion in Japan.

For a similar example of the same subject dated 1764 in the Etsuko and Joe Price Collection, see Kyoto National Museum and Shogakukan, eds., Jakuchu taizen/Jakuchu (Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2002), pl. 40. Another is in the Hoyt Collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.