the neck. Attached to the neck is a weighted paper sack that hangs down into the body cavity. The belly is formed slightly distended to allow for greater action. If the head is pushed forward, it causes the bag to swing, creating a gentle rocking motion in the head. The addition of a protruding tongue (now missing), which appeared and disappeared as the head bobbed back and forth, added to the charm of this action. Kubifuri mechanisms were popular in the early Saga-ningyō as well (see pages 20-1), but the bodies were generally solid and the head balanced on a simple transverse pin.
Mitsuore nodding gosho-ningyō
Edo period, 19th century
Height 20 inches
Carabet Collection
Mitsuore gosho-ningyō
Edo period, 19th century
Height 10 inches
Dahlstroem Collection
Gofuku-no-inori gosho with nyoi
Edo period, 19th century
Height 4 inches
Rauch Collection
Gofuku-no-inori Gosho with Nyoi
An old man eked out a meager living cutting wood in the surrounding hills and selling it as firewood in town. One day, as the old man returned home, his back laden with all of the wood he could not sell, he grew tired and frustrated. Stopping on a bridge to catch his breath, on impulse he threw his entire load of wood into the water. As he watched the pieces sink out of sight, to his astonishment out of the water rose a beautiful woman carrying a small child in her arms. She approached the old man and explained that the child was a gift from Ryūjin, the undersea dragon god, in gratitude for the wood the old man had given him. She told him to take the child home with him, to place it on the family altar, and to give it one shrimp each day. If he did this faithfully, she explained, the child would grant his every wish. The child's name was white-all-over boy (shiragabuku-ko).
Dutifully, the old man took the child back home and placed him on the simple altar. He fed the boy one shrimp each day and, as promised, the child granted the old man's every wish. Soon he grew rich, with more wealth than he could possibly spend in one lifetime. Eventually, the old man grew weary of going into town each day to get the white-all-over boy his shrimp. One day after surveying his wealth, which at this point was quite impressive, he told the child that he now had enough and that he no longer needed the boy. He removed the white-all-over boy from the altar and put him outside, telling him to return to Ryūjin in his undersea-dragon palace. As the old man turned back inside his house, one by one everything that the child had given him began to disappear. His money, his fine clothes, his beautiful objects, and the store-houses he had constructed to hold it all, vanished before his eyes until soon all he had left was the pitiful shack and the tattered clothes he had worn on the day he was first presented with the boy. Realizing his mistake, the old man raced outside to bring the child back. But it was too late, the white-all-over boy had disappeared.
The story of Ryūgū-dōji (the Dragon Palace Child) is an old folk tale with many variants. The core story always centers on an old man or an impoverished couple who receive the gift of a small child from the gods which brings them fortune. In each variant, however, through greed (feeding the child too much so that it would produce even more wealth, only to inadvertently kill the child instead), the jealousy of a neighbor (who steals the child only to kill it out of frustration when it does not produce the same results), laziness, or ingratitude, as seen in the above story, the individual is reduced to the same impoverished state in which he began.
The idea of a divine boy (dōji) as a source of wealth or good fortune is deeply rooted in Japanese culture. Folk tales such as Ryugu-dōji recounted above mixed in popular consciousness with Buddhist tales of gohō dōji, children who served to protect Buddhist law Gohō not only appeared as companions to such popular deities as Fudō Myō-ō (Sanskrit. Acalanatha), the destroyer of passions, but also as mediums for religious ascetics through which magic was worked. Many of Japanese Buddhism's principal deities were also depicted in child form. Images of an infant Buddha (tanjo-butsu) standing with his right hand pointed to heaven and his left to earth, symbolizing his power over all things, were used across Japan in ritual ablution ceremonies commemorating his birthday. Images of Monju (Sanskrit. Manjusri), the Bodhisattva of wisdom, in child form, called Monju Dōji, were also very popular and were used to present a more accessible face to these remote beings. Prince Shotoku, the early seventh-century regent who is seen as largely responsible for the Japanese states adoption of Buddhism during the Asuka period (552-710), is frequently depicted in the guise of a three year old, wearing only long hakama, with his hands clasped together in fervent prayer in the anjali mudra. Paintings of the great priest Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi, 774-835) as a child were popular beginning in the thirteenth century Called Chigo Daishi, they showed Kūkai deep in conversation with the various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and symbolized the devotees own spiritual journey.
In Shintō belief, child gods called wakamiya or ōiko traveled from village to village during the changing of the seasons to bless and purify the community. As the Japanese anthropologist Komatsu Kazuhiko has said, gods in the shape of children "exist between heaven and earth, fire and water, things below, and things on the earth, life and death, beauty and ugliness, gods and men, men and monsters," unifying all of these extremes. Children were thus seen to be sacred as well and were frequently employed as mediums. Called chigogami (child god) or chokushi (loyal messenger), they were employed in rituals where they served as the yori shiro (temporary lodging place) of the gods themselves.
On a popular level, deformed or handicapped children, when not seen as an evil omen and destroyed, were often regarded as a blessing to the community and were called juku-go (fortune child) or takara-go (treasure child) and were handled with special care. In northern Japan, guardian spirits in the shape of children called kamado-gami (hearth god) or zashiki warashi (room child) were thought to bring fortune to a house. Up to the age of seven, children were seen as being only partially of this world and therefore were looked upon as mediums through which the other world, the world of the gods, could be accessed. "Till the age of seven [one belongs] among the gods," was a popular saying, and helped to explain high rates of infant mortality. Children were seen as having one foot in this world and one foot in the other world, easily returning to the other world of the gods. As such, children were accorded special treatment, with distinct hairstyles, clothing, even burial rituals, which all emphasized the transitory nature of their lives. The shichi-go-san celebrations marked the ages of three, five, and seven through the gradual taking on of adult clothing and hair-styles, and defined an increasing attachment to this world. The final capping ceremony (gempuku) for boys in which they took an adult name, adopted an adult hairstyle through the cutting of fore-locks, and adopted fully adult clothing, represented the final step in this progression.
It is within this context of a child as a gift or messenger from the gods that stories such as Ryūgū-dōji resonated in Edo society. On a popular level, these stories placed the child/god within a familiar context of poverty and hardship: the firewood cutter, the old couple living alone. In more elevated circles, the same stories were told, but placed within more appropriate social situations. A fifteenth-century legend, for example, tells the story of the Heian-period warrior Fujiwara no Hidesato (act. 939), also known as Tawara no Tota. One day while crossing a bridge, Tawara no Tota came upon a giant snake. Instead of retreating, he took his sword and slew the beast. Later that evening, he was approached by
