Set of Four Warrior Dolls (Musha Ningyo)

LATE EDO PERIOD (CIRCA 1820)

Details

Set of Four Warrior Dolls (Musha Ningyo)
Late Edo period (circa 1820)
Each figure designed with a carved wood head covered in gofun painted with expressive features and costumed in brocades, armor and attributes and displayed in front of a miniature campaign curtain of bast fiber decorated with mandarin orange crests, the figures represented are from left to right Kato Kiyomasa (1562-1611), kneeling in full armor and wearing a helmet with his signature antler crests; Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), seated with crossed legs, holding a fan and dressed in nobleman's costume; Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-1189), seated on a camp stool holding a whisk and a bow and wearing a quiver with arrows and a tachi in a tigerskin scabbard; Musashibo Benkei (d. 1189), kneeling and holding a signboard with a poem about a plum tree in Amagasaki; curtain with modern wood stand
14in. (35.6cm.); 14in. (35.6cm.); 17½in. (44.5cm.); 12½in. (31.8cm.) high; the curtain 28½ x 112in. (72.4 x 284.5cm.) (5)

Lot Essay

Musha ningyo (literally, "warrior dolls") are elaborately costumed dolls displayed for the Boy's Day Festival held on May 5th. They almost exclusively feature heroic military figures and episodes from Japan's history.

More from Japanese Art Including Property of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

View All