I am the succeeding Doll-master in Kyoto in our fourteenth generation since the title of Doll-master, "Mehsho", was given to Seiemon Youn Menya by Meisho Empress in the middle of Edo Era.
I am producing the traditional Kyo Ningyo as my occupation, while on the other hand, I have a very strong will in producing avant-garde, modern and symbolic three-dimensional object d'art.
Form of my work, both traditional and modern, is not merely miniature humans like French dolls.
When we look at the origin of the dolls, not only in Japan but in any country, it is the condensed spirit and prayer of the maker. It developed with the Spirit of natural world. This is because when a person tried to make something, he/she had a prayer - a prayer that came straight from the heart since fear and gratitude toward the nature, earnes feeling toward fertility, and the like were all too much to bear.
The doll that we see today may all be stravagant, decorative, and refined as industrial art. Yet, the original spiritual aspect as to why people tried to make dolls seems to be lost. In my traditional work, the original form of the doll is made out of the mixture of paulownia branch, powder, and paste. After giving it over twenty coats of face powder and polish, I finish it by dressing it up and put the eyes in. Also, in my modern work, I dye the paulownia branch-powder mixture with madder, mic it with paste, then start shaping it.
These materials amd techniques were guided by the process of traditional doll-making, hence, they were invented through long history and tradition.
I am exceptionally attached to their gentle, organic material, and am always producing my work side ny side with the material. I am trying to represent the symbolic world by blending the words that the materials express and mu own image with coexisying with nature as its basis. As the result, produced object d'art are not confined to being simple dolls - they are expressing the Spiritual world that's stirred inside my heart by borrowing the body of the dolls. Thus, it has essentiallly different aspect from the sculptural work where one's plasticity and the sense of beauty is thrown into by imitating humans. Therefore, I continue to be thoroughly particular about the quality of my materials and I lay emphasis on the natural features that I've been living in.
Even in my modern plasicity, I can't help connoting somewhere the original style that Japanese culture invented.
It is not the doll itself that tells plenty, but I think it trully becomes "a doll" when an object d'art acquires new meaning from those who appreciate it, those who handle it, and maybe even the space that it is placed in.
I go on making the dolls with this thought in my mind: "The doll aquires expression once it is spoken to. It is then that the simple communication between the doll and the people come into existence."