The very oldest examples of traditional Japanese dolls were typically carved from wood. Other doll making methods were developed long ago to mass-produce popular dolls. Carving is a very slow, and labor intensive process and wood is not the ideal substrate for a rock hard outer coating like gofun so artists developed doll making (molding and casting) methods to mass-produce their dolls in either a wood composition called "toso" or clay. Most modern Japanese dolls are NOT hand carved. Hirano Masamichi's carved dolls are extremely special!

According to an April '91 Doll Reader article, Hirano, his brother, Satoji, and father, Kinzo, make traditional style dolls in either hand carved or molded wood/compo (made from paulownia sawdust). Hirano makes a large number of molded heads for festival dolls but also makes carved Ichimatsu (Japanese "play" dolls). Hirano's Ichimatsu are "mitsu-ore" (3-fold) style dolls hinged at the hip, knees, and ankles.

Traditional Japanese dolls have a heavy opaque finish made of ground sea shells called "gofun". Part of the artistry of traditional Japanese dolls is how well the gofun is applied completely covering all doll parts. Gofun is applied in a traditional way with a lot of sanding and buffing between each layer. The end result is a silky smooth luminescent white surface. The gofun finish is so beautiful in itself that only minimal facial details are painted over it. In Japanese art of all kinds "Less Is More".

The following photos are from Hirano Masamichi's portfolio illustrating his carving process. The description of each photo is the translation of Hirano's text (in italics) plus my interpretation of that translation and impressions from the photos.

The parts of the doll are laid out on paulownia wood The translation of Hirano's text: The doll is sleeping in the wood (paulownia wood). I ask to her "Where is your face, hands, legs, . . . ?". She say "My face is here, and . . .?".  I draw parts of the doll to the wood.

The wood is cut into rough blocks

A "dry fit" Details are drawn on each part after a dry fit to insure that all parts and joints mate properly. The translation of Hirano's text: The doll say "My legs is slime, and my face is . . .?". I draw to wood parts in detail.

The doll parts are roughly carved The parts are well rounded and the joint tongues and grooves have been cut. The toes and the hands are starting to be formed.

The doll parts are joined This photo shows how the arms are attached with a wire armature. The carving is progressing as details are added.

Ready for gofun The carving has been refined and all of the wood parts have been sanded smooth. The wire armature is covered with stuffing and cloth. Glass eyes have been inserted into the face. The doll is ready to be coated with gofun

How this web page came to be:

I had been studying Japanese antique dolls for my Lotz Doll Pages and actively looking for contemporary Japanese wood doll sculptors. I was having a particularly difficult time finding anyone who carved Japanese wood dolls, primarily because carved wood dolls covered with the traditional gofun do NOT look like wood dolls.

I asked many Japanese art experts in the US, and abroad for information on active wood doll sculptors. Museum directors, university art department heads, fine art dealers, major Japanese doll collectors and others knew of no active wood doll sculptors! Luckily I had found Doi Junichi's Bunraku puppet site where he demonstrates the creation of a traditional Bunraku puppet through the carving, and gofun application. At last I found that wood carvers still made dolls carved from wood, but these carvers knew of no other wood doll carvers in Japan!

Luckily a friend found that Hirano Masamichi was featured in an April '91 Doll Reader article. I had at least found one more active Japanese wood doll sculptor! This article gave just a general location in Japan to start my search for Hirano. I traced Hirano Masamichi with the help of the department of cultural affairs in this prefecture.

About a month after contacting the Japanese government, I received a package in the mail containing Hirano's portfolio detailing his carving process. Each photo and the complete process was detailed but written in beautiful Japanese symbols! Luckily someone was also kind enough to translate some of the text into English for me. Hirano also sent me one of his advertising brochures showing the other traditional dolls that his large doll studio produces. This brochure also illustrates the sculpting process of creating dolls made from toso, a wood/compo. I will write more about Hirano's dolls after I get this brochure translated.

Thank you Hirano Masamichi and Yutaka Hagi (Industry Promotion Division Labor, Commerce and Industry Department of the Saitama Prefectural Government in Japan) for sending this information and sharing it with the Internet community.