Court Ladies Making Dolls (1790s): Art, History and Details

Court Ladies Making Dolls (1790s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Kubo Shunman (Japanese, 1757–1820).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Since ancient times dolls were used in Japan for religious purposes, especially for the healing of impurities or illness. Mothers often presented dolls to shrines to secure the protection of kami (spirits) for their children. Each year there is a doll festival (Hina Matsuri) or Girl's Festival on March 3rd at which families display heirloom sets of dolls dressed in costumes of the ancient imperial court. This is a section of a surimono (a print in which an image is combined with poetry to celebrate a special event) or an album page.

Object facts

• Title: Court Ladies Making Dolls
• Date: 1790s
• Creator attribution: Kubo Shunman (Japanese, 1757–1820)
• Culture: Japan, Edo period (1615–1868)
• Type: Print
• Technique: color woodblock print
• Collection: Japanese Art
• Department: Japanese Art
• Accession number: 1922.175

A detail from the museum

Myrta Leonora Jones, the donor of this work, was a women’s rights activist in Cleveland in the early 20th century.

Collection credit

Gift of Myrta Leonora Jones

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.