Comments on: Apparently there is an uncanny valley in Japan, too.

Apparently there is an uncanny valley in Japan, too.

monju_bosatsu — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:55:11 -0800

The tradition of making Japanese dolls, called ningyo—meaning human figure—goes back as far as 10,000 years to clay figures made during the Jomon period. The more recent rise in popularity, though, is most often traced to Hina Matsuri--Girls' Day, or the Doll Festival, celebrated on March 3--originating during the Edo period. These antique ningyo are highly sought after by collectors, such as the American expert Alan Pate, who has written a number of articles on the subject. The modern Japanese doll culture, however, is anything but traditional. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the ningyo tradition was exported to make toys for the West (previously featured on MeFi), and has culminated in popular Barbie-type dolls such as Superdollfie and others. Contemporary artists have transformed the Japanese doll tradition into something else entirely: Simon Yotsuya, Ryo Yoshida, Koitsukihime, Yoko Ueno, Mario A., Etsuko Miura, and Kai Akemi. A number of these artists were featured in the Dolls of Innocence exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Of course, notable artists outside Japan have worked with dolls before, including Hans Bellmer, who inspired much of the artwork in Innocence, the follow-up to Ghost in the Shell. Explore more: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. [Several links are nsfw.]

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:56:01 -0800

Check out Kai Akemi's profile, in particular, for a several galleries of her surrealist doll exhibits.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:04:10 -0800

monju, I almost posted about Hina Matsuri on March 3rd, but got distracted. Nice post!

By: bardic

bardic — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:08:31 -0800

This is neat. I especially like the Janis Joplin dolls at the bottom left of [1]. Also reminds me of the multiple times I freaked out playing Fatal Frame II.

By: matteo

matteo — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:19:58 -0800

Inosensu!

By: Gamblor

Gamblor — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 11:26:48 -0800

dai suki dayo!

By: designbot

designbot — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 12:28:04 -0800

Just to nitpick, the Uncanny Valley theory was originally proposed by a Japanese scientist.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:15:46 -0800

...oh, they're not sex dolls. /joking. Nifty. The semi skeleton with the fleshed out human head from the Yotsuya link creeps me out tho man. Gah!

By: Baby_Balrog

Baby_Balrog — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:27:50 -0800

Careful, smedleyman. Dig too deep into some of those links and you find something very close, and very, very not-suitable-for-work. but very suitable for my secret naked doll collection.

By: birdie birdington

birdie birdington — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:10:10 -0800

Oh, yay! I love ball joint dolls! Den of Angels is the big dollfie forum. There are also Blythe and Pullip dolls. Both of which have their own lj communities, of course. There's also an lj community for sexy bjd. More doll art: 1, 2, 3, 4. Flickr photos tagged with 'dollfie', 'volks', and 'bjd'. Mostly all NSFW.

By: Slothrop

Slothrop — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 06:31:15 -0800

Wow! Those are terrific links and very useful to my Master's Thesis to boot (I am writing about altered anatomies and also strange bodies in toys). I am really thinking quite a bit about something I've read and observed which is that broadly speaking, Japanese culture and art seems to favor abstraction and stylization much more than other cultures. Perhaps the most basic way to consider this is the effect the kimono has on reshaping the form of the body and also presenting it as a two-dimensional designed plane. Having been born in 1975, I am most familiar with robot culture (Mazinger/Tranzor Z, Transformers, Gatchaman), so these links are all new and exciting to me.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 23:54:05 -0800

This is a most excellent post, thank you so much, monju_bosatsu. I am glad I didn't miss this one!