kokeshi

English

A kokeshi.

Etymology

From Japanese こけし (kokeshi).

Noun

kokeshi (plural kokeshis or kokeshi)

1. A Japanese wooden doll with a spherical head having simple painted-on features, and a limbless, cylindrical body, typically featuring a painted-on floral design.
   • 1973 May, Manju Deb, “Dolls Through Rotary”, in The Rotarian:

     I have a hurried look round my shelves: the Hawaiian belle of the dusky skin, the little Red Indian dolls from Lake Placid, the rows of kokeshis from Japan, which all bring back memories of wonderful Rotary friends, all over the world.

   • 1988, Alan Booth, Collins Illustrated Guide to Japan, Collins, →ISBN, page 120:

     The popularity of kokeshi among Japanese tourists today is thus an eloquent testimony to the survival of a folk tradition as well as to the modern generation's ignorance of its implications.

   • 1989, Amaury Saint-Gilles, Mingei: Japan's Enduring Folk Arts, Charles E. Tuttle Company, →ISBN, page 21:

     The addition of decorative clothing a la simple rings of color and the expressive, even suggestive, faces that so many kokeshi wear, turned them from simple children's toys into works of collectible folk art.

Quotations

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:kokeshi.

Japanese

Romanization

kokeshi

1. Rōmaji transcription of こけし