Friendship Dolls from Japan, 1927

Three original “Friendship Dolls” from 1927 are currently on display at the
Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). Fifty-eight of these dolls were a gift from Japan.

Each doll represented a prefecture of Japan. This is “Miss Akita” from Akita Prefecture.
As far as I know, the dolls’ costumes do not reflect folk costumes from their regions.
Their kimonos and accessories represent the skilled fabric arts and designer traditions in Japan.

Each doll was shipped with a number of accessories such as doll furniture and doll dishes.
The dolls were 32 inches tall, and had individualized faces and human hair wigs.

The faces are crafted from powdered clamshells (gofun) with glass eyes.

The history of these dolls begins in the mid-1920s, with an American organization called the Committee on World Friendship Among Children founded by a former missionary to Japan named Dr. Sidney Gulick. Groups throughout the US, such as scout troops, church youth groups, and schools, donated over 12,000 dolls to send to Japanese children. The dolls were supposed to be “typical” Americans, and to be purchased at toy stores or department stores, with ordinary purchased or hand-made clothing. Gulick wanted to fight against a wave of anti-American sentiment in Japan at the time, which was a response to the Immigration Act of 1924 that prohibited Japanese immigration to the US.

Almost all the collected dolls represented white children or babies, and had blue eyes. Thus in Japan, they were called “Blue-Eyed Dolls.” A small number of Black organizations also participated in contributing dolls to send to Japan; for example, an article in the New York Times, January 9, 1927, describes one such effort:

“The Cradle Room members and the pupils in the kindergarten of St. James Negro Presbyterian Church, 59 West 137th Street, will send a colored American doll, 22 inches high, as a ‘Friendship Doll' to the little children of Japan along with hundreds of other dolls soon to sail under the Doll Travel Bureau. The latter is a part of the Commission on International Relations and Good-will of the Federal Council of Churches.” (source)

Although no reciprocal gesture was expected, a Japanese group called the Committee on International Friendship among Children in Japan commissioned the hand-made dolls from two famous hand-crafted doll makers. The dolls wore elegant silk kimonos, each embroidered with a “family crest,” along with other typical items of clothing.

Two Boy Dolls

The DIA included two boy dolls in the exhibit, though these were not part of the original
Friendship-Doll offering. This doll is named Akita Sugi-O, and was made in 2018.

This is Tomoki, made in the 1930s.

The third case in the DIA exhibit includes two boy dolls named  Tomoki and Akita Sugi-o. They are similar to  the Friendship Dolls in the displays nearby. These are called ichimatsu dolls, which depict children and wear traditional Japanese clothing. Akita Sugi-o, was made in the late 1930s  by craftsman Takizawa Koryusai II (1888-1966), who also made one of the Friendship Dolls. Tomoki is a modern doll, made in 2018 for the DIA by Kokan Fujimura (born 1953). Kokan is one of the few artists in Japan who still creates dolls in the same traditional manner as the Friendship Dolls.

From the Detroit Art Institute: Doll Accessories

A tea set.

Accessories for the boy dolls.

A chest of drawers and musical instruments for one of the girl dolls.

Travel trunks and a “passport” for the traveling doll.

Traditional tea ceremony vessels and utensils.

The Japanese Friendship Dolls and their accessories were sent to a number of US cities in the fall of 1927, reaching some of the organizations that had sent dolls to Japan earlier that year. The dolls arrived in San Francisco and were sent around the US a few at a time, to reach many towns and cities. Eventually they were donated to local museums and libraries. Many of them remain in the original locations; others are now held by private collectors, and a few have been lost. The DIA borrowed some of the dolls and used others from their own collections.

Photos by mae sander taken at the DIA on March 16, 2024.

Blog post and photos © 2024 mae sander.