Two Doll Figures

"Two Doll Figures" — 20th century — captures the traditional Japanese doll (ningyo) as a subject for woodblock exploration. Japanese dolls, whether the aristocratic Hina dolls of the spring festival or the kokeshi wooden dolls of the northern folk tradition, carry layers of cultural meaning: they are simultaneously decorative objects, ritual items, and stand-ins for human presence. Two figures together create a social arrangement — a pair, a couple, a duo — and Munakata's handling of this subject would find in the simplified forms of the traditional doll an interesting parallel with his own tendency toward bold, simplified human form.