Japan Fact Check: Hirakata Chrysanthemum Doll Exhibition
1945 Chrysanthemum Doll Exhibition Booklet
Uploaded to Flickr by wakystuff
I was poking around on Flickr and found this beautiful piece of work, that was being misrepresented, most likely through no fault of the original poster.
The caption on the image reads:
26 page booklet marked: Chrysanthemum show at Hirakata Park outside Kyoto Oct. 18, 1937
I’ve put the proper translations on the image here:
In translation, it becomes clear that this is not a flower show, but instead a doll show.
The Hirakata Chrysanthemum Doll Exhibition was held annually at Hirakata Park from 1910 to 2005. Chrysanthemum Dolls are dolls decorated with modified chrysanthemum pedals arranged and then presented. What’s special about the 1945 event is they were canceled due to the war (along with the 1944 event as well). Even though the official Hirakata Chrysanthemum Doll Exhibition is no longer running due to the masters of the trade aging and few interested in fully learning the art, volunteers continue to put on an event of their own in the park.
It’s not hard to see however why this image is labeled as a flower show. If one looks closely, we can see writing on the booklet itself that reads, “Chrysanthemum show at Hirakata Park outside Kyoto Oct. 18, 1937″ just as the caption says. The Chrysanthemum Dolls, or kiku-ningyo are made out of chrysanthemum pedals and naturally include the character for chrysanthemum in the name. As the Chrysanthemum is the symbol of the emperor, it would be a reasonable assumption that this was some sort of propaganda piece as we are talking about a period in Japanese history that was the hight of nationalism with the Emperor as the symbol of the nation.
It would be safe to assume though however, that this show was indeed used for propaganda purposes. I would guess that the illustration of soldiers on the cover is either because some of the dolls were soldiers, or because this was a special production commemorating the Sino-Jihen, the China Event or the start of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War as it is referred to today.
The character for Chrysantheum, kiku.
From what I have read on the web, the chrysanthemum festivals started as harvest festivals in China, and were adopted by Japan. With the adoption of the western calender, they now occur later in the fall. I collect postcards of these dolls. What surpised me was to learn that it is not a case of applying flower blossoms to the life size “dolls” (mannequins would be more accurate), but the plants are alive and growing inside the mannequins, the blossoms covering most of the outside. When I was in Tokyo a few years ago, I got a kick out of going to a small temple that had 4 of the dolls, along with displays of chrysanthemum plants. I enjoyed reading your post. I agree it looks militaristic. A lot of the postcards I have represent samurai folktales. But I have one with superman flying in the sky. I don’t know Japanese. Regards,
Dave
Thanks for the extra info!