Japanese Friendship Dolls
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Japanese Friendship Dolls or Friendship Dolls was a program of goodwill between the children of Japan and the United States. Sidney Gulick, a missionary in Japan, initiated an exchange of dolls between children as a way to ease cultural tensions between these countries in the 1920s. A cause of these increased tensions was the Immigration Act of 1924 which prohibited East Asians from immigrating to the United States. Gulick participated in forming a group called the "Committee on World Friendship Among Children". In 1927, the first project was to organize the sending of 12,739 “Friendship Dolls” to Japan. These dolls are also known as American Blue-eyed Dolls and arrived in time for Hinamatsuri - the annual Japanese doll festival.
Inspired by this act of goodwill, Viscount Eiichi Shibusawa led a collection in Japan to reciprocate for this gift. The best doll makers in Japan were commissioned to produce 58 Friendship Dolls. Each doll was 32-33 inches tall and were dressed in beautiful kimonos made of silk. Each doll also came with unique accessories. These Japanese Friendship Dolls represented specific Japanese prefectures, cities or regions. The dolls were sent to libraries and museums throughout the United States.
Over the years, a few were lost or are missing, but many are still on display today. Those whose locations are known include:
- Miss Aichi, sent to Nashville, Tennessee, present location unknown
- Miss Akita at the Detroit Children's Museum in Detroit, Michigan
- Miss Aomori, in a private collection
- Miss Chiba, sent to Riverside, California, present location unknown
- Miss Chosen at the Science Center of Connecticut in Hartford, Connecticut
- Miss Dai Nippon (or Miss Japan) at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.
- Miss Ehime, at Gulfport, Mississippi, destroyed in Hurricane Camille and replaced in 1988
- Miss Fukui, sent to Salt Lake City, Utah, present location unknown
- Miss Fukuoka at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, Oregon
- Miss Fukushima, sent to Houston, Texas, now in a private collection
- Miss Gifu at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio
- Miss Gunma, sent to Brooklyn, New York, present location unknown
- Miss Hiroshima at the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland
- Miss Hokkaido at the Putnam Museum of History and Natural Science in Davenport, Iowa
- Miss Hyogo at the St. Joseph Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri
- Miss Ibaraki (Tsukuba Kasumi) at the Milwaukee Public Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - recently restored and now on display as the Messenger of Friendship
- Miss Ishikawa at that Montana Historical Society in Helena, Montana
- Miss Iwate at the Birmingham Public Library in Birmingham, Alabama
- Miss Kagawa at the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, North Carolina
- Miss Kagoshima at the Phoenix Museum of History in Phoenix, Arizona
- Miss Kanagawa, sent to Eugene, Oregon, present location unknown
- Miss Kanto-shu, sent to Manchester, New Hampshire, now in a private collection
- Miss Karafuto, sent to Wilmington, Delaware, confused with Miss Nagano
- Miss Kobe-shi, sent to Stanford, Connecticut, present location unknown
- Miss Kochi at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Miss Kumamoto, sent to New Orleans, Louisiana, present location unknown
- Miss Kyoto-fu at the Boston Children's Museum in Boston, Massachusetts
- Miss Kyoto-shi at the Arkansas Museum of Discovery in Little Rock, Arkansas
- Miss Miyazaki, sent to Minneapolis, Minnesota, present location unknown
- Miss Mie at the University of Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska
- Miss Miyagi, sent to Topeka, Kansas, now in a private collection
- Miss Nagano, sent to Providence, Rhode Island, now at the Historical Society of Delaware in Wilmington, Delaware
- Miss Nagasaki (Tamako) at the Rochester Museum & Science Center in Rochester, New York
- Miss Nagoya-shi at the Atlanta History Center in Atlanta, Georgia
- Miss Nara at the Idaho Historical Museum in Boise, Idaho
- Miss Oita at the Springfield Science Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts
- Miss Okayama at the North Dakota State University Textile Collection in Fargo, North Dakota
- Miss Okinawa at the Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio
- Miss Osaka-fu, sent to Newark, New Jersey, now at the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus, Ohio
- Miss Osaka-shi at the Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey
- Miss Saga, sent to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, present location unknown
- Miss Saitama at the Charleston Museum in Charleston, South Carolina
- Miss Shiga, sent to Miami, Florida, present location unknown
- Miss Shimane at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis in Indianapolis, Indiana
- Miss Shizuoka at the Kansas City Museum in Kansas City, Missouri
- Miss Taiwan at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in Los Angeles, California
- Miss Tochigi, sent to Charleston, West Virginia, present location unknown
- Miss Tokushima at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, Washington
- Miss Tokyo-fu, sent to Richmond, Virginia, present location unknown
- Miss Tokyo-shi, sent to New York, New York, present location unknown
- Miss Tottori at the Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society in Pierre, South Dakota
- Miss Toyama at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky
- Miss Wakayama at the Nevada Historical Society in Reno, Nevada
- Miss Yamagata at the Maine State Museum in Augusta, Maine
- Miss Yamaguchi, sent to Chicago, Illinois, now at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Miss Yamanashi at the Wyoming State Museum in Cheyenne, Wyoming
- Miss Yokohama-shi, sent to San Francisco, California, sold in 1980 to the Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys in Denver, Colorado
[edit] References
- Japanese Friendship Dolls at the St. Joseph Museum (St. Joseph, Missouri) website - accessed February 27, 2007
- Slavicek, Louise Chipley, 1997. "A Gift of Friendship". American Girl Magazine, March/April, 28-31.
