For the origin of Matsuri, it is probably best to choose one of the oldest and biggest matsuri festivals, Gion Matsuri of Kyoto, currently with 32 dashi floats. It started 1100 years ago when the city of Kyoto was attacked by strings of plagues and other disasters. People thought at the time that all of the disasters were caused by the curse of FUJIWARA Michizane who was wrongfully accused of a crime that he had never committed and was forced to die in isolation. It started as a ritual to calm his angry sprit by enshrining (matsuru in Japanese) him. Today, each dashi float goes around the town of Kyoto after being purified in the Kamo River and shrine during the entire month of July, attracting several hundreds of thousands of people yearly.

The dolls on the Dashi floats are legendary figures, historical heroes, emperors from the past or Shoki types of figures. The body is made or assembled at the site yearly (for some). The older heads that exist today were made in the Edo (1603-1868) to Meiji period (1868-1912). A couple of the heads from Kyoto were made in the 1500s. There are still enough dolls with the artist unknown. Some were made by well known artists such as the generations of HARA Shugetsu, YASUMOTO Kamehachi, MATSUMOTO Kisaburo (only one head exits) and so on. The second generation Shugetsu was the creator of Kokin bina; the generation of Kamehachi were the great iki ningyo (life size living dolls) artists and Kisaburo was the father of Iki ningyo from the late Edo.

Some of the dolls have gone through major repairs and restoration before the artists were identified. Others were completely destroyed by fire, earthquakes and wars. A heart breaking story was told later by Mrs MATSUMOTO Kisaburo describing the destruction of over 40 iki ningyo of her late husband. In Kyoto, 58 floats were recorded before the Battle of Onin (1467-1477 -- lasted for 10 years!); only 27 were reconstructed 33 years later. The damages were also caused because the floats were exposed to the sun light or lanterns at night during the festivals. The floats faced other challenges by hitting electric wires after electricity was invented.

MEASUREMENTS of this featured head (used for Dashi float or kiku ningyo festival) is 11 1/2 inches from the top to the bottom of the neck (stick excluded), slightly larger than life size and very light in weight -- dried wood. Most of the weight is within the bottom pole. The painted eyes are looking down, indicating the higher position of the doll. We were puzzled by the string on the pole. This doll may had been a Karakuri (mechanical) doll. This head needs to be placed on a stand (museum kind). A simple box with 1 3/4 inches hole on the top will also work. The neck will easily cover gaps in between.