All these Sakura dolls in my collection are the expression of a very dear friendship: Palmira and Fumio Yamazaki, from whom I learned all the ways of french doll collecting. As I said, bit by bit, they have been teaching me how to upgrade my collection and, above anything else, that dolls are all different. Each has an identity, a particular look that a specialized collector runs after.
I won’t ever be able to thank them for all this. As if this wasn’t enough, this group of beautiful little creatures named Sakura dolls came from their collection. This way, my dear friends from Japan made themselves present in my everyday life.
Sakura dolls take a very special place in my collection, they are delicate, possess a very particular kind of bisque.
I want to tell everybody that dolls may gather people from all over the world and ties of everlasting friendship may be built.
Now, this is what they told me about the history of these wonderful little dolls:
Sakura bisque dolls were made about 80 years ago at a factory in Nagoya, probably at Noritake, former Morimura brothers company.
Sakura bisque dolls have black hair and black eyes just like Japanese children, but were dressed in a western fashion. At the time, the german doll occupied a prominent place in Europe, so the Japanese company made them for export and named them Sakura, after the Japanese National Flower(tree). Of course, the doll stayed also very popular among Japanese children.
After the Second World War, and due to well known historical reasons, Japanese searched every house looking for signs of the presence of western culture. Because Sakura dolls were dressed in a western style, they would burn every one they could find.
Many dolls disappeared especially the big ones, because they were more difficult to hide. This is why the larger size of sakura bisque dolls is rarer. Nowadays, they are very difficult to find and though there may show up some, in the western world, dressed in a oriental way ( I have two as you can see), they are of inferior quality. The most exquisite and beautiful are loved in their original and rare western style dress. Thanks to my dear friends Palmira and Fumio Yamazaki, I have them here.
For every possible reason you may now understand, these dolls are absolutely precious to me.
Recently arrived from the Yamazaki collection, this all original Sakura doll with her wardrobe: another symbol of the most dear friendship....
