Doll News Spring 2021 - 27

with distinct Japanese features and hairstyle, and with
soft joining at torso and limbs. Another American
artist, Charles Weldon, was known for Japanesethemed paintings. His 1883 work, Dream-land, is an
intriguing painting of a girl asleep on a sofa, holding
what appears to be a lovely French bisque doll. Beside
her parades a group of Japanese dolls to peer at her
and the European doll.
The International Exhibition of 1862 in London
was the first time that Japanese art and cultural
objects were displayed in Europe in a public setting.
Displays of this sort followed in other European cities
through the late nineteenth century, giving rise to
" Japonisme, " or the popularity of all things Japanese
in Western culture. Ultimately, the trading of ideas
and culture flowed both ways. Beautiful Japanese
maiko and geisha (meaning " arts person, " and not
to be construed as courtesan) posed for photographs
for postcards to be sold to tourists to Japan. Images
from before the turn of the twentieth century show
Japanese women in traditional kimono and hairstyle.
As the twentieth century opened, images began to
show Japanese women still in traditional dress, yet
in hairstyles that now tended to mimic those of the
western world.
Western women promptly became enamored
with Japanese silk, and the silk industry for export
flourished in Japan. Women's dress in traditional
western style is seen in silk kimono fabric during the
late nineteenth century. There is also a decisive appeal
in the early twentieth century for western women to
wear kimono, though they typically wear them in a
decidedly un-Japanese manner. The casual wearing
of kimono by western women became a statement of
challenge for traditional roles within their society.
Hairstyles for children and dolls were
influenced by the cultural exchange as well. At the
turn of the twentieth century, Japanese girls often
wore a bun on top of the head that was wrapped
front and back by a strip of red cloth, with a fringe
of hair hanging free, or with two loops of hair on
top of the head. Boys' hair was usually shaved with
tufts of hair near the ears, and sometimes with a
top-knot or tonsure type ring of hair. As European
and American women in the 1920s began to " bob "
their hair, bobbed hair became the style for young
girls as well. The bobbed hairstyle carried over to
Japan, and the " okappa " or " cap " hairstyle, as in
the west, became nearly unanimous for Japanese
girls, with bangs being tremendously popular for
short or medium length hair.

A late nineteenth
century photograph
shows a Japanese
woman in traditional
yukata (cotton
kimono) with a
typical Japanese
hairstyle.

This 1920s Japanese
woman is in traditional
kimono with a bobbed
and curled hairstyle
typical of western styles
of that time.

This antique
European gown
of western cut,
circa 1885, is made
of Japanese silk
kimono fabric.
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Doll News Spring 2021

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