Carved Wood and Painted Dolls

The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars: Madam Tang, or She Breastfed Her Mother-in-Law

Bunka/Bunsei era (1804–1830) Donated by Saitō Shōji

Crafted by Chōjiro, a doll-maker from the Ōyama domain (present-day Shōnai) in Yamagata Prefecture, these dolls are carved from wood and painted in the Saga style, but with hair separately attached to the head rather than painted on. They represent the tale of Madam Tang, the grandmother of the regional military governor Cui Shan-nan, who took care of her elderly mother-in-law and breastfed her for years.

The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars is an influential classic text of Confucian filial piety written sometime during the Yuan dynasty (1260–1368). It was published during the Muromachi period (1336–1573) as a book of fairy tales and circulated throughout Japan. Madam Tang is one of the twenty-four paragons of filial piety described here.