Palace Dolls     Naked Children

Mid-Edo–Meiji period  Donated by Saitō Shōji

Palace dolls, or goshō ningyō, often depict adorable naked children—typically boys with large heads, porcelain-pale skin and plump figures, to express their innocence and youthful vitality. Here, we see a group of naked doll-children. These were likely crafted sometime between the mid-Edo (1603–1868) to the Meiji period (1868–1912).