Tianni Wang, 25 October 2017
It is widely known that traditional handmade Japanese dolls are great choices as souvenirs for foreign tourists. They formed an important part of traditional Japanese culture for much of the nation’s recorded history. What many people do not know, however, is that dolls actually played an important role in the diplomatic relationship between Japan and the United States in the 1920s.
At that time, the world was full of international anxiety because of World War I. Discrimination was increasing and successive immigration laws were passed. Finally, with the passing of the US Immigration Act of 1924, the Japanese found themselves entirely prohibited from immigrating to the United States. Into this bleak picture stepped Dr. Sidney Gulick and the United Federation of Churches of Christ in America. They initiated the Doll Messengers of Goodwill project which collected over 12,000 dolls with blue eyes from children across the United States. They sent those dolls to Japan, hoping to ease the tension between the two countries. The dolls were given a grand welcome in Japan, and were distributed to schools throughout the country. To return the courtesies, 58 dolls were painstakingly made by the doll-making masters in Japan and sent to cities across the United States. Among them was “Miss Kochi,” who was installed in her new home at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Dr. Andrey Avinoff, director of the museum at that time, wrote a thank you letter to Mr. Oshima, the governor of Kochi prefecture. His letter reiterated the goodwill message Miss Kochi had brought with her: “…this presentation by the children of your province manifests the cordial spirit existing between Japan and the United States…”
More than 60 years later in 1993, a group of 50 Japanese people from Kochi prefecture came to Pittsburgh to visit Miss Kochi and raise funds for the Japanese Nationality Room. With their contributions and the efforts of many other people, the Japanese Nationality Room was dedicated in 1999. From then on, dolls became an important part in the Room’s collection. Currently, a doll dressed in an elegant kimono is on display in the Japanese Nationality Room. A set of Japanese Kokeshi dolls will also be displayed in the coming exhibition, Narratives of The Nationality Rooms: Immigration and Identity in Pittsburgh, as well as an edition of Carnegie Magazine that highlights Miss Kochi. The show also features watercolor paintings by Avinoff, whose depictions of the Nationality Rooms reflects a deep interest in the kinds of international collaboration that made the Rooms possible, and have become a focus of the UAG exhibition.