(born Matsue Yamada) was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

doll A doll is a physical model, model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and ...

maker of

traditional dolls A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

Biography

Hori started her career as a painter, but switched to doll making after an epiphany with a piece of gum; seeing the half-chewed gum she was fiddling looked something like a human face caused her to become interested in three-dimensional representations of the human form. She began to construct dolls from flour and newspaper paste, using chopsticks as a structural base. In 1930 she joined

Yumeji Takehisa was a Japanese poet and painter. He is known foremost for his ''Nihonga'' illustrations of '' bijin'', beautiful women and girls, though he also produced a wide variety of works including book covers, serial newspaper illustrations, ''furoshiki ...

's ''Dontakusha'' group of artists and subsequently focussed her entire output on doll-making; that same year she had her first exhibition at the '' Hina Matsuri'' Festival. Early on in her career, she studied under the famous doll-makers Goyo Hirata and Juzo Kagoshima, both Living National Treasure of Japan. Her creation of a new style of ''kimekomi-ningyō'' doll resulted in her own appointment as a Living National Treasure of Japan in 1955; she was both the first woman to be awarded this accolade and the first artist to be largely self-taught. She commonly sculpted dolls in the likeness of aristocratic women of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, in

paulownia ''Paulownia'' ( ) is a genus of seven to 17 species of hardwood trees (depending on taxonomic authority) in the family Paulowniaceae, the order Lamiales. The genus and family are native to east Asia and are widespread across China. The genus, o ...

wood or (later in her career) ''shiso'' (

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

overlaid with paper). Her dolls can take up to ten years to complete. In 1983 she was presented to

Nancy Reagan Nancy Davis Reagan (; born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress who was the first lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989, as the second wife of President Ronald Reagan. Reagan was born in ...

during a presidential visit to Japan, who claimed to "admire ori'spatience as much as erart". (Hori was forbidden from bringing her tools - primarily knives - to the meeting.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hori, Ryujo 1897 births 1984 deaths Dollmakers Japanese artisans Japanese dolls Living National Treasures of Japan Place of birth missing 20th-century Japanese people