A Japanese Doll's House

Ever since I discovered the book Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden, I have wanted a Japanese dollhouse. I started searching online, but it turns out there are no kits for building houses, and antique models come up very rarely and carry hefty price tags. I discovered a flicker photostream of someone restoring a beautiful vintage Japanese machida-style house, and the pictures were so many and so detailed that I started thinking I could build my own.
     I started from scratch at first, but was struggling due to my lack of the appropriate wood working tools. Slowly, over time, I started accumulating various dremel bits and saws that will enable me to complete my project. In the mean time though, I was lucky enough one day to stumble across an old handmade house that someone was selling locally on Facebook.

Through my artistic vision, I saw this thing as the perfect frame for a single-story Japanese country house.  I picked it up for $20 and set to work immediately. The first thing that had to go was the outer wall with the doors and windows. I thought I would need the dremel, but in the end I simply tapped it out with a hammer. 

I used a bamboo dish drying rack which I happened to have for the roof frame and for the wall section across the front of the house, above the Shoji doors. The roof is hinged at the peak, so it can be lifted up and down to get at the upstairs rooms. I glued two very small strips of wood side by side, about a quarter inch apart, across the bottom of that front bamboo wall panel, and across the edge of the floor at the front of the house to create a track for the sliding shoji. 

The shoji doors were laser-cut dollhouse miniatures purchased off eBay from Japan. They were somewhat pricey, but I had already ran into difficulties in making my own shoji from my initial attempts (I did finally come up with a technique- more on that later).

I'm not sure yet what I want to do for the roof. Since this is a country house, it seems that thatch would be appropriate and for that I have in mind some tiki-hut thatching which comes in long strips and can be purchased on Amazon fairly inexpensively. Alternately, I got a roll of 48" by 25' of black corrugated paper, which could be used to simulate tile roofing...will probably do that part last and see which I like best.

Miss Happiness and Miss Flower? 

A Miniature Japanese Palace

My obsession with Japanese hina dolls began in 2014, on a trip up the coast for work-related training. I stopped at an antique mall in Newport on my way back home, and that was where I first discovered the world of hinamatsuri. There was a small pink box of tiny, black laquered doll furniture. I thought it was Japanese dollhouse furniture, which, it sort of was. There was only one word hand-written on the lid of the box: "hina-matsuri."

    I bought the box of furniture, and when I got home I promptly researched my purchase on the internet. That's when I learned about Girl's Day in Japan, and how these miniatures were meant to be displayed. I also learned about hina goten, which are like little palace room-boxes for displaying the furniture and ningyos (dolls). It wasn't long before I had aquired my first goten...

                                 

I experimented with displaying the goten as well as several Japanese dolls, but these were not really hina dolls. True hina dolls tend to be smaller (though they come in different scales) and are dressed like Heian nobles. As I began taking more of an interest in Japanese culture, specifically as it relates to dolls and dollhouses, I noted the differing styles of kimono from different historical periods. The two dolls in the photo above are wearing more modern styles, and don't really fit with the gotten. That is when I began formulating the idea that I wanted to build a Heian Mansion Dollhouse, for hina dolls, and a Japanese dollhouse, for the types of dolls shown above.

 

I didn't lose interest in collecting goten though...and I've acquired a few more since 2014. The colorful display below represents my entire collection to date. Not all the dolls are the same scale. The shinden, or main building (center) is missing one of its roofs. Although these are more symbolic of a Heian palace, they do show some interesting architectural detail that I plan to borrow from when I eventually build my Heian palace. The characteristic latticed wooden shutters, the pier and post foundation, the railings, the roofs...these are details I plan to model from when I create my own.

Although not truly historically accurate, they make for an enchanting vignette...I placed a painted screen in the background to complete the effect. It would be better if it was of a landscape rather than flowers, but it still adds to the impression of a tiny, enclosed world. 

young noblemen conversing in the palace courtyard 

Here one of the emperor's concubines is applying her makeup and jewelry in front of her dresser. 

The emperor and empress 

Two high-ranking noblemen having a political discussion 

A trio of young girls, (future ladies-in-waiting?) playing a game on the veranda

Tammy and her family

Tammy lives with her parents and her little sister, Pepper, in this sweet little 1960's dream house by Ideal Toys.

This is Tammy in her original "meet" outfit.

Here's Tammy hanging out with her little sister Pepper. Pepper looks to be about 12 years old and Tammy maybe 16 or 17.

The Tammy house is a cardboard fold-out model, with an awesome pink early 60's kitchen, powder blue and pink bedroom for the girls, and a retro living room featuring plaid wallpaper, pale orange carpet (probably shag) and a fabulous blue brick fireplace.

Tammy's stylish mother models her pink kitchen...I am diggin' everything about this room.

Very mod living space. Tammy's dad likes to kick back and watch TV after a long day at the office.

This gentleman in the red jacket is actually Ted, Tammy's older brother. Tammy once had a boyfriend named Bud, but I do not currently have him in my collection (he's apparently the rarest doll in the Tammy family) and, since there is no available bedroom in the house for a brother to inhabit, I have recast him as Tammy's boyfriend anyway. He's attending college, but he visits occasionally.

The design and decor of the Tammy family dream house is very similar to the Littlechap family playsets... They were made right around the same time. I decided that the powder blue and pink bedroom was probably Pepper's room (due to the fact that there was only a single bed) and so I turned the Littlechap family room into an add-on and made it Tammy's bedroom. It seemed more fitting for a teenage girl anyway. As you can see, Ted is hanging out in Tammy's room on one of his weekend visits from university. Tammy's dad allows it, but he makes them leave the door open.

This room, another pink confection, is the master bedroom. It is actually the bedroom of the littlechap family, but it really works well with the Tammy house. Tammy's mom is obviously the driving force behind the pink decor in this home.