Taito City Culture Guide Book, Touring Taito City Shitamachi Museum

A variety of nostalgic toys are displayed at the toy corner. I picked up a toy without knowing it, and played with it.

The toy corner on the second floor

Ishii: Visitors can play with those toys. A certain knack is needed to play with some toys. It might be difficult to immediately play with them, but it is an interesting point. For example, this is "Surikogi Tonbo." The blade revolves when the tip is rubbed in the same way of a wooden pestle. A knack is also needed to play with it. Some visitors cannot rotate the blade.

Ishii: These are "Imado Dolls." They were made in Imado, Taito City. Each doll has particular character. For example, a fox doll is stronger than a squire doll, the squire doll is stronger than a hunter doll and the hunter doll is stronger than the fox doll. It is like a three-cornered deadlock. There is also a fox doll which makes an offering to Inari shrine. Some artisans in Taito City still manufacture the dolls in a traditional way. Taito City is the birthplace of these pottery dolls.[continued in the following column]

A reproduction of the Corinth game

A variety of tops

Nostalgic tin toys

Surikogi Tonbo

A variety of dolls

Q: Pictures of members of "Crazy Cats" are depicted on a toy of Shinkansen displayed at the corner.

Ishii: Shinkansen and Crazy Cats do not have close relationship, but the toy is autographed by Kei Tani. This museum's former staff member actually obtained the autograph from Tani when the staff member was a child. This is the Hikari train, so it is very historical one. Crazy Cats was enormously popular at that time when Shinkansen opened in time for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

It can be said that dolls are toys for girls. This handmade doll was donated by a person who actually used it in her childhood. There are a variety of dolls ranging from a paper doll to a naked doll. It seems that dress-up dolls have been popular among girls since old times. For example, one type of "Anesama Ningyo," or a doll in bridal wear, was totally made of paper, but clothes on another type with a pre-made head could be changed. Old and new dress-up dolls are displayed here. The somewhat old-fashioned doll on the right side was made in around 1960, and this one is "Ichimatsu Ningyo," or a doll with movable legs and arms. It seems that it is an ornament doll rather than a doll for play. As seen on that photograph, this is a doll that girls cherish. Each doll varies in size from small to large. I heard that Ichimatsu Ningyo was named after Kabuki actor Ichimatsu Sanokawa.

[Click to enlarge the picture.]