kokeshi

plural kokeshis

1. A Japanese wooden doll with a spherical head having simple painted-on features, and a limbless, cylindrical body, typically featuring a painted-on floral design.

   The popularity of kokeshi among Japanese tourists today is thus an eloquent testimony to the survival of a folk tradition as well as to the modern generation's ignorance of its implications.

   1988, Alan Booth, Collins Illustrated Guide to Japan, Collins, →ISBN, page 120

   2 more examples

   I have a hurried look round my shelves: the Hawaiian belle of the dusky skin, the little Red Indian dolls from Lake Placid, the rows of kokeshis from Japan, which all bring back memories of wonderful Rotary friends, all over the world.

   1973 May, Manju Deb, “Dolls Through Rotary”, in The Rotarian

   The addition of decorative clothing a la simple rings of color and the expressive, even suggestive, faces that so many kokeshi wear, turned them from simple children's toys into works of collectible folk art.

   1989, Amaury Saint-Gilles, Mingei: Japan's Enduring Folk Arts, Charles E. Tuttle Company, →ISBN, page 21