Ball Jointed Dolls
Ball Jointed Dolls or "Kyu Tai Kansetsu Ningyo" [球体関節人形] have articulated joints similar to the ball and socket joint found in humans. Strings run through out the doll to hold them together. Over the years BJDs have been made from many materials: porcelain, plastic, resin, vinyl, and 3D printing. For my final project I wanted to talk about BJDs because I have a couple, I like them, and I find them interesting. For our project we needed a "How" question instead of a "What" question, so I decided to look into how dolls having BJDs in the form that they do.
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Ningyo were at one point used in purification rituals. Some viewed the dolls as being able to take in evil spirits, and then they would burn the doll to purify it.
Kokeshi dolls are simple, wooden dolls. According to one source, kokeshi dolls at one point represented infants who had been disposed of. Supposedly they have no arms becasue some people would kill the infants by wrapping them up in cloth first, or it is becasue ghosts do not have feet. Needless to say it was a very depressing article to read. Most people just think these dolls are just supposed to represent good luck.
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Ichimatsu dolls are girls and boys that are in kimonos and they were made to be posed and played with; this seems to be the first doll that was made for posing. In 1927 58 dolls were sent to the US as ambassadors for Japan. Because it was popular to send these dolls to foreigners, these dolls became known as the 'Friendship Dolls'. These dolls are typically 20-80 cm, and are made form wood. The doll is made of two parts; the head can come off. The kimonos are interchangeable.
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In the 1930s Hans Helmer made German ball jointed dolls. Dollmakers in Japan were influenced by him and started to make ball jointed dolls that were 120 cm, but they were not made to be played with.
In the 1990s Volks created a Dollfie, which was a vinyl figurine/doll. The word is a play on combing doll and figurine. Ball Jointed Dolls started in Japan in 1999 by Volks, a hobby company. They created the Super Dollfie at 60 cm, which was the first modern BJD in Japan. Later on they created Dollfie Dream, which will have it's own page. The photo on the right is Asami Kondo Super Dollfie by Volks.
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In 2008 Volks had 30 stores and made $50 million.
So Asian BJDs or ABJDs are typically made from polyurethane resin. Some companies, most notably Hujoo, is making dolls from AVS (ABS?) plastic, but that is not the norm. Non-resin ABJDs are not on topic on Den of Angels, the largest English speaking ABJD forum.The photo to the left is a Hujoo Freyr in grey skin, an dit is made from plastic.
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ABJDS are made to be anatomically correct aka females have boobs and males have a penis (this isn't really that anatomically correct). Regardless they are not like Barbies; you probably shouldn't walk around with them without any clothes on them. The styles have been influenced by anime, some companies more than others.
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References:
1998 | SD 10 Year History of Super Dollfie | Super Dollfie 10th Anniversary Special Web Site | VOLKS INC, this site no longer works, but the information is still on wikipedia
Plastic fantastic: Japan's doll industry booming › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion, http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/plastic-fantastic-japans-doll-industry-booming
http://www.historyofdolls.com/doll-history/history-of-japanese-dolls/
http://nihon-ichiban.com/2011/08/04/ichimatsu-dolls/
http://www.daruma.jp/about.html
http://pblosser.blogspot.com/2008/05/kokeshi-dolls-before-modern-abortion.html
Hans Bellmer Biography. Retrieved from http://www.hans-bellmer.com
1998 | SD 10 Year History of Super Dollfie | Super Dollfie 10th Anniversary Special Web Site | VOLKS INC, this site no longer works, but the information is still on wikipedia
Plastic fantastic: Japan's doll industry booming › Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion, http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/plastic-fantastic-japans-doll-industry-booming
http://www.historyofdolls.com/doll-history/history-of-japanese-dolls/
http://nihon-ichiban.com/2011/08/04/ichimatsu-dolls/
http://www.daruma.jp/about.html
http://pblosser.blogspot.com/2008/05/kokeshi-dolls-before-modern-abortion.html
Hans Bellmer Biography. Retrieved from http://www.hans-bellmer.com