Wara ningyô (straw doll) kept at Tono Museum.
Those effigies were once hung on ropes (michikiri) by roadsides and village entrances to ward off evil spirits bringing pestilence (疫病神 yakubyôgami). They were sometimes accessorized, like this one bearing a daishô (katana set) and a fearsome (oni?) face mask.
Waraningyô are also a staple of folk magic alike voodoo dolls, especially those related to eerie uchi no toki mairi ("Ox-hour shrine visits", ie witching hour).
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Happy New year 2024 with Cat Paper Dolls!
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three happy matryoshka dolls i painted and sewed for next update 🏵️
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Effigy series // Maryann Webster // porcelain & mixed media
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A Haná wedding in early spring
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Made a little guy to celebrate 12 years of The Beast Peddler this week 🖤
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April Commission
Illustration requested by @pacthesis
For more information about commissions, see here
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3-5 March is the #InternationalFestivalofOwls at the International Owl Center so if you have any extra owls you didn't share during #Superb_Owl_Sunday now is the time! (I have tons 😉)
Papier Mâché Doll - Owl, Burma (Myanmar), collected 1963, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History collection.
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Coffin dolls found at Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh, 1836.
17 coffins were found, but unfortunately only eight survive today due to damage or simply being lost. According to the National Museum of Scotland, “The tiny coffins were arranged under slates in three tiers: two tiers of eight and one solitary coffin on the top. Each coffin, only 95mm in length, contained a little wooden figure, carved and dressed in custom-made clothes that had been stitched and glued around them.”
There are a few theories for what the dolls represent, some at the time believed they were a curse, meant to literally entomb enemies, whereas many other theories involve a more positive version of this, believing the coffins were meant to put distant deceased friends to rest, or giving those lost at sea a Christian burial. A popular theory is that the coffins represent the victims of Burke and Hare, infamous murderers who sold the bodies of their victims to science, profiting from the lack of legal bodies supplied to doctors. The pair killed at least 16 people, their victims were always vulnerable, as they targeted the elderly, immigrants, and disabled people. The number of victims lines up with the original number of coffins enough for many people to support this theory.
For more information, check the NMS website- I can’t post links but the article is called ‘The mystery of the miniature coffins’!
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