For the boys and girls of yesteryear
Showa no Kodomotachi
Ishii Michiko, the artist behind Showa no Kodomotachi (Children of the Showa Era), was born in 1953 in Fukui, Fukui Prefecture. After working in magazine editing and design, she began learning the fundamentals of making toso dolls (dolls modeled in paulownia-sawdust clay) around 1987.
Drawing on her memories of being a child in the Showa 30s (1955–1964), she created Showa no Kodomotachi, which uses dolls—hitogata, or “human forms”—to tell stories of encouragement for people living today. She presented 100 figures at her first solo exhibition in 1993, and the works have since toured venues throughout Japan.
Ishii Michiko passed away in October 2023.
The works she left behind are cared for and shared with the public by Atelier Michiko Corporation.
Born in Fukui, Fukui Prefecture. Lost her mother at the age of 13 months.
Began eight years of growing up in a children's home in Fukui Prefecture.
Joined Gakken, where she worked as an editor of women's magazines.
Entered Tokyo Design College.
After graduating, worked at a design firm.
Married. With the birth of her first son, she also began caring around the clock for her husband's grandmother.
Her husband's grandmother died just as her daughter was born.
Keenly feeling the link between life and death, she fell ill with tuberculosis around the same time and was forced to leave her newborn daughter behind while she underwent treatment. From her sickbed, she wrote 120 love letters to her four-year-old son.
Around this time, began studying the fundamentals of toso doll-making.
Choosing her own childhood as the theme of her work, she launched Showa no Kodomotachi as a message of encouragement to the baby-boom generation and to herself as she went on with her life.
First solo exhibition, at the Yomena no Hana Museum of Art in Nakano, Tokyo, presenting 100 figures from Showa no Kodomotachi.
The Showa no Kodomotachi Exhibition, organized by Hanshin Department Store, was held.
This exhibition led to invitations to exhibit from all over Japan.
The Showa no Kodomotachi Exhibition was held at the Edo-Tokyo Museum as a co-sponsored event of the Tokyo 2000 Festival.
It was the museum's first exhibition devoted to a living artist.
Showa no Kodomotachi exhibitions featuring 48 titles and 214 figures went on to be held throughout Japan, helping to spark the boom in nostalgia for the Showa 30s that continues today.
Commissioned by the Fukui City Policy Planning Office, created the “Dokurakugin Dolls (Dokurakugin Ningyo),” recreating the scenes of three tanka from the Dokurakugin of Tachibana Akemi, a poet of the late Edo period (Bakumatsu).
The Showa no Kodomotachi Exhibition, commemorating the establishment of Showa Day, was organized by the City of Hachioji with the support of the Cabinet Office.
Commissioned by the Iwatani Naoji Memorial Office of Iwatani Corporation, created “The World of Iwatani Naoji (Iwatani Naoji no Sekai)”, portraying the company's founder in two scenes, “In Pursuit of Energy (Enerugi o Oimotomete)” and “The Propane Pioneer (Puropan Gasu no Dendoshi).” Completed in April.
Commissioned by the City of Ono, Fukui, produced a special original set of Showa no Kodomotachi photo panels. Fifty-two works were delivered for a touring display in Ono dedicated to community education and welfare.
On March 11, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, and the tsunami that followed devastated coastal cities across a wide area of the Tohoku region. Began work on “People of the Sea (Umi no Hito)” as a requiem.
September: Completed Part 2, “People of the Sea (Umi no Hito),” the sequel to Part 1, “Hometown (Furusato),” of Showa no Kodomotachi.
Parts 1 and 2, “Hometown” and “People of the Sea,” were shown together at Gotemba Kogen Tokinosumika in Gotemba, Shizuoka.
Published “Photo Story: Showa no Kodomotachi — People of the Sea (Umi no Hito),” the photo book of Part 2.
Passed away after an illness in October, at the age of 70.
In addition to Showa no Kodomotachi, she was commissioned by local governments and companies to portray the worlds of historical figures in doll form.
Note: No new dolls will be made.
Tachibana Akemi was a poet born in the Fukui domain in the late Edo period. From his Dokurakugin—tanka on the simple pleasures of everyday life, each beginning “Tanoshimi wa” (“It is a pleasure when”)—she recreated scenes of nature, married life and family love in doll form.
The work portrays the life of Iwatani Naoji (1903–2005), founder of Iwatani Corporation, in two scenes: “The Propane Pioneer” and “In Pursuit of Energy.”
It shows Naoji as the first in Japan to bring propane into homes as a household fuel, in the hope of freeing women from the smoke and soot of the kitchen hearth. It also captures the surprise and delight on the faces of people seeing something new for the first time.
Each doll is shaped by hand. Laughing faces, crying faces, sulking faces—every child's expression is different.
Showa no Kodomotachi is a series of works in which Ishii Michiko recreated scenes of the Showa 30s in dolls and dioramas. It has 64 works and 332 figures in two parts: Part 1, “Hometown (Furusato),” and Part 2, “People of the Sea (Umi no Hito).”
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