Okiagari Koboshi
Okiagari koboshi are traditional weeble dolls from the Fukushima area, but also an exhibition of models decorated by mangaka and workshops, as well as a Fukushima support project. After Japan Expo, the Okiagari Koboshi exhibit-workshop is coming to Japan Expo Sud!
The exhibit
Fukushima is sadly famous for the 2011 events.
But it’s also from this region that come the dolls called okiagari koboshi (“little standing priest” in Japanese). These little traditional dolls are like weebles made of papier-mâché, and are designed to get back upright when tilted. They get back up whenever they fall.
Kenzo TAKADA, the founder of the KENZO brand and president of the association Okiagari Koboshi Project for Fukushima, wants people to think of Fukushima inhabitants as of these dolls and the resistance they stand for. In France, Spain, Italy, the UK…, this project has involved various creators and artists, who have decorated those little dolls which are then exhibited in cultural places.
Lead by its president Tetsuya CHIBA, the author of well-known Ashita no Jo, Japan’s mangaka association has ralled to create the dolls exhibited at Japan Expo. Come discover their creations on the Okiagari Koboshi area!
Workshops
You can also decorate your own doll thanks to workshops organized at Japan Expo Sud, and in this way support Fukushima.
Join the project on facebook:
www.facebook.com/OkiagariKoboshiProject