Is it true that the homeland of Matryoshka is not Russia, but Japan?

Foreigners often bring wooden painted dolls in one another from Russia as a traditional souvenir. At the same time, there is a version that the real homeland of Matryoshka is not Russia, but Japan. We decided to check where we actually came up with this toy.

Sites are reported about the Japanese roots of the Russian nesting doll Museums folk craft and tourist Blogs, this version is discussed at forums, thematic sites and in Media.

Archaeologists most often find toys made of stone, as this material is better preserved. So, in Khakassia they found toys, dating XXV - XVIII century BC. e. At the same time, the collection of the British Museum has a wooden figure catsrelated to the era of the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC). Toys were also made of clay, bones and horns of animals, fabric, straw and metal.

One of the most ancient crafts in Russia - Dymkovskaya A toy that arose about the 15th century in Zarechny Sloboda Dymkovo next to Khlynov (modern Kirov). The figures were made of clay, then burned, and then painted. Wooden toys Produced In many regions of the country: in the Arkhangelsk, Novgorod, Vologda, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow provinces. Most often, horses and birds were made of wood, as well as simplified images of people. Products were both from a whole piece of wood, and from individual branches and chips. Moreover, researchers Markthat among the whole variety of popular fishing in traditional Russian culture there were no toys investing one in another.

Historians suggestthat at the end of the 19th century, a painted wooden figure from Japan fell into the family of the merchant and the philanthropist of Savva Mamontov at the end of the 19th century. She was inspired by the artist Sergei Malyutin, created a sketch, and already according to this sketch the matryoshka, the turner Vasily Zvezdochkin was driven by the turner. One of versions, a prototype toy was brought by the wife of Mamontov-Elizaveta Sapozhnikov-Mamontov-from a trip to Japan. However, if you carefully study it Biography, then references to a trip to this country are not there Detected. On another versions, she was brought by the brother of Savva Mamontov - Anatoly, but it was also not possible to find documentary evidence of his trip to Japan. The third version saysthat the doll could be seen at the exhibition of the Japanese art of the collector of Kitaev, which took place in St. Petersburg in 1896. But this cannot be checked.

Three different Japanese figures are called the prototype of the matryoshka: Fukuruma, Darum and Cocei (Kokeshi).

Fukurumor Fukurokuju (福禄寿), - depicted as an old man with an elongated forehead the deity of wealth, happiness and longevity, part of Citifucuzin - seven gods of happiness.

Darum (達磨)-a sage, a practitioner of meditation and the founder of Zen Buddhism. According to legend, Darum meditated for several years, looking at the wall, and his legs were taken away, so the figure depicting him also has no legs. But not only his legs had to sacrifice the sage-at some point he realized that he was no longer meditating, but falling asleep. Then Darum cut off his eyelids, of which, according to legend, the plant important in Japanese culture was sprouted - tea.

Kokesi (小芥子) is translated from Japanese as a "forgotten child." These figures were probably memorial dolls and were lined in memory of the dead or killed daughters, which the peasant family could not feed in lean years. At the same time, there is no data anywhere that the figures of Kokesi and Darum were collapsible and inserted one into the other.

But Fukurum, by words The historian, Japanese and translator Alexander Meshcheryakov, was collapsible, the figures of the gods were invested one into another - though he notes that the figure was brought by the wife of Mamontov. Also the version of CITIFUKUDZIN as a likely prototype of the nesting doll supports Svetlana Citizen, head of the scientific and funding department "Russian folk and decorative and applied art of the XVIII-XXI centuries" of the Sergius-Posad Museum-Reserve. Moreover, the resources of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation Mention And another version: Sergey Malyutin could be inspired by a craft from a artisanal museum, which stored craft products from different parts of the country. However, it was not possible to find any data in confirmation of this hypothesis.

Thus, the version of the Japanese origin of the nesting doll is extremely common, including in academic circles. However, since neither the artist Sergei Malyutin nor Tokar Vasily Zvezdochkin left memoirs, where they would tell what they were inspired in the process of work, it is impossible to reliably determine the prototype of the Russian nesting doll.

This is not for sure

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Traditional Russian toys
2. 10 most folk crafts