Visiting the craftsman of Konohazaru monkey dolls. The craftsman Reizo and his daughter welcomed me.
Reizo showed me the magazine which shows the hand drawing of the monkey doll drawn by one of his customer's kid from Germany.
It has been said that the origin of this Konohazaru doll started about 1300 years ago. Currently the 7th generation of the family, Reizo Nagata and his daughter are hand making these clay monkey dolls.
They use local red soil and process them into clay in their backyard. Then they hand build each doll without using any molds. In the local area these terra-cotta monkey dolls have been loved and believed as protectors for people from getting ill and preventing them from evil spirits.
When I was little, I remember playing with these dolls at my grandparent's place. I did not know that it had spiritual meaning but remember having peaceful memories playing with them.
