The black spots are smallpox. The toy was meant to take them instead of the child.
A red ox of papier-mache, its head hung on a thread so that it nods for a long time after you touch it.
The story attached to it is old. When Enzo-ji temple was being built at Yanaizu, red oxen hauled the timber up from the river, and one of them would not leave when the work was done.
Body and head are formed separately — the head must hang free.
Washi over the form, dried hard.
The head is hung on a thread inside the body, so it nods on its own.
Red ground with black and white spots — the marks are of smallpox, warded off.
The colour is the point. Red was believed to keep smallpox away, and the black roundels painted along the flanks are the pox marks — the toy was given to a child so that it would carry the marks instead of them.
It is a cheerful object with a frightened origin. Most Japanese folk toys are.
Snow country. Aizu is shut in for a third of the year, and the crafts that came out of it are the crafts you can do indoors between November and March — lacquer, painted candles, papier-mâché cattle.
Pieces are found one at a time, in Japan, and photographed before they are listed. Tell us what you are looking for, and we will write when something arrives that answers it.
We write when there is something to write about — some months twice, some months not at all.
Noted. We will write when something arrives.