Clay dolls from Mr. Miyawaki

Mr. Miyawaki lives in Beppu in Oita prefecture, which is known for its hot spring village in Kyushu Japan. When I saw Mr. Miyawakis’ dolls years ago, I fell in love with his funny and cute works. He is a very cheerful and funny guy like his dolls, who enjoys his life as a craftsman.

He started his training to become a craftsman when he was in 20s and continued his works for more than 30 years. Mr. Miyawaki says "My master told me I cannot be a real craftsman because I didn’t want to make exactly the same detailed dolls. I still believe having the uniqueness of each doll is more fun and gives more life to the dolls." His works are priced reasonably compared to other folk crafts. He says "I hand built the kiln and I get free wood from my neighbors. I didn’t pay much to make my dolls. I don’t need to make extra money than I need for my everyday life. I think it’s more fun that way!"

He says he doesn’t take large orders because he knows he cannot handle it.  In practice he takes orders for 5 pieces of each item at a time. Yes, very limited. (Although he said he received 500 orders from a large company this year but he limited it to 50 pcs because he didn’t want to be unfair to other customers.)

Mr. Miyawaki was very excited to learn that his work is going overseas. I ordered 6 different kinds of dolls, but as I mentioned I could only get 5 of each doll.

I hope you will enjoy the fun dolls created by Mr. Miyawaki!