Thirty-eight items labeled “Figures representing rural lives in China” are stored at the Division of Geographical Materials, Kyoto University Museum. Among these, thirty-three carved wooden figures that were purchased in 1913 by the Department of Geography, College of Letters, Kyoto Imperial University. These are elaborate models representing farming and everyday life scenes during the late Qing dynasty. Most of the figures are about one-twentieth life size, but several are somewhat larger and the types of wood also vary. Many figures are of people with tools to represent activities such as farming and selling goods, and a few are of tools only. The difference in the skill of wood carving varies among figures, from simple and crude carvings to very precise artworks. In addition to these figures, there are three opera dolls made of cloth and beads, and two ceramic models of houses. In spring 2020, this collection was made available as a digital archive.

One of the inspirations to create the digital archive was the research by the people who had attended the ILAS Seminar “Introduction to Regional Geography” offered by Tanaka in the spring semester of 2019. Another was the cooperation of Dr. Yin Botao, who studied at the Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University as an invitational foreign scholar for one year till March 2020. Dr. Yin kindly joined our research project to give valuable information and advice on Chinese culture and customs. We were surprised to discover that most of the carved wooden figures were very similar to those produced at T’ou-Sè-Wè Orphanage in Shanghai during the early twentieth century. Although the thirty-three figures are recorded as “Carved wooden dolls in Manchu” in the Equipment Inventory for the Geography Department, several items do not seem to be characteristic of the northern region in China, for example, there are fish and bamboo shoots in peddler’s baskets, and a waterwheel with connected plates that look like a dragon’s spine. These are unusual for this region, but if the figures were made in Shanghai, it would be easy to understand that they represent the life scenes and culture around the Yangtze Estuary. At this time, we will refrain from claiming that all of them were created in the same studio, because, as described above, these figures vary in size, materials, and quality of execution.

T’ou-Sè-Wè Orphanage in Shanghai was built in 1864 by a French missionary, Joseph Gonnet. Until it was closed around 1960, the orphanage educated orphans and taught techniques such as western painting, other forms of painting, wood carving, and engraving in an attached workshop. The objects made by the orphans were used in their church and sold mainly to foreigners (Nakao 2017: 7). T’ou-Sè-Wè Orphanage is now open to the public as the T’ou-Sè-Wè Museum. The wooded custom dolls made in T’ou-Sè-Wè Orphanage are not on display in the Museum, but are held as sets in France and Japan. One set of 109 dolls purchased by the French Lieutenant General, Jules le Bigot, in 1938 is shown in Shanghai: scènes de la vie en Chine: les figurines de bois de T'ou-Sè-Wè (2014), in which every doll is described along with photographs presenting the dolls themselves and related local lives. Another set of 108 dolls purchased by Nakayama Shozen, the second-generation president of Tenrikyo Church, at T’ou-Sè-Wè Orphanage in 1930, is now stored at Tenri Sankokan Museum. Both sets of dolls purchased by Bigot and Nakayama were packed in large wooden boxes. The only other known figures are about ten similar wooden dolls stored at the Yoshitoku Collection Room in Tokyo. In 1933, all were purchased in Manchuria by Yamada Tokubei, the tenth-generation owner of the Yoshitoku doll shop (Tatsuno Municipal History and Culture Museum 2003: 62-63). Although the quantity of carved wooden figures at Kyoto University is not large, it is noteworthy that they were purchased about 20 years earlier than the other existing ones.

Among the figures stored at the Kyoto University, there are three cloth dolls representing characters in Peking Opera. The similar dolls are classified as opera dolls in the Yoshitoku Collection Room (Tatsuno Municipal History and Culture Museum 2003: 60). One of the house-shaped ceramic models is supposed to be a Chinese burial good, and another mansion model consists of several buildings and fences. These items have no accompanying files and, therefore, their history of acquisition is unknown.

The most interesting quality of the items in this digital archive as research materials is that they are elaborate three-dimensional figures vividly representing aspects of Chinese lifestyle and culture during the late Qing dynasty. Farming equipment, textile tools, and poultry are depicted along with the movements of the people who use them. It is therefore easy to understand how the tools were used and how livestock were raised. When the Department of Geography purchased these expensive “Figures showing rural lives in China” for 40 yen and 60 sen (about 3,700 US dollars at present value), they were certainly intended to be used as visual teaching materials for learning about local lives and culture.

Another interesting aspect of “Figures representing rural lives in China” is their names. It is not easy to describe a scene of life with suitable words. Despite being of a similar type, there are the figures with different names depending on the source documents. There are many possible reasons. For example, varied names are possible according to where the focus is placed: a farming tool, its user, farming work itself, and so on. The cultural experience, knowledge, and assumptions of naming persons influence their ways of naming. The question of what names to give something is an interesting matter because it requires understanding, but also entails the risk of a misunderstanding of cultures and how to perceive the essence of what is being expressed. This digital archive does not provide a fixed name for each item and we hope that all viewers will enjoy thinking about what they represent.

Emeritus Professor Hata Nobuyuki (National Museum of Ethnology) started organizing the ethnic materials collected by the Department of Geography, including “Figures showing rural lives in China”. Without his significant contribution, no research could have been carried out and no reference number could have been assigned to each item. The following people cooperated in our research: Yoshida Daichi, Ikeyama Koichiro, Komori Taiki, Saito Sae, Seki Yoshino, Matsuo Jun, Ishiyama Kiomi (First graders who attended ILAS Seminar), Nakao Norihito (Tenri Sankokan Museum), Ishizuka Yu (Yoshitoku Collection Room), Usami Bunri and Kizu Yuko (Graduate School of Letters), and Tanii Yoko (Tenri University). For the Chinese version of the archive, Huang Chenmo (Doctoral student, Graduate School of Letters) was responsible for translating int Chinese. Three-dimensional models of several figures were also created by Hoshida Yukihisa (NPO OpenConcierge), Natsume Muneyuki (Doctoral student, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies), and Asano Satoshi (Graduate school of Global Environment Studies) and contributed to the archive. We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of them for their helpful cooperation.

We hope that this collection will be widely used and contribute to education and research. Future improvements in our archive can be carried out through further research and information provided by our visitors.

March 2020

Tanaka Kazuko

(Department of Geography, Graduate School of Letters)

Yin Botao

(Institute for Western Frontier Region of China, Shaanxi Normal University)

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