Six Miniature Painted Clay Mame Ningyo with Hidden Shunga Scenes Beneath, in a Plain Wooden Box
Six Miniature Painted Clay Mame Ningyo with Hidden Shunga Scenes Beneath, in a Plain Wooden Box
- Dispatch
- Prepared and sent from Tokyo within 7–14 days, often sooner, or as arranged
- Arrival
- United States · usually 4–7 days after dispatch, insured and tracked Check the Shipping Flowchart here
- Import
Duties and customs · View the estimate
A guide for this piece: about $42, based on the 10% US charge on the declared value of goods made in Japan.
The final figure is set by US Customs and depends on where the piece was made and the kind of object it is. Many antiques over a century old carry no ordinary duty; most jewellery and leather goods add a single-digit rate.
With EMS, any charge is collected by your postal service on delivery. For pieces of significant value we can often arrange duties prepaid before dispatch.
How the estimate is reached · Ask for a figure on this piece
- Character
- Ornate 7.2 of 10 ·
- Replies
- Within one Tokyo business day · Ask the curator team
- Guarantee
- Authenticity guaranteed · How we grade
Every piece is measured by hand, in centimetres as Japan measures. Please allow 1–2 cm (about ½ inch) for the give of the material and the hand that held the tape.
Where each figure is taken · View the plate
Object, sculpture and ceramics
Condition report
Excellent
- Giftable
- Mint
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Honest Wear
- As Found
Small Enough to Keep a Secret
Six thumb-sized couples, embracing or asleep under bright quilts, a cat curled on one coverlet. Each tips up to show a painted scene beneath, the sort of sly folk souvenir once tucked into a sleeve and passed around with a laugh.
Best for: Collectors of Japanese folk dolls, miniatures and hidden shunga objects
Condition notes
Slight rubbing; no notable damage, as described. Bright paint throughout; a little speckling on the orange quilt of one figure.
Grades, ratings and commentary are given to the best of our ability, knowledge and experience, and condition remains partly a matter of personal perception. What we stand behind without qualification is authenticity, truthful description and provenance, to the best of our knowledge. How we grade
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All sales are final. Please read our refund policy before purchase.
Considered offers only. The Desk replies personally to figures made in good faith; those set far below the asking price receive no reply.
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Six thumb-sized painted clay dolls of embracing and sleeping couples, each hiding a painted intimate scene beneath, kept together in a plain wooden box.
This piece belongs to the private room of the house and is shown to adults only.
The Piece
Mame ningyo, bean dolls, are the smallest of Japan's clay folk figures, modelled by hand, fired and painted in bright, simple colours. This set of six belongs to their humorous adult branch. Seen right side up they are the soul of innocence: a woman with a dressed coiffure and red hair ornament embracing her partner with a shaven pate, a couple asleep beneath an orange quilt, another under a blue and white striped coverlet, and even a cat curled on a spotted quilt.
Tip each figure over and the joke appears. The underside of every doll is painted with an intimate scene, the ura-e or hidden picture that runs through Japanese erotic art from netsuke to sake cups. Small enough to hide in a sleeve, such dolls were sold as sly souvenirs and passed around with a laugh.
Details
- Form: Six mame ningyo with hidden scenes beneath
- Material: Painted clay, as described
- Widths: About 2.1 to 3.9 cm (0.8 to 1.5 in)
- Depths: About 1.7 to 3.7 cm (0.7 to 1.5 in)
- Heights: About 1.5 to 3.1 cm (0.6 to 1.2 in)
- Box: Plain wooden box
- Made in: Japan
Measured by hand; please allow a gentle margin of about 0.2 cm (0.1 in).
Condition
- Slight rubbing; no notable damage.
- The blurred square on the underside photograph was added in photography for discretion and is not part of the figure.
Condition grade A (excellent) on the Japanese scale; see Japanese condition ranks, explained.
Authenticity & Care
Offered as painted clay folk dolls; unsigned and undated, and no maker or age is claimed. Keep dry and dust gently.
Delivery from Japan
Each doll is wrapped separately and the box double boxed, then shipped insured and tracked by EMS or an equivalent express service. Import duties and taxes, where applicable, are payable on arrival. Every sale is final; please ask anything you wish to know before you buy, and see our published policy.
Considered offers are welcome through Send an Offer, and each one is reviewed personally. Further pieces of the kind are kept in Shunga and Hidden Arts and among our Japanese dolls.
Concierge
Searching for other folk dolls with hidden scenes? Our Hunting Salon™ locates such pieces across Japan's private collector circles, then inspects, documents and delivers them to you. Begin a Hunting Salon™ request.
Collectors also search: mame ningyo shunga · hidden scene clay dolls · ura-e folk toys
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