(A) Dancing doll costumed for the wisteria dance: Fuji Musume - Wisteria Girl In dancing position with head slightly tilted. Her left hand is holding a faded wisteria branch and her right is holding out the sleeve of her kimono. Her face is gofun covered, with painted eyebrows, glass eyes, red painted lips. Her hair is cut at shoulder length with bangs cut above the eyebrows. She is wearing a red underrobe, then a red and gold brocade kimono which is visible only on the right side. The outer kimono is orange cloth printed with blue, yellow, green and white leaf pattern. It has a white lining. The obi is the same red and gold brocade and hangs down in back. Her feet are painted like tabi. She is wearing a hat that is round and flat with painted flowers and leaves, and has an orange cord with tassels tied at chin. The wisteria branch is made of paper and paper covered wire. (B) She is in a glass and red lacquered wood box that is 14" tall, 10 " wide and 7.75" deep; it is joined without glue and comes apart. Fuji Musume - Wisteria Girl This is a kabuki dance play performed by a young girl carrying a wisteria branch on her shoulder. The story tells about a priest walking past Tago Bay and stops to admire some wisteria blossoms in full bloom. A woman appears and talks to him revealing that she is the spirit of the wisteria flower. She leads him through the garden and spreads her robe, dances, and sings of the four seasons and the flowers. In the moonlight her shadow is purple. At daybreak she expells sweet perfume and disappears in the morning haze. The priest gazes at the flowers with tearful eyes, and kisses their drooping leaves, then binds them into sheaves for the Lord of Paradise. "They shall all bloom in the fields he says, and smiles, transplanted by my care, and all shall wear the sacred bloosom upon their white lapel." Sakura Dolls of Japan: Their Stories, Appreciation and Creations by M.S. Abston and Y. Uchioke, p. 38.

1996.010.050