KOYAMA, Yoshimi 小山芳美 | Togatta style 遠刈田系


I think the traditional kokeshi has a simplified style and no wasted beauty. Those are painted with less colors but look gorgeous.

KOYAMA Yoshimi 小山芳美 was born in Niigata prefecture, which is the neighboring region of the Tohoku in 1981. (Tohoku is the kokeshi crafting area.)

She was a kokeshi collector while working at a company. She said that she traveled hot spring areas, bought kokeshi dolls and visited kokeshi craftsmen sometimes.

In those times, she found the development training program of kokeshi craftspeople in Togatta of Zao city, and her friend suggested making kokeshi by herself. Thus, she decided to join the program in 2016, after that she became an apprentice of HIRAMA, Katsuji (1941-) in 2018. Since 2019, she started making kokeshi dolls with her signature.