Tea Tree Doll - Tea Tree Doll

Dolls from Uji, Kyoto Prefecture. They are wooden dolls carved from old tea trees and are also called Uji dolls. Along with the now extinct paper-mache tea-picking dolls, they are highly acclaimed as traditional toys of Uji. There is a popular belief that they began when tea master Kanamori Sowa, from the early Edo period, retired to this area known for Uji tea and carved dolls out of tea trees in his free time. However, it is said that they first began in 1843 (Tenpo 14) when Kanbayashi Gyuka, a tea master employed by the shogunate, made a prototype at the order of the Kyoto magistrate.

[Ryosuke Saito]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

京都府宇治(うじ)市産の人形。茶の古木を材にした木彫り人形で、宇治人形ともよばれる。すでに廃絶した張り子製の茶摘み人形とともに、宇治の伝統玩具(がんぐ)として並び称された。江戸初期の茶人金森宗和(そうわ)が、宇治茶で知られるこの地に隠棲(いんせい)し、つれづれに茶の木で人形を彫ったのが始まりという俗説もあるが、1843年（天保14）京都町奉行(まちぶぎょう)の命で、幕府の御用茶師上林牛加(かんばやしぎゅうか)が試作したのがおこりという。

［斎藤良輔］

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