They are a bit like Weebles, the famous plastic toys that wobble but don’t fall down, but they have been enjoyed by Japanese children for about 400 years.
They are a bit like Weebles, the famous plastic toys that wobble but don’t fall down, but they have been enjoyed by Japanese children for about 400 years.
Now, store owners in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, are urging people across Japan to take part in a contest to paint traditional “Okiagari-Koboshi” toys for children in the nuclear disaster-hit prefecture.
The toys are a specialty of the prefecture’s Aizu district, and their habit of returning to an upright position after been knocked down is seen as symbolic of the effort by Fukushima’s young people to get back on their feet following the disaster.
Participants in the contest will be sent an unpainted Okiagari-Koboshi doll if they wire a 2,000 yen ($26.20) participation fee to the “Okiagari-Koboshi Etsuke Contest Jikko Iinkai” (Okiagari-Koboshi Painting Contest Committee) via postal transfer to account number 02220-4-110316. Applications need to be made by Oct. 10.
Entrants will be asked to photograph the front and back of their painted dolls, complete with messages for the children of Fukushima, and send them via mail or e-mail to the committee by Oct. 20. Proceeds from the contest will be donated to projects for victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The committee can be contacted by phone from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays at 024-938-8888.