Vintage Japanese Lathe-Turned Young Lord Riding a Boar Spinning Top by Hiroi, Masaaki
Dimensions: 9-1/4”h x 6-0”l x 3-1/4”w
Hiroi, Masaaki, (1935-2019) was the first Japanese creator of automaton figures which began in the 1960s when prior these pieces were only for Japanese tourists but then these wonderful productions began to be looked at as “art) where people overseas began to appreciate his inventiveness. In 1970 Masaaki took his works to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The piece being offered was one of three pieces he introduced, The Boy and the Peach, The Noodle Eater, and the Young Lord Riding a Boar.
This wonderful Young Lord Riding a Boar is beautifully executed in both design as well as in mechanical sense. Firstly, the proportions of this automation toy are excellent and well-balanced. The boy is beautifully painted in full detail with expressive eyes, large distinctive ears, and clothing of the traditional period. The spinning top is fixed and wonderfully balanced, and used to operate the figure. Masaaki was quoted as saying, “The top represents our heart. If the axis spins smoothly, your life is on the right track”. This is why the “top” is the key to his automaton figures. This spinning top is beautifully painted in red and green stripes. The boar is left undecorated and unfinished displaying the natural wood. The boar's head is the part of the toy, other than the top, that moves. The boar's face is extremely cut with pointed ears, eyes, and an expressive snout with tusks, (long teeth) on each side. When one operates the toy you spin the top side to side and the boar's head moves back and forth as if when walking and has simply fashioned legs on which to stand. This piece was one of the first made for testing and the Japanese market. Later pieces were introduced in Europe that were miniature versions of the original three in which Masaaki revised the working mechanism. After this date, these pieces were signed since foreigners expected art to be signed. With the help of associates/apprentices, he created multiple similar toys performing simple daily functions from eating sushi, and mochi cakes, and playing musical instruments (see image from a newspaper article on his later works.
You can read more about this family in our BLOG by going to: https://mingeiarts.com/collections/artisan-interactive-toymaker-hiroi-masaaki-1935
Condition: Pristine meaning the piece is perfect, totally original, and complete and functions as intended. No cracks, no breaks, no missing pieces, and retains its wonderful presence and is protected and treasured in respect of Masaaki’s automaton works. The artifact meets all the standards of the collectible Vintage Kokeshi toys and tops and without question a unique treasure for the Japanophile.
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Artisan | Interactive Toymaker: Hiroi, Masaaki | 1935-2019
Origin:
Masaaki-san is a fourth-generation suburban Tokyo resident, and maker of hand-crafted children’s toys, which he created with traditional Edo and wind-up techniques, (1603-1867) when studying under Master Hiori Kenjiro. Admired throughout Japan and around the world, his creations have been exhibited and acquired for the permanent collection of the Louvre. Hiroi died in 2019 and has been named an honorary citizen of Seattle, Washington.
Collector's note – descriptive qualities, standard characteristics & ornamentation styles:
The majority of his toys are automatonical figures. Many are inspired by the everyday life of citizens and folk stories. All are brightly painted and fashioned from wood. He is famous for his spinning tops of all sizes; all beautifully functioning as conceived.
Artist's comments: The Tops in People's Hearts
"I am sad to see so many old toys become obsolete around the world. I want to make people who buy my toys laugh, and make toys that anyone, old and young, men and women can enjoy”. I don’t create just traditional forms [of tops] but also come up with new technical forms. I haven’t counted them, but I’ve probably invented around 4,000 or 5,000 types.
One day, my father gave me a foot-powered lathe so I could make tops and other things to play with. I liked working with my hands, so every day I worked on the lathe. My older brother and I made tops and kendama (cup and ball toys) and sold them on the Sendai black market. It was a time when there were no toys, so they sold quite well.
I became facinated earlier in my career with automatons, which come to life as they spin. There are no diagrams for top-automation making. When I come up with an idea for an automaton, I don’t ever give up until it’s been realized. There’s one top, “Momotarō” (Momotarō the Peach Boy)—when you pull the string and make it spin, the peach part is supposed to pop open so you can see the little boy— but the peach’s mechanism doesn’t open properly. I thought about it for days on end. I made an adjustment to the placement of the elastic, and when the peach popped open smoothly a bell went off somewhere. It was in 1965 that I decided to take these larger automaton figure overseas rather than just selling in Japan. Twenty seven years ago, I took about 70 of my works to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The curator at that time said, “I’ll only collect items that you designed yourself” and not toys designed by you and created by your apprentices. I gave a dubious expression saying: there is value in contemporary artists creating new art. That I am able to proudly say today that I am producing tops that are my own work is because of his words to me.
For complicated mechanisms, sometimes it can take as many as 10 days to produce them. Even though I’ve been on this path for 60 years, that’s nothing to boast about. If one cannot do their craft skillfully, there is nothing but failure. The idea that tomorrow I will be able to make even better tops than I did today—that is what has kept me going for such a long time". HM
