Upcoming Exhibitions

The Doll Ambassadors: 100 Years Later

March 6, 2027 – August 9, 2027
 

Japanese Friendship Doll, Miss Tokushima, 1927, Koryusai Takizawa & Yoshitoku Corporation, hair, porcelain, silk, leather, cotton, wood, paint. 35" height, 10" width. Gift of the Goodwill Doll Exchange, 1927. In honor of their work to further the exchange of friendship and knowledge between the people of Japan and the people of the Inland Northwest and for their work in the history of Friendship Dolls, the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture dedicates "Miss Tokushima" to Michiko and Hiroshi Takaoka. Board of Trustees, September 5, 2006. Courtesy of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture/Eastern Washington State Historical Society, Spokane, Washington. (812.1). Photograph by Brooke Shelman Wagner

Join us as we celebrate the 100th Birthday of Miss Tokushima and her friend Alice-chan.

In the spring of 1927, thousands of American children sent dolls to Japan as messengers of friendship. In return, Japanese students sent 58 exquisitely-dressed porcelain dolls, complete with tea ceremony accessories, to American states and cities. Miss Tokushima, named for a prefecture (state) on the island of Shikoku, resides in Washington state at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.  Although many dolls were destroyed or lost during World War II, the survivors have continued to serve as messengers of goodwill and friendship.

Those that survived the intervening 100 years now have places of honor and ceremony in many of the museums, schools, and communities in which they reside. This year as we celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the arrival of these dolls and their messages of peace, we reunite two dolls, Miss Tokushima of Spokane Washington, and Alice-chan of Kamiyama, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan and share their journeys through the decades. 

Explore the lasting impact these doll ambassadors have on their communities and the world at large in this upcoming exhibition.