A Hand Carved Stylized Hawk: Otaka Popo

mid twentieth century
9 1/2" x 2 3/4" x 4 1/4", 24 cm x 7 cm x 11 cm

This marvelous, small wood carving of a stylized hawk sitting on a tall pedesal is referred to as otaka poppo and is of a category of carving called sasano ningyo, a reference to the place where this was carved, Sasano village which is located in present day Yamagata prefecture.

According the exhibition catalog, Mingei, from the Brooklyn Museum's 1985 exhibition, 

Sasano ningyo are engi toys, engi means something like "inviting good luck and avoiding bad luck."  In the popular beliefs of the Edo Period, certain days, numerals, directions, and events had to do with engi and were met with prayers and exorcism.  Many types of Japanese folk toys, particularly those purchased at temple or shrine festivals, originated as engi toys.  During the Edo Period, the daimyo (feudal lord) of Uzen Province, Uesugi Yozan, encouraged the farmers in his fief to engage in cottage industries in order to supplement their meager income.  Woodcarving was already a popular pastime for the long winter evenings in snow-covered Tohoku (northeastern Japan). Thus the farmers in Sasano Village came to specialize in this type of carved wood folk toy.  The wing and tail feathers of their hawks and roosters are pared into thin curlicues with a few deft strokes of a heavy kife.  This techinique is derived from one used by the Ainu aborigines on Hokkaido to produce wood ritual implements with long, curling shavings attached.  The curling streamers on the Ainu ceremonial imlements in turn relate to the gohei, sacred white paper streamers, used to mark off a sacred site in Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan.

Old otaka popo carvings that have become blackened with layers of soot from exposure to the atmosphere of a country home are hard to find and therefore they are desirable--and their price reflects this.

This beautifully carved otaka popo is not of the age of these darkened ones that bear the history of being owned by one family for generations, and it for that reason it is offered here at a reasonable cost, relatively speaking.

It is exceedingly beautifully realized and it is of a type that has great allure for collectors of Japanese folk objects.

Recommended.