Language
Miss Chōsen, representing the former colony of Korea, is by the artist Hōryūsai. Her personal name is Chōsen Hanako and her kimono crest is the nakakage 5-3 no kiri (shaded 5-3 paulwonia).
In 1928 she was placed at the Children’s Museum in Hartford, Connecticut.
Not much of her early history is known, and it is not until her rediscovery in 1997 there at the museum that she was brought back into the public space.
By 1997, however, the Children’s Museum had rebranded itself as the Science Center of Connecticut and a Japanese Friendship Doll seemed out of step with the museum’s new mandate.
In 2013, Miss Chōsen was transferred to Valparaiso University in Indiana where she became part of the Brauer Museum Collection.
As representing a former colony, Miss Chōsen’s status as a Friendship Doll is a bit more complex, and the Brauer has attempted to partially address these issues through the commissioning of a formal Korean hanbok dress as a supplemental outfit to her original kimono.
In celebration of her arrival, an important 5-doll exhibition was held under the title: The Sun Shines for Us All: The Friendship Dolls from Japan. The exhibition included, in addition to Miss Chōsen, Miss Osaka-fu, Miss Kochi, Miss Gifu, and Miss Fukuoka.