Language
Miss Miyagi is by Kishida Shimekichi, whose artist name was Shōgetsu. Her kimono crest is the maru nichigai taka no ha (encircled cross hawk feathers).
Miss Miyagi initially travelled in the Pennsylvania area before being sent to participate in the important 12-doll exhibition at the National Education Association in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July of 1928. She was then sent to the Mulvane Art Museum in Topeka, Kansas that was intended as her permanent home.
From there her record falls temporarily silent and it was long feared that she had been lost in the tragic tornado that ripped through Topeka in 1966 which partially destroyed the Mulvane Art Museum building.
Surprisingly, however, Miss Miyagi turned up at a small auction in Learned, Kansas in 1982, where she was purchased by Margaret Corbet, the owner of a local antique store. None of her accessories seem to have survived, and she now retains only her original base and her U.S.-made travel trunk.
Through the efforts of Michiko Takaoka, her identity as one of the original Friendship Dolls was confirmed and her identity as the original Miss Hokkaidō established.
Over the years, Miss Miyagi has returned multiple times to Japan for various Homecoming ceremonies, and in the US has been used in frequent educational outreach programs in schools.
Today she remains in private hands.