Language
Miss Nagasaki is by the artist Takizawa Kōryūsai II. Her personal name is Nagasaki Tamako and her kimono crest is the yamazakura (mountain cherry).
Miss Nagasaki was placed at the Rochester Municipal Museum in Rochester, New York in January of 1929. Initial communications regarding her placement were somewhat confused. The museum was told they would be receiving “Miss Fukuoka,” and shortly thereafter received the accessories for Miss Fukuoka. But when the doll herself actually arrived she was accompanied by a display base reading “Miss Aomori.” Further communications resulted in Miss Aomori’s accessories being sent and those for Miss Fukuoka returned.
It was under the name “Miss Aomori” that she participated in the important exhibition of 19 Friendship Dolls organized by the Kokusai Bunka Kyōkai (Japanese International Culture Association), Sogo Department Store and the Asahi Shimbun newspaper in Tokyo in 1988.
But in 1994, while researching for her seminal book Ningyô Taishi (Doll Ambassadors), Michiko Takaoka was able to determine that the Rochester doll was neither Miss Fukuoka nor Miss Aomori, but the original Miss Nagasaki.
The original base for Miss Nagasaki was apparently sent to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1930 along with the now missing doll referred to as “Miss Kanazawa.”
Miss Nagasaki remains at the Rochester Museum and Science Center where she retains her bonbori lanterns.