Original Miss Hiroshima

Miss Hiroshima is by Takizawa Kōryūsai II. Her personal name is Hiroshima Hiroko and her kimono crest is the kaga umebachi (kaga plum blossom).

Much of Miss Hiroshima’s early history is obscured. She appears in a number of press images taken in San Francisco in 1927, where she is incorrectly identified as Miss Yokohama.

It is unclear where she was originally placed, and she does not resurface until 1998 when she was purchased by Dr. Marvin and Flo Herring at an antique fair in Morristown, NJ. At this point she was identified as one of the original Friendship Dolls by Michiko Takaoka, but there was initial confusion over her true identity. 

Subsequently, through comparison of archival images held in the collection of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, she was conclusively identified as the original Miss Hiroshima. The museum collection also contains, interestingly, some of her original accessories. Additional pieces of her original lacquer trousseau are also to be found in Augusta, Maine at the Maine State Museum.

In 2018 Miss Hiroshima was placed in the collection of the Barry Art Museum in Norfolk, Virginia.